Sexism In As I Lay Dying

Sex can be defined in several ways by using music, art, or literature. It can be considered a pleasure feeling or a horrific experience. Sex is either peoples’ job, experiment, one-night stand, or that special moment with a special someone. If that is the case, then why is sex mostly about women and defining who they are rather than men? This action about sex towards women occurred in the nineteen century and even today. Sex can great and wonderful, but it should not have to be sexist. Remember that it takes two to tango for a baby to be made. In the play, Six Characters in Search of an Author, by Luigi Pirandello, the author made the stepdaughter a prostitute and the father one of her clients before he married her step-mother. The

Women were considered to be weak, also were ordered to stay home and become a housewife. Yet, it is interesting how the author made the only daughter in the family become an easy target for men to have sex with. Dewey Dell said, “And we picked on toward the secret shade and our eyes would drown together touching his hands and my hands and I didn’t say anything. I said ‘What are you doing?’ and he said ‘I am picking into your sack.’ And so it was full when we came to the end of the row and I could not help it.’” (27). In this scene of the book where Dewey Dell was with Lafe and he made a move on her and her “sack” that led both of them having sex, at first Dewey Dell knew what Lafe was hinting at her, whether she agreed or did not agree with his action, she did not have the voice to speak up. When she found out she was pregnant, she was ashamed. Her family were Christians, and believed that if women had a wedlock, it was considered a sin to them. Readers can assumed by Lafe’s absent in the entire story that he did not want to anything do with Dewey Dell or the baby, Dewey Dell knew it was a sin to get an abortion. Although, she may have wanted to keep the baby, she had to follow what Lafe wanted because men had more power than women during the late nineteenth century. Women were looked down upon if they

Tran is a college student at Portland University, she focuses on two books that shows how society portray gender and sexuality. In her essay, Tran explains about one of the book, which is Abandon your Tedious Search by Kate Bornstein. Bornstein was born as a but, male but decided that living as a male was not the right lifestyle for her, so she became a female. Tran mentions that Bornstein was reciting eight golden rules of the genders to the readers from Studies in Ethnomethodology and was mocking it as she gave her opinion on those rules. Tran said, “Rule six, everyone must be classified as a member of one gender or another (Bornstein 49). Everyone is assigned a gender role. There are no exceptions, if you are born a certain way; you are to behave as that certain someone. This means that you are expected to match your gender with your sex.” Is that why the stepdaughter was considered to be a prostitute in Six Characters? Due to the time period that the story grasp in, women was staying home as a housewife or accepting the lowest paying professions. Yet, this would connect to why Dewey Dell in As I Lay Dying, the only daughter in the Burden’s family, was expected to stay home and take care of her ill mother as her father and brothers were out working. The ability of what an individual can or cannot do is not based on their performance, but based on their sexuality. Tran also adds in the second book