Although Ruth could assure Idgie that her gift for getting honey in the midst of bees was neither "bad," nor "crazy," but was in fact "wonderful," Ruth couldn't, at this point in her life, find a way through her own anxieties to support her own desire. Instead she decides to marry and hope that she and Idgie will get over their feelings. .
Flagg sets her novel in the American South of the 1920's and 30's, a context in which it is easy to imagine social prejudice and religious intolerance against female homosexuality. But the 1991 film made from Flagg's novel reveals the difficulty contemporary America has portraying a woman who is "normal" and "feminine" and who wants to make her life with another woman. The film clearly shows that "tomboy" Idgie has a crush on "feminine" Ruth. But, unlike the reader of the novel, the viewer of the film never understands that Ruth's love is as early, total, and absorbing as Idgie's. Ruth's early love has been censored in the movie version. What names should be given to the relationship of Idgie and Ruth? Are they lesbians? Neither the book nor the film portray Ruth and Idgie as sexual partners. The closest we come to a "sex scene" is the sensual, playful regression of the food-throwing escapade. Ruth and Idgie are more than good "friends" who care for one another deeply. Both have loved Buddy and mourned his death. They raise Ruth's son together. They care for and are taken care of by, their black workers and the tramps and homeless families of the Great American Depression. Idgie and Ruth, apparently economically independent operators of the cafe, provide the nurturing center for the Whistle Stop community. These independent women become female role models for Evelyn Couch as she deals with menopause and marriage to Ed in the l980's. But because they do not explicitly state that the women are lesbians, both book and film leave unchallenged the many images of disordered femininity associated with women in lesbian relationships.
