Three Feminists Fighting Oppression for Gender Equalization

The Dinner Party 1979 Judy Chicago

          Early pioneers of feminism, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and Kate Chopin, brought awareness to the oppression of women, igniting social change with their literature written during the realism period. Gilman’s short story, “The Yellow Wallpaper” highlighted mental and physical illness created by the forced role of domestication of women in the Victorian Era through gender socialization. Chopin’s short story, “The Storm” highlighted sexual desire of women, challenging female gender roles of strictly mother and housekeeper. Both short stories were written to pull women out of oppression, and push them towards gender equalization. In the Post-Modern Era, visual feminist artist, Judy Chicago, continues the fight by creating the feminist icon, “The Dinner Party.” The massive sculpture celebrates women throughout history. Their achievements and contributions deserve to be honored, especially in the face of oppression, as Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s character Jane, deals with in “The Yellow Wallpaper.”

Jane, the wife of a physician is diagnosed with a temporary nervous condition. Her husband keeps her in confinement, to rest, while on holiday, in a room with nothing to look at but its yellow wallpaper, eventually driving her to mental breakdown. Jane’s brother is also a physician. Her husband and brother both agree on her condition. Jane says, “Personally, I disagree with their ideas,” (Mays 308). Jane’s opinion about her own health would never be considered during the period she lives. Upper-class women of the Victorian Era were probably experiencing health issues such as, depression, fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome, due to their predetermined gender role which they were born into. They were expected to lead a life of domestication, cooking, cleaning, and to have large families. Their place in society was that of servitude, to ensure that the home was a place of comfort for their family. Jane says, “Personally, I believe that congenial work, with excitement and change, would do me good,” (Mays 308). The drudgery of confinement to a life of domestication made women ill. Socialized gender roles of that time did not permit them to work outside the home and engage in intellectual pursuit. It stopped women from expressing themselves on any intellectual level. Their minds were not allowed to grow, experience and imagine. Jane secretly writes in her journal,” I have a schedule prescription for each hour in the day; he takes all care from me, and so I feel basely ungrateful not to value it more,” (Mays 309). Women of the Victorian Era who were ill from the gender roles they were expected to lead were diagnosed with Neurasthenia, and prescribed the Rest Cure, exactly the opposite of what they needed. Jane writes, “Nobody would believe what an effort it is to do what little I am able,-to dress and entertain, and order things,” (Mays 310). Certainly what Jane is feeling is depression from lack of mental stimulation. Jane also feels guilty because rest does not seem like a punishment to others, but she knows it is, and it is making her sicker, leading to her insanity. Women of that period were silenced; their opinions were not heard because they were oppressed. They started to speak out for equalization. Gilman was part of the first wave of feminists who railed against oppression along with another feminist author, Kate Chopin, who also did, with her short story, “The Storm.”

“The Storm” signifies the oppression of women in their traditional domestic roles, along with their oppression of sexual desire. Chopin writes, “She sat at a side window sewing furiously on a sewing machine. She was greatly occupied and did not notice the approaching storm,” (Chopin 2). Chopin is letting the reader know that Calixta’s life is so laden with domestic chores, that she is not even aware of such an important event happening, such as a storm. The author writes the story in the Realism style of literature, not idealizing, but describing the monotonous life of domestication, that women sought freedom from. The storm itself is a metaphor for the sexual encounter Calixta experiences during her daily routine of mothering, cooking and cleaning. The quote “Her firm, elastic flesh that was knowing for the first time its birthright, was like a creamy lily that the sun invites to contribute its breath and perfume to the undying life of the world,”(Chopin 4), describes sexual oppression. Sexual desire is women’s birthright just as it is men’s, and Chopin makes a statement about sexual oppression when she writes that Calixta knows this for the first time, even though she is older. Chopin ends the story with, “So the storm passed and everyone was happy,” (6). Calixta made a choice, which she as a woman has a right to make, engaging in a sexual encounter and enjoying it, acknowledging women’s sexual desire. I believe she chose this line hoping that one day it would be socially accepted that women would have social freedom to choose life styles equal to men’s, and also, that women would be accepted as equals too, as they are, even in the basic fundamental need for sexual gratification. Gilman and Chopin were radical feminists creating literature that went against society’s accepted roles for women in their time period. In the Post-Modern Era, Judy Chicago, a visual artist, continues the fight of oppression of women with her conceptual feminist art, “The Dinner Party.”

"The Dinner Party,” honors 1038 women and brings awareness to their forgotten history. The tremendous permanent triangular in shape (a symbol of equality) installation is housed in the educational Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art in the Brooklyn Museum. Thirteen place settings on each side of the table are symbolic of Leonardo da Vinci’s, male dominated painting, “The Last Supper.” Thirty-nine settings have vibrantly painted porcelain plates with raised central motifs of vulva and butterfly forms, gold embroidered runners with the names of the women honored. On the “Heritage Floor” in the center another 999 names are painted in gold on white tiles. As viewers walk around the iconic sculpture, they wonder why some of the names on the floor did not get a more prominent spot on the table, and they experience a feeling of unfairness. This experience is appropriate for an artistic piece dealing with centuries of oppression. The perfection of the place settings and the silence at the table, opposed to the merriment of a real dinner party is symbolic of the tragedy of feminist history lost.

The oppression of women continues today. Socialization of gender roles dictates that women should still be the prime caretakers of children and responsible for housework. Even though they work outside of the home, they continue to do the housework and childcare, leaving little free time making women stressed and unhealthy. Ironically, the need for dual-incomes has helped women gain freedom to pursue intellectual, fulfilling work, but the burden of domestic responsibility is still unfairly theirs. Entitlement of sexual pleasure continues to be one sided in our society. When women express their fundamental need for sexual desire equal to men’s, they are labeled unfairly. Oppression is so ingrained that women themselves feel guilt for not enthusiastically accepting their gender role. Even though literature is a product of the time period it was written, the work of Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and Kate Chopin, and the artwork of Judy Chicago is still so relevant today, and gives us strength to strive for an equalitarian world.