Charles-Antoine Brunet
Stories (2/0)
Gail Scott's Heroine
Gender is an aspect of our society that as an impact on many things, from our interpersonal relations to how we perceive others upon first meeting them. Although it is a social construct, something fabricated (Tripp 1), gender and the theory that surround and support it has an effect on the social expectations we have for us and others. The gender dynamics that have followed it have also impacted our society, dividing it even more by dictating the way one should behave based mostly on their gender alone, rather than based on personal interests or personality. Indeed, gender dynamics dictate personality, it “constructs us” (Tripp 7). Such gender ideas also helped create the patriarchal society we live in today, and the ideals we have for both women and men (gender non-conforming people being excluded by such ideals because of the nature of gender ideals and the nature of gender non-conformity not being compatible, as one is the antithesis of the other). The breaking away from set gender roles, especially women gender roles, has led to the birth of feminism, and the fight for an equality revoked by the masculine so-called superiority (Tripp 7). But feminism is not without its flaws, either, and has itself led to some binaries and oppositions. Can women be feminine and still feminists, or must they conform to the masculine gender roles to be taken seriously? Can women still be feminists if they work in public service and are not considered “successful”? Can women still be feminists if they look down upon other women? Such struggles, which are still present but were even more back in the 1970’s and 1980’s, are well explored in Gail Scott’s Heroine. Indeed, the novel, especially the chapter “Car Wrecks and Bleeding Hearts,” explores the struggles women face regarding the approach to take for their feminism through the perspective of the main character, a self-proclaimed feminist also named Gail. In the chapter, Gail Scott, the author, frames her character’s narrative and struggles in her perception of femininity and feminism around the women that she encounters. The women service workers, whom her character resents and undermines, help explore her views on women working in more masculine public spheres. Gail herself, and her perception she has of herself, her success and her more masculine behaviour and surroundings, setting her apart from everyone else (in her mind) reinforces the way her feminism is tailored to encourage conforming to masculine gender roles rather than setting herself free from them. Finally, Marie, a central character to the novel, represents everything that Gail, the character, does not grasp about the gender dynamics that surround her, from her feminine nature to her assurance and agency and success, referencing once again the struggles women have faced regarding the duality between femininity and feminism.
By Charles-Antoine Brunet3 years ago in Humans