Introduction
Gender roles have long been a predominant issue in society. The male sex is expected to be virile, aggressive, risk-taking, and the breadwinner of the family. The female sex is presented as caring, responsible, gentle, polite, and amiable. Anne Sexton, in her poem Cinderella focuses on the position of women in society on the material of the well-known fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm. The author ridicules the idea that is flourishing among people that a woman’s life without a man is impossible and full of suffering. In her short text Girl, Jamaica Kincaid describes the process of forming gender roles between a man and a woman, which are inherited and seem hard to fight. In this way, both Anna Sexton’s Cinderella and Jamaica Kincaid’s Girl, from different perspectives, reveal issues of gender roles that still significantly affect the daily lives of both women and men.
The objective reason for the formation of gender inequality is that in the course of the development of society, the role of ‘earners’ was initially assigned to men, and the role of ‘keepers of the hearth’ was assigned to women. With further progress, men changed their ways of earning a livelihood, but the role of earner still belonged only to them, which allowed them to occupy a dominant position. Women are expected to behave neatly and responsibly in order to attract the men of their dreams (Radtke 378). The existing cultural norms in every way encouraged such a division.
Truth of Tales
After reading Sexton’s poem, one can understand that the author makes fun of the traditional fairy tale. In the beginning, she cites many episodes from different works, each of which ends with an ironic sentence: “From toilets to riches” or “from diapers to Dior” (Sexton). In addition, each tale ends with the phrase “That story” (Sexton); the author thus shows that all famous works end the same way. These cult works were the impetus for the formation of established stereotypes, and since these roles were firmly fixed in history, their distribution today becomes clear.
Although the gender roles prescribed in the world’s fairy tales apply to both women and men, women are still more discriminated against in this background. The peer-reviewed paper also states this: “Women experience greater role conflict, particularly with regard to occupational and domestic demands and greater gender role conflict… than men” (Luhaorg and Zivian 608). The article focuses on the conflict of gender roles, mainly in the professional field. However, in the above quote, one can also say that more is expected of women in the workplace and in household chores. Here Sexton resents that a woman should act as a servant, which is Cinderella. The article touches upon the conflicts women face, and this is also covered in the writer’s poem. Gender roles discriminate against women more, so ‘out of bounds’ is suppressed, and women are taught to be defined.
In Sexton’s poem, cynicism is traced to the formed image of a submissive girl who can only do household chores and is not able to change her life on her own. Previously, women were not expected to be able to provide for themselves, so the tale presents help through white doves, who prepared “a large package for a simple bird” for Cinderella (Sexton). The author criticizes the heroine, clarifying that she just went there to get a rich husband. That is an unrealistic story for Sexton, with a known end to submissiveness. As a result of this image, a large number of women today are still dependent.
Hereditary Discrimination
The image of an economic and submissive woman is also presented in Jamaica Kincaid’s Girl. It is noteworthy that the entire text is instructions to women on how they should live, which sounds like reproaches. Women do not have the right to break out of the established image, giving rise to centuries-old cultural heritage. The final sentence, “you mean to say that after all, you are really going to be the kind of woman who the baker won’t let near the bread?” shows all the bewilderment of those who do not represent the life of all gender attitudes (Kincaid). The woman, most likely the girl’s mother, talks about society’s expectations of her. “…this is how you set the table for breakfast; this is how to behave in the presence of men…” (Kincaid). This passage shows how a girl is prepared for women’s duties, such as cooking and serving food, as well as behavior around others. The girl is forbidden to be herself and brought up as ‘one of the many.’
The mother in Kincaid will give the idea that women are confined to the home, and only men can interact with society and live according to their will. In addition, if the daughter leads a normal life, that is, goes out into the world, the mother humiliates her by constantly calling her a “slut”. It is possible that the mother is reproducing to her daughter the discrimination she experienced in her youth that shaped her. In this way, she influences her daughter, and therefore stereotyped thinking spreads. Thus, Kincaid’s Girl effectively portrays the problems of society, in particular, the influence of parents in the formation and dissemination of discriminatory ideas.
The upbringing of such behavior in women leads to the fact that women have no other idea of themselves except for the imposed image. In addition, as a result of developed humility, many cannot stand up for themselves. The girl’s mother brings up the severe topic of violence “this is how to make a good medicine to throw away a child before it even becomes a child”(Kincaid). Although she only does this so that her child can keep the incident a secret in the future. Even the way this line occurs, between “medicine for a cold” and “how to catch a fish,” suggests that this topic is taboo, but this is a well-known fact that is transmitted to all girls (Kincaid). Cultivating a worldview in which violence goes unpunished leads to the fact that feminism is still a hot topic. According to the article: “…feminism as a collective effort for societal change is still vitally necessary…” (Fairchild 455). The author says that even though opponents of the struggle for women refer to the fact that everyone, both men and women, are equal at the legal level. If a girl is in trouble or faced with injustice, it is entirely her fault.
Men are still against changing gender roles because they believe that women should be submissive. The prototype of the mother in the work of Kincaid expresses a very narrow idea of women that is extremely common. In addition, if girls are taught to be careful and subservient, men get a similar picture, which still needs to be fought. Society imposes on children of both sexes the stereotypes that dominated earlier and which are still of great importance in the modern world. All the mother’s instructions, which supposedly will make a worthy woman out of her daughter, are, in fact, discriminatory. For example, a mother forbids her daughter to play marbles because “you are not a boy” (Kincaid). Instead of games and entertainment, a girl should cook, clean, heal, and love her husband, even if he “bullies you” (Kincaid). The entire text shows the attitude of the mother to the position of women in society: women do not have freedom, only men can do what they want, and women have responsibilities. These stereotypes establish a gap between the sexes and are passed down from generation to generation.
Conclusion
Widespread gender stereotypes that determine the role and place of women and men in society shape their behavior. In addition, it substantially impacts people’s social status and often leads to gender discrimination. Stereotypes are formed from centuries of history and cultural heritage, as well as through education. In her work Cinderella, Anna Sexton raises the topic of national heritage with the precise distribution of roles and a lack of autonomy for women. She pokes fun at the notion of a fairy tale with the same ‘happy’ ending, which is mainly unlike reality. In addition, she criticizes the passivity and submissiveness of women, thus indicating that women must fight against stereotypes that affect them more than men. Jamaica Kincaid, in turn, raises the issue of the hereditary transmission of stereotypes and the gender roles that form with them. The author focuses on the fact that because of parents who live by the rules, feminism is still necessary. Equality law does not bring this into the family, so gender discrimination still exists.
Works Cited
Fairchild, Kimberly. “Feminism Is Now: Fighting Modern Misogyny and the Myth of the Post-Feminist Era.” Sex Roles, vol. 73, no. 9-10, 2015, pp. 453–55, Web.
Luhaorg, Helen, and Marilyn T. Zivian. “Gender Role Conflict: The Interaction of Gender, Gender Role, and Occupation.” Sex Roles, vol. 33, no. 9-10, 1995, pp. 607–20, Web.
Radtke, Lorraine. “Feminist Theory in Feminism & Psychology [Part I]: Dealing with Differences and Negotiating the Biological.” Feminism & Psychology, vol. 27, no. 3, 2017, pp. 357–77, Web.
Sexton, Anne. “Cinderella by Anne Sexton.” Allpoetry.com, 2017, Web.
Kincaid, Jamaica. “Girl.” The New Yorker, 1978, Web.