Oppression Of Gender Roles In Gas Girls By Michelle St. Ross

The play Gas Girls by Donna-Michelle St.Bernard and the novel The Painted Girls by Cathy Buchanan have more in common than just the words in their titles. Firstly, both texts share a common setting; lower class slums. This setting is vital to the plot line and character development in each story. In Gas Girls, as the reader learns that young girls Gigi and Lola, protagonists in the play, live in a small, run down town during difficult economic times, the reader is able to better understand that the girls are not choosing to sell themselves for gas, but that it is their only option for money and ultimately survival. In addition, as Gigi’s acceptance of her place in society becomes more prevalent over the course of the play, the reader is able to understand why she is harsher on the Lola’s

In addition, both plots offer escapes from the lower class; however, only Lola chooses to take it. These two texts are also common because of the attributes of the protagonists in relation to stereotypical gender roles. In both sources, Antoinette and Gigi, are defensive about their own actions as they feel as they are being judged by others and they are strong yet nurturing as they both have sickly mothers and younger girls to look after and provide for. Marie and Lola play the submissive and irrational roles as they are presented as naive and learning from their own mistakes and have to suffer the punishment from Antoinette and Gigi. Since Marie and Lola develop most throughout their respective texts, it is evident that they both fail to learn from the wise words and poor decisions of their elders. Marie follows Antoinette’s footsteps nearly identically through the plot of the novel as she leaves the ballet, resolves to prostitution, and ruins her life with poor choices (alcohol rather than crime like