Gender is Always a Performance

I am currently taking a Sociology class about the body. One of the things we discussed is that gender is always a performance, from a sociological point of view. That is because gender is largely socially constructed. Gender is a performance that makes people “put on” masculinity and femininity in order to embody socially prescribed roles about what is appropriate for their biological sex. I felt that the readings about the female pirates show the social construction of gender, thus raising interesting issues that the other fallen women narratives did not raise.

There are still many situations in the modern world where people are forced to put on gender (it could be argued, as I stated above, that we are constantly doing gender). One of the most obvious is how men and women often have to put on traits usually assigned to the opposite sex. For the female cross-dressing pirates, putting on gender was a way to cross societal gender norms. Now it is primarily a way for people to cross occupational norms. Think about Hillary Clinton. In her run for the Democratic nomination, she was often accused of being to masculine because of her assertive business personality and pant suits. In order to achieve her political aspiration, Hillary has had to take on “masculine” traits. Interestingly, her adoption of masculine behavior has both helped her succeed an earned her intense criticism. Politics is not the only arena where women often have to act masculine to achieve- this is very true in the business world. Females who are high on the corporate ladder often have to dress in more masculine attire and act aggressively and assertively in order to compete with male competition. Like Hillary, these women are often criticized for crossing the gender barriers, showing that taking on male attributes is often considered, even in modern society. Men often have to assume feminized roles as well according to their occupations but the examples aren’t as prevalent or clear.

One huge way that people have to “put on” and “take off” gender is in the case of transgendered individuals- who are neither male nor female. We live in a society where a person must be assigned a sex- so these individuals are either assigned/or choose a sex. However, many of these people feel they are constantly acting a part. They feel that they have to act feminine or masculine when the either truly identify with the other gender or with neither.

In short, it is kind of shame that people even feel they have to “put on” traits of the opposite sex. Our society places too much of divided emphasis on what are female traits and what are male traits. Psychologically, a healthy individual will have both female and male traits. The dualism that society assigns to gender makes people feel they have to put on masculinity or femininity. Perhaps it would be healthier if we had a more integrated view of gender. Who says women have to be caring, overly emotional and wear pink dresses? Who says men have to be aggressive and like cars and hinting? It would probably be healthier if we did not assign such rigid gender norms at all. Maybe then we wouldn’t have cross-dressing pirates.

Try as you might, sometimes it is about character...

At the start of the text, Charlotte is an angel, the epitome of sweetness. Her parents were very caring and never abused her, unlike the parental figures in some of the earlier texts we have read. Her father, Mr. Temple, and her mother, Lucy Elderage, married for love even though it resulted in the loss of fortune. Her father is an amiable man whose worst quality seems to be that he is too easy going and too charitable. He gives what little money he has out to those who ask for it. Charlotte is treated very affectionately by her parents, and at her death scene her father is present to mourn. Charlotte is like her father in that she is too easily influenced by the wishes of others. This makes hear easy prey for the lusty Montraville, and she listens to keenly to the advice of Mme. LaRue. Charlotte’s fall is not her own fault per se, the only fault of hers was the unlucky tendency to be rather to easy going. This malleable nature makes her the prey of those who want to profit off her, and therefore it is these manipulative wills who are responsible. The parents and Charlotte are just too weak to fight off those who are more cunning, and this is not their fault.

The only way that Charlotte Temple’s fall could have been prevented would be by changing either her nature or that of her parents to be more cunning and strong-willed. If they were keener to the ways of the world they would not take the predator’s advice. A little street smarts and stubbornness could have done Charlotte a world of good. And even if she lacked it, a strong assertive parent who kept watch over her may have done the trick. All of the trouble seems to start when she is away at boarding school. If she had been educated closer to home and under someone’s watchful eye, perhaps the tragic events may not have occurred. The father is shocked to find out his daughter’s elopement, but he ought to have kept closer watch on her.

