Their Eyes Were Watching God By Zora Neale Hurston

Society has progressed a lot with gender roles since the early-mid 1900s. Being a pretty mixed-race woman, Janie Crawford was seen as all beauty, no brains, and she was thought to be incapable of many things by her first and second husbands, Logan Killicks and Joe Starks. While telling the story of a woman trying to find love, Zora Neale Hurston goes into depth about the gender roles in that society. Although much has changed in society since she wrote Their Eyes Were Watching God, those gender roles are still prevalent in society today. Women have always been seen as being less knowledgeable than men. Joe Starks claims that his wife Janie “..don’t know nothin’ ‘bout no speech-makin” and that “her place is in de home” (Hurston 43). Society

Women are seen as incapable of fulfilling some duties without the help of men. A man trying to get with Janie after her husband passes claims that “God never meant ‘em tuh try tuh stand by theirselves” and that they needed “aid and assistance” (Hurston 90). After the death of her husband, every man around told her that she needed a man and that she could not live without one. Andry Shastri claims that “...biologically both are having different roles and some major responsibilities which they have to fulfill. Physically a female role is to look after the house, children, family, relatives, and on the other hand men are made for bread earners, for hardship and for struggle for earning” (Shastri 27). The role of the traditional housewife was very prominent in the 30s compared to the more gender-neutral roles in the household of today. Although a lot of people are beginning to mix gender roles and make certain jobs gender-neutral, the typical model of a traditional family is still expected out of many

After beating Janie, Tea Cake is talking to Sop-de-Bottom, a man who expresses his want to beat on a submissive woman like Janie, unlike his wife who would fight back. Sop-de-Bottom claims that “...dese ol’ rusty black women…would fight yuh all night long … Dat’s de reason Ah done quit beatin’ mah woman. You can’t make no mark on ‘em … Ah love tuh whip uh tender woman lak Janie. Ah bet she don’t even holler. She jus’ cries, eh, Tea Cake?” (Hurston 147). Hurston writes about Sop-de-Bottom fantasizing about beating a submissive woman and even how he resents his wife because he feels like he doesn’t get anything out of beating her. Hurston recognized how out of balance the expectations were for men and women. Men get to tell their women what to do, and they get to beat them if they are disobedient. Judith Lorber says that men are leaders while women follow. Lorber claims that “Men are the actors, women the reactors. Men thus are the first sex, women always the second sex. Men's dominance and women's subordination is not a biological phenomenon… but a social creation” (Lorber 3). He acknowledges that men are put first while women are below them. As generations progress, misogynistic men pass on their views to their sons. They then almost always take these views and incorporate them into their lives. This is a dynamic shown