Introduction Chapter 1: Feminism

Chapter 1: Feminism
1.1Feminism.
From the 1950s onward, feminism and femininity became intrinsically connected as women became part of the public sphere, due to the societal acknowledgment that women and men’s worth was equal, and the celebration of the differences between the two sexes. Societal representations of femininity shaped the feminism of the 1950s, in that this feminism “seemed to be more concerned with the integration and foregrounding of femininity in a masculine world” (“Feminism as Femininity” 6). In consideration of this thesis’s focus on the self-help genre after World War II, which anticipated the renewed domesticity of women during this period, the term feminism in this chapter will be used mainly to describe second-wave feminism.
1.2 Gender.
In order to address terms such as femininity and masculinity, the concept of gender must be explained. Gender is the way in which we categorize behavior that belongs to men and women. For instance, body language, symbols and certain behavior are all ways to communicate to others that we identify as a certain gender. However, these gestures, symbols and behavior are also expected of us, when born in a male or female body. There are different ways to look at gender, and to analyze gender as something we are or something we perform. Butler, for instance, believes that gender is pure performativity. These performances of gender create the illusion of a gendered identity, but it is something we perform and not something we possess. This would mean that femininity, for instance, is produced through, and only through, performativity. This is to say, gendered acts are not performed by gendered individuals. ¹
This Butlerian approach to gender is one that has been critiqued by, for instance, West and Zimmerman who argue that gender is a process of interaction. They make a distinction between sex, sex category and gender. Sex is determined biologically, you are born male or female. Sex category is obtained by “socially required identificatory displays” that assert one’s masculinity or femininity (West, Zimmerman 127). Lastly, they define gender as a reaction and result of an action in certain situations, which are determined by conventional and normative expectations regarding one’s place within a certain sex category. What they mean by this categorization is rather ambiguous, it is not a well-defined set of criteria, but more, if you can be seen as a member of a relevant category, you will be categorized that way, i.e., if you appears to be a woman, you will be categorized as such (West, Zimmerman 127). ²
Traditionally, historians have approached gender as a social category rather than a biologically defined distinction. In “Gender – A Useful Category of Historical Analysis” Scott states: “[f]or the most part, the attempts of historians to theorize about gender have remained within traditional social scientific frameworks, using longstanding formulations that provide universal causal explanations” (1056). Such approaches, however, have failed to address the complexity of social causation, and undercut feminist commitments to analyses that have led to change.
In this sense, gender upholds the male/female dichotomy, and beyond that, marginalizes many individuals that cannot be placed in either box. In this thesis, I will use the traditional definition of gender, which establishes the opposition and inequality of male and female roles in society. The traditional definition of gender will be applied in this thesis, for it accurately demonstrates the complexity of the term, and functions as a blatant example of the problematics of outmoded definitions. In order to discuss Gilbert’s treatment of female empowerment, the term gender must be used in its traditional form, given that Gilbert seems to rely solely on conventional gender roles in Eat, Pray, Love.
1.4 Self-help Genre. Self-help books have been around for centuries – consider ancient philosophers, such as Socrates and Seneca, who both provided instructions for self-improvement. The focus in this thesis, however, will be directed to the self-help genre after the Second World War, with the female subject as its primary target. Particularly between the eventful times of the 1950s and 1970s, with the sexual revolution and the 1960s women’s movement, there was a clear shift in the approaches that self-help books took.
The female subject of the 1950s was exposed to cultural changes in America, with the rising popularity of rock ‘n’ roll, poetry and literature, and foreign films, but also the increasing number of women working outside the home. Women were taught that they could be independent and competent. Contradictory expectations, such as mainstream notions of what the female physical appearance should be and obedience towards men were, however, still very much present and emphasized in 1950s society and media. The contradiction here is that, while women were increasingly allowed to express more outgoing, daring, physical appearances, at the same time, they were expected to be shy in relationships. While some women were now somewhat more independent than they had previously been in a number of areas, and experienced some form of agency, conventional gender roles, when it came to relationships, were far from challenged. It seemed that the self-sufficient woman of the 1950s had one primary reason for her self-sufficiency, namely, to become better marriage material. Indeed, one popular self-help book of the 1950s states that: “boys know you for modern, self-sufficient, car-driving, job-holding, money-making, vote-getting women. You can and you do take everything in your own hands except love and courtship and marriage [emphasis added]” (Strain 75). That is to say, women could take control in every aspect of their lives, except when it came to dating and getting married. Men were subjects, and women were still objects in the marriage market.
Moreover, even though it was now acknowledged that women were smart and outgoing, their main job was to hide those qualities, in order to make men feel superior. Women were taught that “the truly smart woman would do better to surreptitiously manipulate her date into thinking he had the upper hand rather than prove to him how smart she was” (McDaniel 49). A smart girl would teach herself to tone down her intelligence, and any other qualities she possessed, that could ultimately make a man feel unneeded. Threatening men in their masculinity would decrease the chance of finding a suitable husband. While boys were being encouraged to campaign for themselves and to become future presidents, Wall Street brokers and doctors, women in the 1950s were forced to experience personal growth as a private matter. Rather than being motivated to challenge conventional gender roles, women were receiving the message that women and men were indeed equals, as long as women kept that to themselves. “To completely snuff out a boy’s smoldering inferiority complex, a girl had to assure him that any thoughts she did have were only opinions, easily changed by his superior knowledge, and not well-researched facts” (McDaniel 50). Therefore, in order to emphasize boys’ masculinity, girls were expected to behave in a feminine way, which means, in 1950s society, that women were to celebrate the differences between women and men, by placing emphasis on those differences, rather than denying them.
The Women’s Liberation Movement and the many changes it brought about, such as birth-control and sexual liberation, inspired women and authors of self-help books to take a different approach to dating. Women were no longer expected to be shy and delicate, as an object to be ‘chased’ by masculine, control-taking men. Instead, “women were assured that men now preferred women who took a more assertive approach to dating” (McDaniel 55). A mere 10 years after women were pressured into understanding the importance of shyness and femininity in order to confirm a man’s masculinity, those exact qualities were now seen as signs of “prudery” which were “guaranteed to turn men off and to destroy a woman’s chances of establishing a heterosexual relationship” (McDaniel 55).
In addition to being responsible for the emotional aspects of relationships, women – according to self-help authors – were now also responsible for the communicational aspects of relationships. Self-help books therefore started to focus more on communication skills, teaching women how to communicate their way through a successful relationship. This new approach to “recovery through reading” was now teaching women to be open and honest about their feelings, and, in order to articulate their feelings, they had to be in touch with them (Schrager 177). Self-help then gradually began to emphasize the importance of seeking the self. This is an important point to make, considering that, even though Gilbert does not present Eat, Pray, Love as a self-help book, the ‘emotional’ processes her protagonist goes through as described by the author, reveal many similarities to self-help advice, as offered by various self-help authors.