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The role of women in the great Gatsby
Portrayal of women in the great gatsby
Gender in us literature 20th century
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How would you feel if all your values and morals made a complete 180, instantly. Well that's how it was in the 1920’s for women. Many things changed throughout the nation that would change our country as a whole. There was prohibition, motorized vehicles, screenplays, women voting, and the idea of the American Dream. These things would change the way women viewed the the country and themselves. Women in the 1920’s drastically changed by status, sexual freedom, and by the way the dressed, shown by Myrtle and Daisy in the The Great Gatsby. Women in the 20’s had a status change by becoming known as flappers. Women were more open and meeting guys was more acceptable. Also women were more revealing of their bodies in the 20’s. In the 1920’s …show more content…
female status changed when the term flapper came about. A flapper is a fashionable young woman intent on enjoying herself. Not only were women getting the label as flapper, but they were also moving up through the social classes. They were moving up through the social classes by marrying rich guys, or having affairs with rich guys. This shows throughout The Great Gatsby as Daisy comes from a wealthy family but marries a rich man, Tom. Tom and Myrtle's affair, and Myrtles pearls. In the book, Myrtle shows moving through the social classes by having an affair with Tom, even though she is married to George. George is not a rich man, but Myrtle is living a very lavish lifestyle because of Tom. Myrtle and Tom have a “hook-up” apartment, that's nicer than Myrtle's place with George. Myrtle also has pearls that were given to her by Tom, this shows status in a way where even though Myrtle is married to a poor man she still has money. In the 1920’s women's sexual freedom skyrocketed from the previous years.
Sexual freedom became to be through many reasons. First there were steamy actors and actresses on the silver screen. The 1920’s had sex on the screen and if you see it “ on TV” you are more than likely to think it's okay.Second with more freedom for women, it's easy for people to judge and criticize their every action. With people judging your every action you are bound to rebel. That is another way where you can bring in a flapper, with their no care attitude and determinedness to have a good time. Third, if everyone is doing it it must be okay. This is a very prominent point in The Great Gatsby. This shows up with all of the affairs. It is prominent in all of Gatsby's parties. This shows up with just basic relationships as well. You can compare the affairs to women's sexual freedom with the women just throwing their bodies at men, or a relationship on the side. Myrtle would be considered to be throwing her body at Tom. A separate relationship would be Daisy and Gatsby’s affair. Sexual freedom is shown at Gatsby's parties by the dancers, and the dancing. It doesn't seem like much, but before the 20’s provocative dancing was very much frowned upon. Basic relationships show sexual freedom in a different way than my other points. Jordan and Nick had a “thing” and it wasn't sexual or anything, but it represent sexual freedom. It show how women were getting out there and actively trying to find a husband or someone to court them. This shows the difference between the types of ways women demonstrated sexual freedom. Prohibition also played a role in the sexual freedom in women. Because of prohibition young people/young couples were sneaking ff the underground speakeasies. This made it very easy for a women to find someone, you may as well bring the water to the horse. Sexual freedom wouldn’t be as easy to acquire if it weren't for the change of
dress. The leniency of women's apparel changed drastically in the 1920’s. Women‘s dress changed by both their actual dress, and the dresses they wore. Basic apparel for women before the roaring 20’s was a ,long dress, with long sleeves and a very very high neckline. Females wore their hair up with not much jewelry either. Whereas a 20’s dress is definitely more revealing. A basic 1920’s dress has a deep neckline ,hemmed above the knees, with either sleeves that barely cover the shoulder, or no sleeves at all. The women would wear their hair down,with more jewelry than the decade before, much more seductive. So as you can tell a huge change in the dress of women. This can relate to The Great Gatsby, It relates by the representation of the color red, and the apparel of the dancers in the movie. In the book, white represents purity, and the color red represents passion, and heated relationships and being a ho. Whenever we see Myrtle most the time she is wearing red to portray her as being a ho. Change of dress shows particularly in the movie at Gatsby's parties with the dancers. The dancers were wearing what looked to be a one piece swimming suit with feathers on it. As we see here this is much different than what women wore in the early 1900’s. It shows how in such a short period of time women evolved.