Modern parents often find themselves too easily manipulated by their children or too into their own interests to be adequate parents. These weaknesses of will or the abundance of selfishness lead many children to unhappy ends. For example, a parent may want to keep their child happy by giving into all the child’s demands and wishes- even those that are not good for them. In order to appease a headstrong child they might let the child run the show- watching adult materials, going out late, setting their own rules. It is not that the parent does not care about their child- they just have a nature that allows them to be trampled on my stronger parties. On the other hand, the parent may be busy with their own lives and not watch the child carefully enough. The parent may want to go on their own date night or be absorbed in word- letting the child fall prey to bad influences. In both cases, the fault may not be with the parent not caring for the child. The issue is with parental authority and control. The modern parent must find a healthy balance between nurturing their child’s individuality, letting them grow, and deciding what is best for the child. The best way to keep the child safe is to be a model of consistency- always have a watchful eye over the child, make sure expectations are known and exercise authority in the household. If this is done, there is a good chance the child will avoid horrible pitfalls. However, like Charlotte, some children have an easily malleable nature that makes them prey to stronger characters. If this is the case, all the care in the world may not protect them.

Rap Music- The Cause of Female Depravity!!!

If the author were railing against a new subject today, I believe they would pinpoint rap music as the “corrupter of women.”

The ominous words are no longer on the page- they are in a more dangerous musical form that seduces the listener with rhythm and beat. At the same time this poetic sin pushes on women an urban culture and set of values that undermine the white, patriarchal order. This vulgar genre is an assault on the ears that can hardly be called music. These rappers spend exorbitantly and wear ridiculous clothes, such as backwards hats and giant clocks on their necks. They do not pronounce their words correctly and use obscene language. Rappers talk about turning over the status quo, a very dangerous idea, and about “poppin' caps on people.” They mean to incite violence in the streets! What is worse, they have no education or manners and have managed to slip through society into a higher status than they deserve. But what is worst of all is the fact that their siren songs seduce women into harlotry and licentiousness!

The “music” that they create is a vulgar and ridiculous blend that results in female sin. They sing about women with large buttocks and giant breasts- not the subject of fine music! These rappers claim to be poets of sound- but a true poet does not say he “likes big butts and cannot lie.” What is more shocking is the way they use their raps to lure women into a life of sin. I have seen those vulgar videos on BET with fallen women barely dressed and grinding on these men in their clubs. They shake their bottoms and turn into harlots! It is not uncommon for one of these “rappers” to seduce young women when they are on tour, taking once nice girls and luring them into a life of sin and apple bottom jeans. Once they have turned these women to prostitutes, they start to call them words that a lady should never be called (they cannot be spoken here, but they rhyme with witch and bow). But the women are so fallen that they do not even hear these insults and continue to grind of the men as they sing insults at them. How evil!

So I don’t feel this way about rap, but I am sure that the writer of “Novel Reading- A Cause of Female Depravity” would. What could be worse than something that calls itself art but valorizes disrespect for authority and slutty women? That is what they would say.

Wishing Times were a Changin...

The past several weeks of class have been dedicated to reading and discussing various articles from popular magazines of the early 1800s. I have been repeatedly intrigued by the style in which these pieces are written; their unique blend of reprobation and flamboyance. They were meant to be both and instructional and entertaining to their readers- much as the articles in popular magazines such as Cosmo and Glamour are today. Perhaps it is this strange blend of artful language and didacticism that makes these articles confusing. Their ridiculousness sometimes entices the reader to think them devoid of serious subject matter; however, the subjects covered are extremely serious (libertines, pregnancies, abuse).

Moreover, I have been frustrated at how similar the narratives are to their predecessors. At the start of the 1800s, the core ideas and morals of these narratives seem sadly close to those of texts fifty or more years before them. Women are still seen as fragile and sinful, with some exceptions and additions. So perhaps the slow class discussions are coming from frustration with lack of social change coupled with confusion about the texts’ strange writing style.

In my mind, many of the articles we have read for recent classes tend to blend together. They have the elements of the fallen woman narrative: sensibility, libertines, seduction, punishment, and death. We have remarked again and again that the women face death due to loss of virtue at the end of many of the texts. They are being punished for giving way to their feelings, however, they are living in a time period where many valued exuberant emotion and expected it in their literature. How strange and almost hypocritical that these woman be punished for having ardent emotions that the era seemed to call for. It just shows me that even in the Age of Sentimentality, women were forced down and kept in check.

One of the only articles that seemed to make some progress was “The Passenger.” I think this was a difficult piece to discuss in class because of its dark subject matter (abuse). Despite the grim material, this was a happier read for me because it was one of the first to show that the man could be made accountable or blamed for a situation. We talked in class about the great line that insinuates that marriage is a contract, but unlike other contracts the man is not punished or forced to pay for breaking it. That really struck a cord with me because it seemed like the author felt the husband was capable of censure. In fact, the whole article suggests this.

