Cuckoo's Nest Gender Roles

The conflict between the two main character's Nurse Ratched and McMurphy serves as a bridge for the overarching theme of sexuality. Or to be more specific the battle of sexuality. In the book the two main characters represent both sides of the spectrum when it comes to sexuality concerning genders. Nurse Ratched represents feminism and McMurphy represents masculinity. With the two conflicting views of how the character’s believe the institution for the mentally ill should be run you can see more of the juxtaposition between the two. Nurse Ratched who ruled with an iron handed fist to keep her distance away from the patients of the ward and establish her role of a women in power in the institution. This from the beginning of the book sets a

Gender stereotypes have been around for hundreds of years and still are today. The stereotypes for women are strict in regards to jobs and homelife, behavior, and even attire. They keep a firm hold on women 's daily life, so whenever women get the opportunity for power, they will take it. Ken Kesey’s novel, One Flew Over the Cuckoo 's Nest, strongly features the stereotypes of women and, adversely, women in power; Kesey displays his opinion that women in power will abuse their status to manipulate men.

In Angela Carter’s “The Company of Wolves” the wolves are perceived as dangerous and aggressive creatures posing threat to humans. In small villages, the children are given weapons just to protect themselves from the evil wolves. However, in Angela Carter’s story, a male can turn into a wolf. This undermines the binary oppositions for Carter’s story. Aaron Devor states in “Gender Roles Behaviors and Attitudes”, how the females are dependent and how the males are independent and much more aggressive. Devor even shows us how the gender stereotypes are divided among today’s society. There are many examples of gender stereotypes in Carter’s story that go hand in hand with Devor’s statements. In Carter’s texts, there are examples of how the males act in a feminine way and how the females act in a masculine way.

Throughout history the portrayal of gender roles have been maintained by a specific standard, specifically where the man is the main figure, and the woman is the submissive figure that is being acted upon. However, lately, specifically the last ten or so years, many movies have shifted this ideology. These movies in modern times show increasingly more women in positions of power, as well as in marriages where there is an equal amount of power between both the husband and wife. There are also more movies showcasing non-traditional relationships, such as, domestic partnerships and LGBTQ+ relationships. One movie in particular that showcases a shift in the status quo, in terms of the masculinity and femininity expected from individuals especially that of a relationships, is Tyler Perry’s Why Did I Get Married? Before delving into why this movie goes against the status quo an a multitude of levels, I must first give some background to the movie.

In comparison to the movie, the play undermines male dominance by focusing on women’s efforts to solve their own problems. First of all, there aren’t even men in the cast of the play,

1. In the novel, women are portrayed as mean and feared beings. They are somewhat compared to as evil monsters. An example of this in the passage is on pages 4 and 5. It says, “They sense she’s glaring down at them now, but its too late. They should’ve known better...” This shows the fear the men have after being caught by Nurse Ratched. They are scared by her and fear her actions. Another example of this is on pages 4 and 5, is “She’s going to tear the black bastards limb from limb, she’s so furious. She’s swelling up, swells till her back’s splitting out the white uniform and she’s let her arms section out long enough to wrap around the three of them five, six times. She looks around her with a swivel of her huge head.” This shows the fear

There are two extremes of one “whore-ish” and the other cruel that do not give room for a positive interpretation of women. The one woman who is given a softer role is not given enough time to be a true character to really matter in the representation of Women. Kesey does not represent the women in a good way because these men have basically been ruined by women, and that is the underlying reason that Kesey gives them poor characteristics. Many of the characters seem to have problems with the women in their lives be it Ratched, their wife, mothers, or other women in power, which leads to the point Kesey is trying to make with portraying women this way. The changing culture of women obviously frightens men because they have never been used to women being so powerful or so open with thier sexuallity and all they would like in this blossoming era of the 60’s is to go back to the ideal and perfect

Cultural theories by Kathleen Rowe, Laura Mulvey and Stuart Hall can help the audience seek an explanation to how these stereotypical gender roles are portrayed in the movie and how it can create power for the specific

The characters in the play reveal some of the gender stereotypes through the way they are presented in the beginning of the play, “The sheriff and Hale are men in the middle life…They are followed

Women in the 1950s were dealing with a lot of things during the 1950s. They were dealing with sexism and not being allowed to seek more than the ideal fulfillment for women.

The Help is set in Jackson, Mississippi during the 1960s. Skeeter, a southern society girl, interviews the black women who have spent their lives being servants for wealthy white Southern families. There are various scenes throughout the film that show social stratification, racial inequalities, gender inequalities, and class inequalities.

Men and Women have always played different roles, going back to the creation of the world. The roles couldn’t be any more different. In “The Night of The Living Dead”, those portrayals was on display. George A. Romero’s film hinted at subtle references to the roles of Men and Women and exemplify the stereotypes America held during that time. While the men were the protectors and enforcers, the women on the other hand, were the quite opposite. Romero’s film portrays the cast, women and men alike, in their stereotypical behaviors.

In this novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald, feminists question the treatment the women in book receive by the men. An example of this is when the author writes, “Benny McClenahan arrived always with four girls. They were never quite the same in physical personal, but they were so identical one with another that it inevitably seemed they had been there before” (p.63). This quotes shows the way women were treated in the society of the 1920’s, this was the time in which women started changing their behaviour

A main theme in Ken Keesey’s One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest is rebellion. In the book, rebellious actions by the main character, Randle Patrick McMurphy, representing the carnival side of society, goes against the Big Nurse who represent the strict chains of society. However, what I find ironic is the fact that a woman, in fact the most feminine character in the book, is the enemy or the oppressor. During the 1950’s this was the complete opposite. The feminist movement hadn’t taken a prominent standing yet and men were in power. Women were viewed through the male gaze. So why did Keesey portray the men as being controlled? I believe that he wanted his book to show off all of the social unjust during his period but decided to put a spin on

“The Little Rascals” film is a comedy that was released on August 5th ,1994 by Universal Pictures and produced by Amblin Entertainment. The Little Rascals is a more modified version of the “Our Gang” short film that was written by Hal Roach. It consisted of a number of well known actors such as: Raven-Symone, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, and Whoopi Goldberg. Although the movies can be seen as a comedy for children and adults, it also has some subliminal messages. Being a young woman in America it is quite hard for me to accept the depiction of the women’s role that is being used throughout the film. Stereotypes and a false representation of characterization are both used throughout the film about the role that women play in society.