From coast to coast people were reading the exploits of a new type of woman called flapper. Prior to World War 1 Victorian ideals still dictated the behavior of American women and girls. Frederick Lewis Allen describes the traditional role of women. Women were the guardians of morality. They were made of finer stuff than men. They were expected to act accordingly. Young girls must look forward in innocence to a romantic love match which would lead them to the altar and to living happily ever after. Until the right man came along they must allow no male to kiss them. Flappers did the opposite. Flappers danced the Charleston, kissed their boyfriends while they played golf and sat behind the wheels of fast cars. The liberated usually young female disdained the traditions of her mother and grandmother before her. Flappers would smoke and drink alcohol, she cut her hair and wore short dresses. They also changed their views on courtship rituals, marriage, and child rearing. With these they could have the same freedom as men could. The time period also saw a highly physical change in women’s lives like how they dressed and looked. For the first time in American history women could choose to be free from long hair and voluminous clothing. Before the women changed they wore very restrictive clothing consisting of long skirts with layers of petticoats over tightly laced corsets that produced an hourglass figure with wide hips and a narrow waist.
Some people hated this idea of the Flapper and they blamed the war for these women’s new behaviors. After World War I, young women and young girls started to act free and go against their families. “Some people in society blamed the war for triggering this rebellion of youth and they claimed it had upset the balance of the sexes and, in particular, confuse women of their role in society and where they truly belonged” (Grouley 63). Some people hated the idea of the flappers and these women had become. These women, the flappers, in the 1920s felt free after the 19th amendment was passed. “Since the early twentieth century, the sexual habits of these American women had changed in profound ways” (Zeitz 21). Flappers drank, partied, and had romantic evenings with men. All of which were illegal for women. In addition, they were an embarrassment to society and they were able to get away with anything. “Flappers were a disgrace to society because they were lazy-pleasure seekers who were only interested in drinking, partying, and flirting” (Dipalo 1). For instance, Flappers went to clubs, drank, and hung out with men and were too lazy to do anything. Therefore, one consequence of the war was the creation of a new woman and this led to a movement like no other.
The 1920’s was a period of extremely economic growth and personal wealth. America was a striving nation and the American people had the potential to access products never manufactured before. Automobile were being made on an assembly line and were priced so that not just the rich had access to these vehicles, as well as, payment plans were made which gave the American people to purchase over time if they couldn't pay it all up front. Women during the First World War went to work in place of the men who went off to fight. When the men return the women did not give up their positions in the work force. Women being giving the responsibility outside the home gave them a more independent mindset, including the change of women's wardrobe, mainly in the shortening of their skirts.
In the 1920's women's roles were soon starting to change. After World War One it was called the "Jazz Age", known for new music and dancing styles. It was also known as the "Golden Twenties" or "Roaring Twenties" and everyone seemed to have money. Both single and married women we earning higher- paying jobs. Women were much more than just staying home with their kids and doing house work. They become independent both financially and literally. Women also earned the right to vote in 1920 after the Nineteenth Amendment was adopted. They worked hard for the same or greater equality as men and while all this was going on they also brought out a new style known as the flapper. All this brought them much much closer to their goal.
Women in the 1930 were a significant part of everyday life, they just did not get credit for it. Women were not recognized for all that they did because men were put on a pesistool. The inequality in this time period affected everything women did. Women were important in American history because of their family roles, careers, and wages.
As progressive era reforms advanced from the 1880s to t 1920s, women took on a significant role in political change with specific regard to the ratification of the 19th amendment and social conditions with emphasis on women’s reproductive rights and restraint from alcohol.
The 1920s had more movement toward women's rights. In the 1920s the dresses got shorter and women were allowed to drink, smoke, and have a social life.
In the 1920’s, the Nineteenth Amendment was passed, which gave women the right to vote. During this decade women became strong and more independent. Women were accomplishing a lot more than they had before. Women started going to college so she could earn her own living. More women started leaving the home and working at a factory or as a secretary. Women were discriminated at the work place. They received lower wages then man did. In the 1920’s, the term flapper was introduced. It was first used in Britain after World War 1. Young women were labeled as flappers who wore makeup shorter skirts. Fl...
