Female Gender: A Social Perspective In The Great Gatspy And Gentlemen Prefer Blondes

Women have been depicted in literature in many different ways for centuries. Many people have explored what it means to be a woman. Two novels of the 1920’s: The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald, and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, by Anita Loos, explore women in a very specific way. In looking at both books it is discovered that they form a unit. The social issues that the characters in each novel face are very much the same. They form a type of society that can be compared to Judith Butler’s essay, Subjects of Sex/Gender/Desire. Sex and gender are often mistaken for meaning the same thing, but when looking at what create each one it is found that they are not.

According to Butler, “sex” is the biological anatomy of a person that is not controlled by anything other than nature. However, “gender” is the set of mannerisms and characteristics of the behavior of a person. Butler argues that there is no gender until society has had its intervention. She feels that without a society to direct people there would be no difference between genders. However hard it is to understand, Butler states that gender is not determined by sex, it is created by a culture (During 345).

Myrtle Wilson, the wife of a poor auto mechanic, lives off the highway. She and her husband live above the auto shop and have very little money. Myrtle is a strong woman who is striving to be the ideal woman, meaning she wants to have money. She is having an affair with Daisy’s wealthy husband Tom Buchanan. She is first described in the novel here:

question of sex and how big a role it plays in the gender of a person. Butler feels that the body is an instrument of culture. She states, “Bodies cannot be said to have a signifiable existence prior to the mark of their gender; the question then emerges: To what extent does the body come into being in and through the mark(s) of gender?” (During 347) Society forms a skeleton for what gender a person should be and often does not allow anything outside of these guidelines. In being a part of a culture or society a person is exposed to specific information that bases the thoughts and actions of everyone involved. This means that one can only think and do something that is culturally ingrained in their subconscious. The expanse of thought is limited due the definitions of gender (During 347). Gender is considered an attribute at the beginning of life and as one gets older there is a point at which gender becomes a choice. One’s cultural identity can be formulated and changed to best fit the surroundings (During 348). Here is the difference between the biological definition of a person and the social identity of a person. Women, for example, are biologically capable of bearing children and through this we know that they are “women”, but are they necessarily “female” because of this? Butler argues that the answer is no. The gender of a person is not always parallel to the sex of that individual and it is society that can determine otherwise (During 347). Now, in comparing Butler’s definition of women and what they represent in society, to the women of The Great Gatsby and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes it can be seen that they all display an aspect of the socially created females she speaks of.

Here it can be seen that Daisy is a woman who has been formed by her culture. She is a desirable woman and knows how to play the role she has been given, a female in the upper class who depends on her image to carry her personality. Daisy is undoubtedly a woman, and it would naturally be concluded that she was of the female gender. She is first described in the novel as sitting in high ceiling white room with blowing curtains. She was sitting on an “enormous” couch “buoyed up as though upon an anchored balloon.” (Fitzgerald 12) Wearing a white dress that is “rippling and fluttering as if [she] had just been blown back in after a short flight around the house”, Daisy emits a sense of royalty and wealth. She doesn’t work or have to worry about supporting herself, due to her wealthy husband, which takes any financial independence away from her. Here the description of her clothes and her positioning on the couch give us a sense of her the stereotyped feminine qualities. The delicateness of her figure and her hostess-like conversation carry her character as a woman of her social standing (Fitzgerald). A similar character to Daisy is Lorelei Lee from Gentlemen Prefer Blondes.

Jordan Baker is the friend of Daisy’s in The Great Gatsby. She is an athlete, a very male oriented position, and has never been married, another symbol of femininity. Nick, the narrator of the book, here, first introduces Jordan’s character:

Daisy is definitely a woman, due to the fact that she has a child and yet her role as a mother is no different from her husband Tom’s role as a father. Being a mother is something that is considered a very feminine characteristic of women, the woman is to take care of the children. In Daisy’s case she is anything but the mother figure. The maid takes care of Daisy and Tom’s daughter and the child is mentioned in the

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