Once again Larry at The Daily Mirror dug up something interesting from the L.A. Times archives. It’s a 1969 article about–gasp!–a female ranch hand. What’s fascinating is the way that, while discussing how she does things that aren’t traditionally considered female, the reporter describes her in ways that emphasize her femininity so we know she’s not completely un-womanly.
She’s as cute as all get-out and as strong as a heifer. She’s the only female ranch-hand (“don’t call me a cowgirl, it’s a dude term”)…
…”I was never quite like all the other little girls.” Beverly always wanted to be a cowboy–always wore bluejeans to school…
But she also succeeded in remaining ultrafeminine in an impish sort of way…She bemoans the fact that she has to keep her hair trimmed to a maximum of two inchles all over her head…
And:
Text:
“I enjoy working,” she said. “I don’t whine or cry when there is a lot to do. I love my job.” For this she is known as “comadrie,” meaning little mother…”
She’s also described as “coy”:
But to the likely relief of many readers, she goes on to say that probably she eventually will get married. Reading the entire article, I can’t help but suspect that’s more out of a sense that you have to than a real desire on her part. She kind of reminds me of my grandma, who I think got married and had kids mostly because what else could a woman do? I suspect if she’d been able to get a job as a ranch hand, she would have happily done that instead.
And while they don’t call her a “cowgirl,” this title from the second page of the article might not be what she was hoping for instead:
Now, if this was just an historical curiosity, I wouldn’t have posted it. But the thing is, we still see this type of emphasis on the femininity of women who succeed at things we consider “men’s work.” For instance, see this post on WNBA player Candace Parker, or Lisa’s post about Caster Semenya. Or even just compare the uniforms of male and female athletes. We’re more comfortable with women who break some gender rules as long as they maintain their femininity by following other rules.
Gwen Sharp is an associate professor of sociology at Nevada State College. You can follow her on Twitter at @gwensharpnv.
Comments 7
Village Idiot — September 13, 2009
In 1937 it was proven that women also have ideas. There was an article called Proving Women Also Have Ideas in the 1937 issue of Modern Mechanix.
http://blog.modernmechanix.com/2007/10/16/proving-women-also-have-ideas/
Fortunately, in 1953 Cosmopolitan recognized the difficulties that women having ideas can cause themselves, so they came to the rescue with this article called Her Brains Didn't Get in Her Way. Granted, the article was about working in Hollywood so the concept of intelligence as a stumbling block does have some merit (even to this day).
Anyway, I thought the quote below was an interesting thing to say in 1953, and not a sentiment likely to be seen in print very often at the time. It appears she almost let her brains get in her way (of her career, anyway)!
From the Cosmopolitan article:
When she was introduced at the Dutch Treat Club, a luncheon group of New York business and professional men, as “a young lady who thinks like a man.” she took umbrage. “The greatest compliment a man can pay a woman.” she remarked, “is to say that she thinks like a man. But I think that maybe it isn’t such a great compliment, when I look around at the state of the world and consider that men made it that way by thinking like men.”
http://blog.modernmechanix.com/2009/06/30/her-brains-didnt-get-in-her-way/
BG — September 13, 2009
I've noticed that too. Women who transcend gender roles in some ways also have to show that they are feminine in other areas to still be acceptable. I've noticed those things about female athletes, myself.
june quest — September 13, 2009
“Nobody objects to a woman being a good writer or sculptor or geneticist if at the same time she manages to be a good wife, good mother, good looking, good tempered, well groomed and unaggressive." --Leslie McIntyre
MC — September 14, 2009
You know, I keep leaving these obnoxious comments here which annoy even myself, because of the fact that I obviously agree with all the statements about feminity and roll my eyes just as hard at the media needing to underline the "feminity" of women who succeed at "masculine" things -- but I always need to stick up for myself and be all reactionary and try to start talking about how much less comfortable we are with ambiguity. We can point out that the media/public/society is "more comfortable with women who break some gender rules as long as they maintain their femininity by following other rules" -- but here in all our feminist/queer analyses, aren't we more comfortable with women who are breaking ALL the gender rules, and aren't we assuming that the remaining "femininity" is a.) negative and b.) enforced and projected by society?
Say Barbara here DID actually genuinely enjoy, feel comfortable, and feel emotionally and socially satisfied with the aspects of feminity mentioned here? That's so much less comfortable for us to talk about here. While the observations made here ARE absolutely correct -- clearly the bit about marriage and all the sexualized pixie-ish descriptions are gross, and a lot of the article's spin is obviously worth discussing in that frame. But our criticism to some extent still cater to the frustrating gender/sexuality binary: if a woman does something "manly", oooobviously any "femininity" she retains is projected by an intimidated patriarchal media trying to marginalize her or she's been "brainwashed" by society. What's so offensive about a cowgirl who also loves baking bread?
Christina M. — September 14, 2009
In a recent article in National Geographic about cavers, a female "master caver" is described as: "Small as a child but strong as a miner, with big doe eyes that belie a will as unbendable as angle iron, she slithers through the Sphincter easy as a snake." And: "Bobo, five feet four and 102 pounds, won the 'squeeze box' competition in her age and weight class three years in a row.'"
A male caver is described as: "loose-jointed, long, and lean, with skin so white you'd think he had spent his entire life underground."
Small as a child with big doe eyes. Nice. I can't see NG equating a small man to a child. Aargh.