During this time, the young, rebellious, daring women were known as flappers(Ellis, Elizabeth. Esler, Anthony). The rebellious women went to all-night parties and danced to new dances called the Fox Trot, the Waltz, and the American Tango. Women also began holding men’s hands in public without wearing gloves, as was the custom, and smoked in public (history.com). The mothers of the women of this age formed an Anti-Flirt League to act against their daughters’ scandalous actions. Even so, the daughters did not listen and were called the generation of those who “do their own thing.” The people of this time also became much more daring than those of other times. They would have dance parties that lasted until everyone dropped from tiredness, called marathon dances, and they would strap themselves to the wings of planes, flying with the planes until the planes landed. Women would also sit on the top of flag poles for as long as possible (about.com). Many other changes happened during this age and most of those changes h...
“Women’s roles were constantly changing and have not stopped still to this day.” In the early 1900s many people expected women to be stay at home moms and let the husbands support them. But this all changes in the 1920s, women got the right to vote and began working from the result of work they have done in the war. Altogether in the 1920s women's roles have changed drastically.
Time flew by and as the war ended in 1918, the 1920’s decade of change soon approached. The year was famously known as “The Jazz Age” and “The Roaring 20’s” because of the newly found freedom, social and political changes, and the time of prohibition. Among these powerful new changes was the freedom that women were finally able to vote and enjoy what was about to come. Instead of being confined at home, the women joined labor forces, worked with wages, and experimented with different types of behavior that would have been unreasonable a few years back. Along with these dramatic changes were their fashion styles. This style changed their rights and relationships with others completely. With that change, a new woman was born. There were not many ways for women to stand up for themselves and what they believed in. They had no voice but in the 1920’s, women found a way of freely expressing themselves and changing their relationships with others all with the start of fashion.
Women during the 1920's lifestyle, fashion, and morals were very different than women before the 1920's. Flappers became the new big thing after the 19th amendment was passed. Women's morals were loosened, clothing and haircuts got shorter, and fashion had a huge role in these young women.
Although the feminists of the 1920s did not significantly improve their economic status, they were able to boost their political status by passing the 19th Amendment for women’s suffrage. Before they could vote, women had very strict roles in society. Many people during the 1920s believed that when a woman spoke in public, she was “ignoring [her] biological weaknesses,” such as a smaller brain and more fragile physique (Krolokke 5). The argument continued, stating that these women were also harming their reproductive abilities (Krolokke 5). Suffragists first broke these stereotypes by engaging in public persuasion, which was deemed “unwomanly” by the people of the era (Krolokke 5). After that, they slowly earned the right to “indirect[ly] influence, [but] certainly not engage in, public activities” (Krolokke 5). Even as the suffragists tried to achieve the right to vote, they had to work within these stigmas. The popular opinion stated that women had a “natural disposition toward maternity and domesticity” (Krolokke 5). Therefore, suffragists argued that female voters would enrich politics with their maternal characteristics (Krolokke 5). After years of protest, the 19th Amendment was officially ratified in 1920. Men and women finally had equal voting rights. While this piece of legislation was a significant advancement for the first-wave women, they still faced major obstacles in society. Female voters were harassed. In Indianola, Mississippi, Irene Magruder’s house was set on fire after it was used as an office for voter registration workers (Collins 432). When the firemen arrived, they turned their hoses off and watched as the house and everything Magruder owned burned down (Collins 432). Another woman, Fannie Lou Hamer, face...
Changes in the women’s view point of the 20s were less looked down upon as they were for men. Along with drinking, parties, and premarital sex, the change in popularity of music to jazz became just as hated by the elderly. "Culture in the 1920s: Loosening Social Structure." The rebellious behavior of the decade gave birth and made the building blocks of society we have today, without the change in youth of the 20s traditional view of life, who knows what kind of society we would have today. We may be looking at a world with women that wore skirts past their knees. Along with that, we may be living in a society where premarital sex in still frowned upon. Where what we say is limited to using words without slang or not having the same music we have today. Those brave youth who broke the traditional view of life made our great society what it is today.
During the 1930s women is not treated equally and they are very different in many way. Women were less likely to get jobs than men. Fashion is also very different. Women wore plain dresses while men wore blue denim jackets. Women during the Great Depression are actually depressed because they can not get jobs and their wages are half as much as men. Men get good jobs and amazing wages, but at least both still have their fashion.