Judith Fetterly, in her book “The resisting reader” published in 1978 used the word “immasculation,” to refer to the process of “teaching women […] a male perspective and to accept a system male values as legitimate and normal” (3). The narrators are immasculated in Alice Munro’s short story “Boys and Girls,” and Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper.” Munro says that the unnamed speaker, a young girl who enjoys working outdoors with men rather than cooking in a “hot, dark kitchen” ( ) with her mother would not become a gendered woman if it were not for her acceptance of her femininity and her embracement of femininity. Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” is a unreliable narration which conveys gender oppression through “[the protagonist’s] well meaning but insensitive spouse” (Martin 736). Munro and Gilman both have narrators who defy conventional gender roles. The girl’s tale is a symbol of growth, and includes a rites of passage. Meanwhile, the oppressed woman’s quest for meaning and independence comes despite mental decline.
Munro portrays her protagonist as impressionable but also deferential towards her patriarchal dad. She views her father as superior to her mother, both in terms of their gender roles and work that is “ritualistically significant”: “I thought my mother was not supposed to be here. And I wanted him to feel like me” (Munro 4) She is primarily adamant about her admiration and respect of her father, and his difficult and important job. She “rakes furiously, red-faced with pleasure” as her father introduces to a feed seller his “newly hired hand”. The salesman replies jokingly “‘Could’ve fooled you’ […]’I thought she was only a woman'” (Munro, 3). The narrator, for the most part, ignores the gender stereotypes of a girl her age. She is happy to work as the assistant of a fox-farmer. Munro reveals that the girl is also resentful of her mother who wants to “use” her more at home. Mack, the horse, is described as being “slow and easy-to-handle,” whereas Flora, the mare, is unruly and more spontaneous. However, her family loves Flora’s speed and high stepping. She realizes that she is not a typical girl in the eleventh and winter after the horses arrive. She and her brother Laird find a place to watch the shooting from when they learn of Mack’s impending death. After the shooting, her legs were shaky. She was grateful that she had been able to witness it from this vantage point. This state of disquiet is in sharp contrast to Laird and her father, both of whom shot the horses in an “easy way” (Munro 6). As she looks back at the shooting, she feels shame. She also begins to see her father with “a new skepticism” (Munro 6,). She unknowingly throws open the gates to the farm during the botched shootout of Flora. The girl is now “trying [to] make [her] room fancy” as well as “concern[ing] [herself] at great length” with how [she] looks (Munro, 7). Munro instills feminine ideologies to the speaker by making it appear that Flora’s temporary freedom represents the girl’s transition from a young girl into an archetypal role.
Gilman invents a character, whose husband John is a controlling figure. This isolates her from “society or stimulus.” John’s oppressive, dominating ways are not apparent to the narrator: “John laughs with me, as one would expect from a husband” (Gilman). She is forced into obeying his orders by the fact that he’s “a highly respected physician and [her] very own husband” (Gilman 1; Gilman 1). John “forbids” her from moving without his permission, as she wants “less opposition but more stimulation and society.” She is initially unhappy with John’s ideas. This blindness to what is in essence a man oppressing his wife shows her immaturity.
Gradually, her mind begins to spiral into a psychosis. She becomes increasingly depressed as she is forced to live in a bland, solitary environment. Eventually, the yellow patterns on the walls become “repellent”, and the woman sees an apparition of herself. She describes the bars […] as being too strong for her to jump, creating a prison like atmosphere. In spite of her insanity the woman manages to achieve a sense of freedom. She continues to lose her mind as she stares at the woman on the wallpaper. John, who is primarily responsible for the state of his wife’s mind, comes to check on her. He faints upon seeing the wallpaper torn and his wife “creeping[ing] smooth[ly] on the floor”(Gilman 15). Gilman’s 16th paragraph demonstrates women’s freedom and exclaims that “you cannot put me back” after they have finally escaped oppression. Gilman, in her last line, conveys the same sense of accomplishment and progress for the narrator. She “had to crawl over [her collapsed father] every single time!” (16).
The gender ideologies are referenced in either short story: “Boys and Girls”, which details a young girl’s transition from masculine to feminine, and “The Yellow Wallpaper”, which deals with the oppression of women and their rights. The two short stories have a gender ideology running through them: “Boys and Girls,” a story about transforming a girl into feminism, and “The Yellow Wallpaper,” a tale of oppression and the rights of women.
