Women
are changing the way novels are written. Though it is happening
slowly, the change is certain. Earlier in fiction the role of the
woman has always been to be a mirror to the man, the hero of the
story, to reflect his qualities and reinforce his masculinity. This
has been the norm from old fairy tales to modern sci-fi. This role
started to change, however, due to a few brave women in the late 19th
and early 20th centuries who had the courage to start
challenging the masculine way of portraying women as the “weaker
sex” who had no opinions and basically no lives of their own.
Thanks to these female authors the language and structure of the
novels themselves are becoming more politically correct towards all
types of women. Now the fictional women are starting to have a voice
of their own, and through that real women also gain a voice of their
own. This essay will discuss some of the historical changes of
literature written by and about women. It
is clear that the author's gender affects the style in which
women are talked about. Lastly the essay will discuss the female
authors who write specifically about queer women and how the
portrayal of different sexualities have become more realistic and
less offensive.
In The
Madwoman in the Attic (1984: 47), Gilbert and Gubar state that
the literature of the 19th century and earlier was
strictly patriarchal. They claimed (1984: 47) that if a woman chose
to have her writings published, she usually forfeited her femininity.
Women were supposed to stay at home, both physically and socially;
that was their place, they should have nothing to do with the
publicity which came with the profession of an author. In order to be
taken seriously most women chose to write under a male pseudonym. Of
course, the ways in which women were portrayed were also rather one
sided – because there was only the male opinion of what a woman
should or should not be. Gilbert and Gubar (1984: 53) maintain that
in Victorian fiction written by men, women were depicted as either an
angel or a monster. The angel was the princess of the story; pure and
innocent and quiet. She had no opinions of her own and she only did
what she was told to. An example of this is Rose Maylie from Oliver
Twist by Charles Dickens. This kind of woman was the epitome of
femininity, and usually unattainable for the man. In the 19th
century this was the only politically correct portrayal of a woman; a
mother or a virgin. The other kind of woman – the monster – was
active, opinionated and had a life of her own. She was not afraid of
men and she wanted her voice to be heard. Usually these kinds of
women were also more sexually liberated and were considered to be
evil and dangerous. Examples of these types of women from Dickens'
books are Mrs Mann, again from Oliver Twist, and Fanny Squeers
from Nicholas Nickleby. No woman in fiction could be both,
they had to be one or the other, as that was the way women were
thought to be in the 19th century.
Observation
shows that, unfortunately, these two stereotypes have seemed to
survive to this day in male writing, especially in genres such as
sci-fi and fantasy, where it is easy to retreat back into a medieval
society type where women were subservient to men. Female writers tend
to stay away from these stereotypes, creating more rounded female
characters who have all the characteristics women actually have.
Female writers do not portray only one aspect of a woman, for
example, a mother, a lover or a witch, but they portray a woman who
can be all of these and usually at the same time, thus affecting the
way women are treated and talked about in real life. A good example
of an independent, strong female character is Charlotte Brontë's
Jane Eyre, who follows her own heart, makes up her own mind and still
gets what she wants in the end. In addition, she is not punished for
any of her strong attributes. From this point on the treatment of
women in literature began to change to be more politically correct
towards women. From Charlotte Brontë all the way to Ursula Le Guin,
an active 20th century author, women writers have
continued to write strong female characters. Currently, authors are
being pressured to portray more realistic characters because of the
conscious changes some authors, both men and women, are making in
their characters.
Similarly
to the history of female authorship and female characters, the
history of the queer women in literature – both authors and
portrayal of such characters – went through a swift change in the
later part of the 20th century. Grier (1994. 17) states in
her references to lesbian literature that, although the history of
female authorship is already a few hundreds of years long, the
creation, or at least active documentation, of lesbian literature
started only in the 1950s. At first all lesbian literature was
clumped together; the works that were so called “trash” and the
more serious literature written by authors of high repute (Gay &
Lesbian Literature. 1994: 17). Later, when homosexuality became more
widely accepted and it was more politically correct to talk about
sexuality, various types of lesbian literature were differentiated.
The more respectable ones were separated from pornographic materials.
According to Grier (1994: 17), in the mid-1960s a clear distinction
was made between the books written by women to women and those which
were lesbian themed books written by men to other men. Also in the
60s there was a prominent surge of literature written about sexual
minorities which no longer portrayed lesbians or gay men as either
comical sidekicks, sick or mentally ill. According to Plummer (1995:
86), the stories were still tragic, usually cautionary tales, warning
young men and women about “going gay”. However this, too, changed
rather quickly, as gay people started to write stories themselves.
Already in the 1980s the stories were more about celebrating the
differences in the society. Only this kind of activity of individuals
from the sub-culture that is being talked about will and can change
the language. Plummer (1995: 86) suggests that the small personal
experience of “coming out” became a major cultural form at that
time. Political correctness is born out of the willingness of
individuals to talk about their differences; the activity of a few
individuals can change how the society sees certain things.
Plummer
(1995: 87) suggests that there has to be an audience for the stories,
and for the audience to exist there has to be stories . This change
from ridiculing and offending sexual minorities to celebrating
differences in society happened very quickly, and it is still
happening. At the moment there is more diversity in literature than
ever and it is bound to continue to diverge more as people start
writing and talking about things that formerly had to be hidden and
kept secret. It might be concluded from all this that it is indeed
true that women writers are actively changing the ways novels are
written and the ways women are talked about. Fictional women are no
longer just a mirror to the man, but they have a voice of their own,
their own goals and their own aspirations. Although there is still a
long way to go to the realistic portrayal of women, the changes that
have already happened are promising a brighter future. The picture of
gay women has probably changed most of all, as in recent years it is
more acceptable to be different from the so called norm of
heterosexuality and the traditional view of women.
Sources:
Gilbert,
S.M. and Gubar S. 1984. The Madwoman in the Attic. New Haven
and London: Yale University Press
Plummer,
K. 1995. Telling Sexual Stories. London and New York:
Routledge
Grier,
B. G. "Introduction to Lesbian Literature." Ed.
Malinowski, S. 1994. Gay & Lesbian Literature. Detroit and
London: St James Press
