American Literature View of Oppressed Women

We know, of course, that for generations women have been called "the weaker sex". We also know that in some Third World countries women have few, if any rights, and must be totally subservient to their husbands or fathers. Women's oppression is not only a subject of (mostly) feminist authors, but has also been politicized for more than a century> Marx, for example, was a very vocal opponent. "While middle class feminists regard the oppression of women as an inherent biological trait of men, Marxism explains that the root of women's oppression lies not in biology, but in social conditions" (Lowell 1).Of course, social conditions play a major role in the three works under discussion.

First of all, in Marge Piercy's Barbie Doll, the social conditions are those of women who are less than the ideal. We, in society today, worship the looks of Barbie dolls- nearly perfect. Beverly Hills plastic surgeons make a fortune trying to right Nature's wrongs. There are now popular TV reality shows, such as "Extreme Makeover" which takes ugly ducklings and, within an hour, turn them into lovely swans. But, this "girlchild" in the poem suffered from a classmate's taunts. "You have a big nose and fat legs" (Piercy line 6). Some women are oppressed by the expressed thoughts of others, by the way they look to others, rather than how they actually feel, or how bright they are. "Oppressed" physically, means that women feel like they don't measure up if they don't look like a model or someone on the swimsuit cover of Sports Illustrated, or have the figure to be a Dallas Cheerleader. After a while, this feeling- this oppression and depression of not measuring up physically to her peers is what destroyed "Barbie". "Her good nature wore out like a fan belt" (Piercy l. 15-16). How often have we heard the cliché "She cut off her nose to spite h34r face"? Well, here it really happened. The tragedy of life is that a mortician's cosmetics make everyone look "pretty". And, as Piercy puts it "Consummation at last. To every woman a happy ending" (Piercy l.24=5).

In all three of the works, happy endings may be wished for, but not achieved. Beyond these three works, however, our world- our wired world of TV where happy endings occur in thirty or sixty minutes, happy endings are expected, hoped for, worked hard to achieve, and the downside is that happy endings seldom occur.

There are many incidents of oppression in marriages. But, oppression is not really the same as abuse. Not physical abuse, at any rate. And yet, men are still often regarded (or accused) of being women's "Masters": "In October 1969, an article in Psychology Today entitled "Women as Nigger" quickly led feminist activists to make parallels between the :oppression of women" and the oppression of blacks. Men were characterized as the "master," or "slave holders" and this parallel allowed the hard-earned rights of the civil rights movement to be applied to feminist issues" (BC Fathers online 1).

One does not immediately sense a feeling of oppression or desperation in the narrator of "The Yellow Wallpaper". But, one senses something terrible wrong, emotionally, at the very outset of the short story when the narrator calls herself and her husband as "mere ordinary people" (Gilman p 1). Ordinary is almost demeaning in our society. Of course, there are some who praise a certain work ethic, especially in the South, and the idea of being "ordinary folks" is a sourc3e of pride. But, this is the rural South, where women are content to cook and clean and produce children and dress up for church and weddings and funerals. But these are not "ordinary" Her husband and her brother are doctor, so she obviously is middle class. She, however, immediately indicates her loneliness. "John is away all day, and even some nights when his cases are serious" (Gilman 3). While this is inner dialogue, it is also the sort of thing one woman in pain would say to another, to avoid discussing troubles of husbands being-= who knows- maybe indeed with his "cases". And suddenly, we are shocked to realize that she is truly a mentally disturbed woman. A baby? And someone else is caring for it? And, then, she tells the reader "I think sometimes that if I were well enough to write a little it would relieve the press of ideas and rest me" (Gilman 3). Not well enough to write? This opens up a floodgate of questions. What is well and what is well enough? What is being ill or just not feeling up to par? And then when she actually begins to write, she hears her sister-ion-law coming and her first thought is :"she must not let her find me writing" (Gilman 4). Why would a doctor's sister be content to be a housekeeper, and what power does she have for our subject to stop writing when her sister-in-law arrives. Slowly, we begin to put together pieces of a teetering mind. There is something obviously wrong with her, but is it her body or her mind or both? "I don't know why I should write this. I don't want to. I don't feel able" (Gilman 6). And, a short time later, she now admits "It is getting to be a great effort for me to think straight. Just this nervous weakness, I suppose" (Gilman 6).

