Gender Roles In The Fountain Head

Gender Roles in “The Fountain Head” as Affected by the Socioeconomic Gap Amongst People For hundreds of years, western civilization has exclusively recognized the existence of two genders, with each being associated with a primary sexual state of being. Arguably the most relevant influence these binary categories exert onto people are gender roles. These roles dictate what we should and can do in society. Just like in real life, gender roles can be applied a myriad of fictitious realities. Congruent to the concept of gender roles is the idea of socioeconomic status. Despite the fact that the wealth of a person is an objective fact, how someone’s wealth affects their social significance changes according to the culture of the society. Even
His journey of financial change in New York City takes him to working hard jobs amongst the average, to extravagant dinner parties with the wealthy. In the former setting the opinions on the gender binary are explicitly expressed. “"Good-looking! Are you being funny, Dominique?" Kiki Holcombe saw Dominique being stupidly puzzled for once. And Dominique realized that what she saw in his face, what made it the face of a god to her, was not seen by others; that it could leave them indifferent; that what she had thought to be the most obvious, inconsequential remark was, instead, a confession of something within her, some quality not shared by others. "Why, my dear," said Kiki, "he's not good-looking at all, but extremely masculine.” (Rand 193). This excerpt from the text conveys how physical attractiveness, a universally respected trait, is negated by Howard’s masculinity, presumably due to its association with blue-collar professions and antiquated values. Therefore, masculinity is deemed
It is common knowledge that she is a strong believer in objectivism, and that perception of objective reality can easily be corrupted and prevented by preoccupation with arbitrary social rules. She also values self-sufficiency and independence above all else. By knowing this minute amount of background knowledge, the reader can infer that Ayn Rand probably has some opinions about gender. This assumption would be accurate. I an article by Reisel Gladstein called “Rands Gender politics” he outlines her opinions on feminism and gender roles in general. “Notwithstanding the many ways Rand is relevant to feminism, the combination is sometimes troublesome, presenting a cognitive dissonance noted in my College English article’s title: “Ayn Rand and Feminism: An Unlikely Alliance.” How can it be that the author who creates a Dagny Taggart, who runs a railroad and won’t back down to any man, would later say “A woman cannot reasonably want to be Commander-in-Chief ” (Rand 1979)? Speaking on the Phil Donohue show, Rand responded to an audience question about what she would do if a woman were running for president: “I wouldn’t vote for her.” She continued with her opinion that thinking about a woman as commander in chief of the army was “unspeakable.” And while Rand did not reject the idea