Gender Stereotypes

How is Gender represented in your TWO prescribed texts and ONE related text? In the texts of ‘The Chrysanthemums’ by John Steinbeck, ‘Folk Hero’ by H.M. Tolcher and ‘Ode to Barbie’ by Romanie Moreton the concept of gender is supported and challenged in a variety of ways. Men are typically portrayed as hard-working, rebellious and fulfilling a job in a male dominated profession. In contrast to this, females are depicted as fragile and emotional, having the role of the housewife. The authors of the following texts have made use of descriptive language, imagery, figurative language and many more to communicate the themes of relationships, betrayal and identity. More so each author represents their perspective of gender, based on stereotypes. In the text of “Folk Hero”, Tolcher perceives the male gender as rebellious and a dangerous thrill seeker, but at some stages possess ambiguous personas. This is present through his male protagonist of M’Gill. M’Gill rebellious attitude is perceptible through descriptive language “A wild one-a real rebel”. M’Gill rebelliousness is further empathized through his infatuation towards seeking dangerous thrills is connoted through the use of imagery, “He was doing figures-of eight on the beach”. This supports the fact that males love the feeling of adrenaline and often do dangerous and erratic stunts. Furthermore M’Gill portrays ambiguous personas, as described by the author he is a rebel but from other perceptions he is described otherwise. His teachers describe him as “a genius” and his friends as “a real great guy at a party”. Tolcher additionally explores the theme ‘identity’ as males often change who they are to become a part of certain groups. It is interpretable that males are complicated creatures and represent different personas.

In the text of ‘The Chrysanthemums’, Steinbeck represents men and women in unlike conflicting ways. The different characters used both support and challenge the representation of gender.