Now, at this point one might look up and ask, what does the mind's deterioration (if it is really that) to do with the oppression of women. Time to move ahead, then. What is her obsession with that paper, feeling, as she does, that it moves sometimes and seems to change color with the passing of the day or with moonlight. And through it all, she seems to feel that her husband is being more than kind, trying to make her avoid any and all problems, and not to worry about the end of that summer rental.

And then, we come to the crux of the matter. She no longer trusts her husband. She even uses the word "deceit" And then, a few pages later: "John is so queer now, that I don't want top irritate him" (Gilman 10). The irritation might come from the woman she sees behind the shaking wallpaper, a woman who disappears during the day. Now, she definitely mistrusts her husband, claiming she sees right through him.

But, what of the ending? What about the rope? Her having torn away that yellow wallpaper? The fact is, she has slipped out of one fearful personality and adopted someone not afraid, not doubting, but,. In some way,. Superior to those who imprisoned her. "Gilman used her narrator, who remains unnamed, to express her own feelings erupting inside of her. Her husband and those around her immediately see our narrator as crazy, and she was confined to a room, which later was the cause of her emotional meltdown. Her husband is emotionally strong and stable when he exercises his powers to put his wife away. This relays the message that women of the time were crazy and unable to handle a stable life, despite their best efforts" (Dean 4).

While these two works are definitely Western in content and character, Maxine Hong Kingston reminds me of the far different type of oppression against Asian women. Her aunt, in China, was called "The woman with no name" because, having shamed her conservative family with an unexpected (and illegal) pregnancy, her name would never be spoken in the house again. As Ms. Kingston's mother told her "In China your father had a sister who killed herself. She jumped into the family well. We say that your father has all brothers because it is as if she had never been born" (Kingston 1).

Tradition and what we often call "face"- a sort of family honor and dignity, had fallen by the wayside with this pregnancy. As it was told, villagers came and threw eggs and stones at the house during labor. The family was truly vilified and called names, and the house was literally destroyed and ransacked.

However, the real importance of the story Kingston is telling us is not only the oppression suffered by women in a male society like China, but the oppression of coming into a strange culture, one in which many Chinese Americans do not feel comfortable. As Kingston writes: "Chinese Americans, when you try to understand what things in you are Chinese, how do you separate what is peculiar to childhood, to poverty8, insanities, one family, your mother who marked your growing with stories, from what is Chinese?" (Kingston 3).

We therefore have a two-part meaning of oppression- one literally in China with the banning of the unwed mother, and her humiliation until she killed herself; and the new and different culture and a whole attitude which takes at least a generation to assimilate. And yet, as Kingston writes, Chinese fathers dote on their daughter, as her grandfather surely did. But, that attention required obedience and a strict adherence to the rules of the household and the ancient Chinese tradition, even in the 1920s. The oppression of women who committed adultery in China, at least, seem to vary with the bounty of the crops. "Adultery, p3rhaps only a mistake in good times, became a crime when the village needed food" (Kingston 14).

So, what do these three stories teach us, or reinforce our beliefs in the oppression of women. In all three of these works women come to grief because of society's relentless pursuit of either excellence, conformity, or pliability. A suicide down a well, a putty nose in a casket, a tearing of restrictive wallpaper: these visible effects, if nothing else, make these women memorable. Has feminism, Equal Opportunities, even Affirmative Action given women a greater share of equality? Even in the U.S., perhaps the best answer would be "Maybe".

CITATIONS:

Dean Kyra: "The Oppression of Women in American literature from the Civil War to World War I" www.planetpapers.com/Assets/5090.php

Gilman, Charlotte Perkins "The Yellow Wallpaper"

Kingston, Maxine Hong: "No name Woman" Part one of The WomanWarrior New York: Vintage International (1989)

Lowell, Rob "The Origins of Women's oppression" UK: London online at: www.marxist.com/women/origin_womens_oppression.html

Piercy, Marge: Barbie Doll from collection To Be of Use (1973)

No author listed: "Psychology Today Article" BC Fathers online

www.fathers.bc.ca/oppressi.htm