It's a Girl! It's a Boy! It's Gender Role Blog Time!

Wow.  There was so much of interest in the Encyclopedia of Social History article on Gender.  I could probably write ten posts just from what I have running through my mind.  But, unfortunately, there are only so many hours in the day.  I will stick to one, filled with the ideas that I found most closely related to Ragtime.

There are a few concepts that I thought played closely into the readings of the novel.  First, the concept of a "real" man, described as having a "virile, and, if necessary, tough demeanor, and also needed to be a "team player...in the legal tradition that English colonists brought to America, the husband was understood to be the head of the household and to represent it in its dealings with the world." (485-6).  In respect to women, the notion that "women-at least white, native-born, middle and upper class women- were viewed as having weaker sexual desires than men. Sensuality was attached to poor or "darker women"(485).    
     These two descriptions can be easily applied to Father and Mother within the novel.  Father feels the strain of gender expectations throughout.  As a participator in an expedition to the North Pole, he is living up to his need to be tough and to work well with others.   However, he is sent home early due to his body's weakness in the cold, and feels somewhat forlorn about his inability to make it all the way.   He is personally shocked when he has extramarital relations with an Eskimo woman who participates actively in sex,  and is further shocked when he returns home to find a new, active style of lovemaking in his wife.   He marginalizes her due to preconceived notions of gender.  She also struggles with the concept of gender identity, wanting to express herself more fully as a person, both sexually and in day-to-day life.   She begins to make some executive decisions while her husband is away, including changes to finances and household decor.  But, she continues to struggle with what it means to be a woman at the beginning of the century, and is ashamed at the immodesty of newfangled swimming suits.  
     These conflicts, illustrated within the larger scope of American society in the Encyclopedia of Social History, are an important force throughout the novel, driving Mother to insist upon the trip to the shore and Father to become increasingly involved in the Coalhouse Walker case, in part to keep up his reputation as a community-oriented family man.   Ultimately, the confusion and disagreement over gender roles is a large factor in dismantling Father and Mother's relationship.