Finally, the women in the articles sometimes speak out against their offenders. They say that they hope the rake “gets his for what they have done.” But such reproofs usually come from the female characters voice, and in very silly language, and not from the narrator. I am ready for some narratives where the man really does get paid back for his sins and the woman is forgiven (or does not die) for hers.

Bleeding Love: Using Heartbreak and Romance to enforce Patriarchy

It is an obvious trend that the narratives we have been reading have been getting increasingly romantic in nature. Our semester began by looking at texts that dealt with the very unromantic subjects such as witchcraft and infanticide- so any change toward positive sentiment seems a huge leap! However, though these magazine texts often utilize beautiful language and heartfelt emotion, they also have some gloomy subject matter. The women in these narratives love deeply, but in turn they are deeply wounded by their love. The objects of their affection often are duplicitous libertines who trick their victims into surrendering virtue and into a downward spiral of depression. Therefore the love in these stories is largely a negative force. Love has everything to do with the plotline, but very little to do with the outcome and the impact of these tales. I believe that these narratives became increasingly prominent at the end of the 1700s due to the marketability of romance and the patriarchal lessons established by these cautionary tales. The practical applications of these tales as warning devices impresses on the reader that this was still a society where love had little to do with life.

Like the Leona Lewis song, the women in the seduction tales are often bleeding love- meaning they love so deeply that the betrayal of their sentiments often kills them. They try to harshly reprimand their unworthy lovers, but the results of their fallen virtue are still largely with them. The men seem to run off free to continue with their deceptions without paying a price. This plotline runs throughout the seduction narrative, and the drama of the material and the flowery language made great reading the 1700s. These magazine pieces were often mini dramas for their authors and audience, and took on the language and actions of a stage play. Talk about melodramatic. However, the exhuberance of feeling seemed to be in balance with the emphasis on sensibility of the age. While previous times had labels like “the age of reason” this seemed to be an era of emotion. By writing to cater to this emotional audience, the author was guaranteeing their work would be printed and read. So in this case, love is an exploitable, trendy emotion that can lead to profits.

However, there was a latent function of these narratives, and this was to subvert romantic ideas in women by showing the adverse effects that could come from this type of extreme romance. Since the era was obsessed with sensibility, people were beginning to get silly notions: like love should be a factor in marriage. But the society was still male dominated and structured in such a way that many thought it necessary to still arrange marriages based on wealth and class status. These views were often held by older generations and those who wanted marriage to still be a largely arrangable institution. Most people in this age were still expected to marry and hope that, in time, love would blossom out of the union. For people whose fortunes depended on the connections their daughters’ marriages would make, the idea of marrying for love was dangerous. It could ruin a family’s prospects. So these magazine texts always ended dismally, with the woman heartbroken and dying, as to show that love did not lead to happiness. They were entertaining reads with an alarming message that love was not an emotion to be trusted.

The Modern Rake

I thought our class discussion about the emergence of the seduction tale and the changing makeup of society was very interesting. It makes sense that people became increasingly fearful when they were no longer able to discern another’s character easily (by knowing their breeding and history) and when strangers became a figure in communities. Even today, it is a very alarming prospect for young women that we cannot judge a man’s character easily, and instead must take him to be as he presents himself. That is why the rake is such a disturbing archetypal figure, and such a prominent one.

I found a great example of a rake in a novel- that though it is not contemporary literature, it is a book that is often read today. Willoughby in Jane Austen’s Sense and Sensibility is the epitome of a rake. Like Florio in our seduction narrative, he is a gentleman who uses he appearance and manners to give the false impression of his worth. Willoughby is a selfish character that lacks virtue, which is typical or a libertine. He flirts shamelessly with the heroine Marianne, making her believe he loves her and even leading her to believe he will propose. However, when financial circumstances are hard he abandons her and marries a wealthy woman. He admits that he was playing with Marianne’s feelings in order to flatter his own ego. Even worse, Willoughby one ran away with a young lady, got her pregnant, and abandoned her. After that, he immediately tried to attach himself to Marianne. Willoughby is able to attract these young women because of his good looks, his flirtatious manner, and his status as a gentleman. In reality, his fortune is very small due to gambling debts, and his flirting often sets aside propriety. Near the end of the novel, he does express some remorse and admits that he has been a libertine. But then he falls back into bad habits. The novel was written in the early 1800s, so it is near seduction tales in the time of its composition. However, the novel seems more accessible to the modern reader. The texts to do not seem so foreign as the seduction texts.

