In “Mademoiselle” I believe that the main character was not struggling with a gender crisis. I believe his struggle was against society and the way people like him were treated for being different. In this story it shows just how quick society is to judge someone on appearance. I believe that he continued to dress as a woman to show these people how masculine he really was and to show them how incorrect they were for judging him.
In general, people tend to judge masculinity but acting tough and not showing weakness. We tend to think that men are the stronger gender and should never show any signs of femininity. Cross-dressing is one of the biggest things that people notice when judging how masculine someone is. In most people’s eyes, wearing a dress or walking like a woman is a sign of being a woman or a homosexual. And people are afraid of anyone different from themselves and tend to discriminate against anyone who falls into that category.
In this story, it showed that people judged you as being masculine or feminine solely on your appearance. It also showed how people have a hard time adjusting to change. A good example of this would be when Mademoiselle decided to finally dress as a man and take a walk down the street
His struggle throughout the story had been with society all along. I don’t think he had a gender crisis at all. I think that he was placed forcefully into do this at first at a young age by his family, but as he grew, he saw how people responded to this and he knew that they were wrong to judge him. In this story, there was a fine line pointed out between being male and female. It did not have to do with the way they act or the way they dress or conduct themselves. It had all to do with what was between their legs. Mademoiselle knew this and saw no problem in doing what he did because at the end of the day, he was still a man.
I believe that Mademoiselle was challenging society when he first started acting like a woman. It could have been his way of pointing out the major flaws of society. He wanted people to see that it really takes masculinity to do what he did. This was opposite of what the people in the town actually thought. They thought he was showing a lot of femininity. Despite the comments and the nicknames he developed, he stuck to what made him comfortable and what he wanted to do. Throughout the whole story, it really seemed like the joke was on them. I see what Mademoiselle did was a big joke
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