Gender Roles and Power in Myra Breckinridge by Gore Vidal The Sexual Revolution of the Sixties was a breath of fresh air for marginalized people. It did for the genders what people like Achebe, Mandela and Luther King Jr. had been trying to do for racial discrimination for years; reversed and broke down the familiar binaries and introduced the ‘in-betweens’ into the midst. Vidal, who had by now established himself as a force to be reckoned with in both literary circles and the film industry, churned out Myra in 1968. In the book, Vidal satirically contemplates the assigned gender roles of men and women and this paper seeks to find out, in the light of the Gender and Queer Theory, how power associated with masculinity and the divide between
…show more content…
One can argue here that perhaps it is a schizophrenic Myron but Myra possesses a healthy feminine body and describes herself as having full breasts and creamy legs. It can be established that Myra is a transgender Myron. The concept of in-betweens in the Sixties fascinated a lot of writers and since people had already begun opening up to other socially deterrent behaviors like homosexuality courtesy of the Beat Generation and the likes of Andy Warhol, the idea of a third category in the predominant two genders was an enrapturing one. Myra also, aside from being the perfect embodiment of the Ibsenian New Woman, has a definite purpose in life: to destroy ‘manhood’ and ‘realign the sexes, thus increasing human happiness and preparing humanity for its next stage’ (Vidal 32). Vidal, through Myra Breckinridge, tells us that there is no ‘manhood’. It is not ‘balling chicks’ as Rusty puts it or being a good circumcised Jew as Dr. Montag puts forward. There actually is no manhood, and similarly there is no womanhood, only in-betweens that both stray into from time to time, sometimes taking on the features of what society deems a man and sometimes wearing the mantle of what is called a woman. So basically what Vidal is doing is deconstructing the society founded on logocentrism, binaries and opposites (Saussure), breaking it down to blurred lines and lots of grey …show more content…
He had also published a detailed paper on the derrieres of famous cowboys which had resulted in his whole family thinking he was gay. He was as Myra explains, misunderstood because even though he was attracted to men, particularly famous actors like Clark Gable, he also admired women, a case in point being his absolute adoration of Lana Turner. When he reemerges as Myra, he is still attracted to men but also takes a shine to Mary-Ann, musing at one point in the book that she would even sleep with a woman. This shows a very blurred line between the prevalent sexual orientations. Indeed, it had taken the world hundreds of years to get somewhat used to homosexuality. With the emergence of an entirely new orientation or its lack thereof, people were faced with confusion and that is clearly reflected in the book. Butler suggests that gender and therefore sexual orientation, is a conscious performance, reinforced through repetition. Tongue-in-cheek humor that reinforces stereotypes is one way to do this, calling it unnatural and therefore against God’s will is
One can argue here that perhaps it is a schizophrenic Myron but Myra possesses a healthy feminine body and describes herself as having full breasts and creamy legs. It can be established that Myra is a transgender Myron. The concept of in-betweens in the Sixties fascinated a lot of writers and since people had already begun opening up to other socially deterrent behaviors like homosexuality courtesy of the Beat Generation and the likes of Andy Warhol, the idea of a third category in the predominant two genders was an enrapturing one. Myra also, aside from being the perfect embodiment of the Ibsenian New Woman, has a definite purpose in life: to destroy ‘manhood’ and ‘realign the sexes, thus increasing human happiness and preparing humanity for its next stage’ (Vidal 32). Vidal, through Myra Breckinridge, tells us that there is no ‘manhood’. It is not ‘balling chicks’ as Rusty puts it or being a good circumcised Jew as Dr. Montag puts forward. There actually is no manhood, and similarly there is no womanhood, only in-betweens that both stray into from time to time, sometimes taking on the features of what society deems a man and sometimes wearing the mantle of what is called a woman. So basically what Vidal is doing is deconstructing the society founded on logocentrism, binaries and opposites (Saussure), breaking it down to blurred lines and lots of grey …show more content…
He had also published a detailed paper on the derrieres of famous cowboys which had resulted in his whole family thinking he was gay. He was as Myra explains, misunderstood because even though he was attracted to men, particularly famous actors like Clark Gable, he also admired women, a case in point being his absolute adoration of Lana Turner. When he reemerges as Myra, he is still attracted to men but also takes a shine to Mary-Ann, musing at one point in the book that she would even sleep with a woman. This shows a very blurred line between the prevalent sexual orientations. Indeed, it had taken the world hundreds of years to get somewhat used to homosexuality. With the emergence of an entirely new orientation or its lack thereof, people were faced with confusion and that is clearly reflected in the book. Butler suggests that gender and therefore sexual orientation, is a conscious performance, reinforced through repetition. Tongue-in-cheek humor that reinforces stereotypes is one way to do this, calling it unnatural and therefore against God’s will is