When I think of a modern day rake, I think of Sebastian from the movie Cruel Intentions. The movie is an adaptation of a classic French novel, Les Liaisons Dangereux, which was written in the 1700s (strangely close to the seduction narratives). In the movie, Sebastian is a wealthy Manhattan socialite who derives pleasure from seducing and bedding young women. Growing bored with all the easy conquests, he looks for a challenge. His step-sister/twisted object of his desire, makes a bet with him that he can’t seduce the headmaster’s virginal daughter. If he fails to bed her, he has to give up his car to his stepsister. If he wins the bet, he gets to have kinky/almost incestuous sex with her. Anyways, Sebastian spends most of the movie in pursuit of the virginal character (played by Reese Witherspoon). He also seduces and sleeps with other women in order to fulfill his desires and as a form of revenge on others. Like other rakes, Sebastian is handsome, well-dressed and smooth talking. He knows exactly what to say to draw in a woman’s heart, and then turns cold after he has had her. This combination of insincere motives but outward charm makes his a horrible combination. Of course, he is reformed at the end of the movie. This is where the modern rake tends to differ from those of old. Many modern rakes are seen as redeemable if they meet the “right woman.” However, this gives them no excuse to treat the other women who were not “right” for them like crap. The rake is still a prominent figure in our current entertainment pieces because he is both alluring and alarming- he seems like a great deal but is a walking disaster.

The Perfect Woman

“To preserve the deilicacy of mind, which nature furnishes; which constitutes the glory of your sex, and forms the principal guard of your own virtue, is the business of education.”
- Alphonzo, “An Address to the Ladies.

Oh, Alphonzo. I think you summed things up quite nicely. The common theme of education in these narratives (though in some cases it does pertain to literature and the arts) is the education of the self to be a proper and virtuous woman. All of the writings seem to offer advice that one would find in a finishing school. Not a very interesting read if you ask me. I guess my idea of a page turner is not being told how to act. But texts that offer advice on genteel manners and ladylike conduct are still popular. However, many of these handbooks on etiquette are written by women, who at least seem to be experts on the subject and therefore have some right to offer advice to others. What makes many of these texts, Alfonzo’s in particular, quite aggravating, is that they either were (or probably were) written by men. Therefore, they seem very patriarchal and condescending. They are indeed constructing their “ideal” woman, and they are providing moral censure to any female who does not adhere to that standard.

These often male authored texts seem to imply that a woman’s education need not extend far beyond that of chastity and gentility. Yes, it is a plus to be well read, but that is really secondhand to the more important characteristics of an elegant female: beauty, virginity, hospitality, sweetness of character and a rock-solid reputation. The women painted by these narratives are very much like the woman of Cosmo today- a picturesque, airbrushed portrait of what a patriarchal society deems a perfect woman to be. It can be summed up that the educated woman of the 1700s would be a largely domestic figure. Her accomplishments would be found in her manner of talking, her ability to paint delicately and her ability to sing and dance. These were accomplishments, and it was a plus to have a woman that was intelligent (not to much so!) and well read. However, these were on a lower tier of importance to the writers of these narratives. They place female virtue, delicacy, civility, and reputation above all else. The manners of “education” that writers like Alfonzo tend to address are cautions to the gentler sex. They are warnings not to fall into the hands of a seductive rake, not to be too coquettish, never incautious, and to avoid being to assertive to her husband. The woman is meant to be “educated” to be the epitome of social class, with a kind heart but a virtuous body. Books for ladies are not those despicable novels, full of nonsense, but more prudent literature, such as those that are religious or tell women to leave a chaste life.

The moral of this literature is simple. The perfect woman, in the view of the authors, is one that is always cautious of her reputation and beautiful. She must be all that is delicate and sweet, for that is the true glory of her sex. Education is not book-learning, it is watching the self and protecting the mind and body from falling into the traps of seduction and impurity. Many of the women in this time period did not fall into what these texts paint to be the ideal female. However, these texts were educational- written with the hope that a woman can learn from reading (as long as she is not wasting time with novels).