The differences in societal and cultural expectations between men and women are often vast and complicated, and change greatly over time. Literature is a fantastic avenue by which to explore these issues, and the effects they have on women in particular (as women have historically enjoyed fewer rights and agency than men). Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” and Charles Burns’ graphic novel Black Hole, while telling different stories, both have significant things to say regarding how girls and women are socialized into conforming to certain social norms that may not be in their best interests, thus dehumanizing them in many intriguing ways. Both the unnamed narrator of “The Yellow Wallpaper” and Chris in Black Hole experience dehumanization from a specifically woman-centric perspective, as well as the ways in which they assert themselves as strong woman and humanize themselves in the process.
Gender is a fundamental component in the dehumanizing aspect of the narrator in “The Yellow Wallpaper.” The primary dynamic in the story is between the narrator, a young woman, and her husband John, a doctor who attempts to cure her post-partum depression with a trip to an isolated summer home. His idea is a rest-cure, in which a woman is isolated from any kind of stimulation in order to help her heal from her ‘melancholia.’ This illness is specifically gendered, as is their relationship, as the man is painted as the expert who asserts he knows better than she does about her own health. This is incredibly dehumanizing, as is the slow and agonizing process by which she loses her mind through spending so much time by herself. As a woman, she is not encouraged to think for herself: “I sometimes fancy that in my condition if I had less opposition and more society and stimulus – but Jon says the very worst thing I can do is to think about my condition, and I confess it always makes me feel bad” (Gilman, p. 3).
However, over the course of her story, she gains the will to overcome her male oppressor by finding a sort of solidarity in the image of a woman she begins seeing in the yellow wallpaper that surrounds her bedroom. At the end of the story, she fully succumbs to her insanity, shouting at her husband, “I’ve got out at lastin spite of you and Jane. And I’ve pulled off most of the paper, so you can’t put me back!” (p. 36). On the surface, she has fallen victim to the dehumanization of her male counterpart, but in a more transcendent way she has overcome the societal constraints that put him in a position of power over her in the first place, thus humanizing her.
In much the same way as Gilman’s narrator is judged and effectively punished for her womanhood, many elements of the girls’ dehumanization in Black Hole relate closely to their gender. While the story’s main themes relate more closely to youth sexuality of both genders, and the AIDS epidemic, the treatment of young female sexuality through Chris and Eliza is explicitly gendered as well. Her sexuality leads to deformities that make her undesirable in normal society, much in the same way as young girls who are sexually active are derided as ‘sluts’ and ‘whores.’ Furthermore, Chris and Eliza (as the girls who are infected) have an additional stigma placed on them that the male victims of the disease do not have – the visible nature of the big makes them seem ‘easy’ and available for sex. Keith’s sex with Eliza, for instance, is treated as a goal he needs to meet (losing his virginity) rather than forming an intimate connection with Eliza.
Chris and Eliza are explicitly shown to have a much different perception and set of expectations surrounding them of sex than the men do, showing them more as commodities to be won. However, over the course of the book, both Chris and Eliza find ways to assert their humanity, with Eliza reconciling with Keith on her own terms and Chris finding ways to move on in her life without Rob. Instead of being sexualized and fetishized, both women find ways to transition into adulthood and become fully-fledged members of society.
Reading these particular stories, I related personally to many aspects of Chris and the narrator’s predicaments, as they were dehumanized for belonging to the ‘fairer sex.’ For a short time, I was in a somewhat controlling relationship in high school. For a few months, I dated I fellow classmate who was smart, popular and well-liked, but I was never quite happy. While I found him attractive and liked spending time with him, I always felt like he put me down and was possessive of my time. He was frequently constantly jealous of me speaking to other men, and extremely dominant and controlling in our intimacy. I remember thinking to myself, “I feel like I can’t make any of my own decisions around him,” which to me seems like a perfect example of someone who is dehumanized.
Thinking back on that situation now, I cannot help but think what I could do in that situation to make myself more humanized. I would like to think I would have the courage to stand up to him and tell him that did not have the right to tell me who I spent my time with and what I did. I would reassure myself that I needed to respect myself if he was not going to respect me, and to separate myself from him as best as possible. I would even solicit the help of my friends in order to do so. This might have the effect of making me feel more humanized and in charge of my own desires and personhood. Eventually, I was able to do this, but it took far longer than it should have, and I was brokenhearted for quite some time. When I think of the dehumanizing effect of patriarchal values and toxic masculinity on women, this experience is the first thing that comes to mind.
Judging by the readings, my experience a lot of parallels with the things contained within “The Yellow Wallpaper” and Black Hole. My story in particular reminded me of the rest-cure situation in “The Yellow Wallpaper.” Just like the narrator, I felt trapped by a domineering man who thought he knew what was best for me, and my isolation was starting to make me go crazy. At the same time, I also would talk positively about him in ways that echo Chris’ infatuation with Rob in the early scenes of Black Hole. Chris describes the intoxicating nature of Rob, which is how my friend would often describe her relationship with her boyfriend: “There was something pulling me towards him something dark and sexy” (Burns, no. 2). With both stories, the women within them are controlled by men in positions of authority, whether real or imagined, over them – whether it’s the social capital of the boys in Black Hole or the husband/doctor from “The Yellow Wallpaper.” Rob and Klein in Black Hole behave in a dysfunctional manner to Chris and Eliza because they are socialized to perceive them as ‘easy’ girls to whom they can get access to sex, while John presumes he knows more than Gilman’s narrator about her own health and mind.
These kinds of literary experiences help me understand more accurately my maintenance of the troubled relationship I had. Even as I was hurting, I could not help but be pulled towards him. This is the nature of how boys and girls are socialized to interact and become romantic towards each other: the image of the ‘bad boy’ girls ingrained in women while young reflects the values they want young men to find valuable as well. At the same time, Gilman’s narrator shows the dark side of that from an historical perspective; this same trust in overconfident men leads the narrator to trust her husband, a doctor, when he suggests locking her in isolation for weeks (a process that slowly makes her lose her mind). By reading these stories, one gets a better inkling of the way media affects the way we are meant to behave - the effect being the dehumanization of women by removing their agency, using media that tells them they never had it in the first place. With these stories, however, you see the ways in which women fight back and humanize themselves, by showing the disastrous effects of this socialization and how women break those barriers to combat them.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” and Charles Burns’ Black Hole both tell stories of young women who are caught up in societal roles and norms that seek to take away their humanity, largely or in part due to their subordinate status as women within their contemporary societies. While Gilman’s narrator suffers from male-centric ideas of women’s troubles and the presumptuous idea that a rest-cure will address important problems, Chris in Black Hole deals with the stigma of being a sexually-active young woman, especially one with the equivalent of a sexually-transmitted disease. She also deals with the many social pressures and anxieties that come with adolescence. These are universal experiences to many women, borne of generations of male-dominated culture and society that leave them with fewer resources with which to maintain their agency. These stories in particular shed light on the dehumanizing effect of the patriarchy within modern society, but also showcase ways in which women can overcome these obstacles and transcend those limitations.
Works Cited
Burns, Charles. Black Hole. Fantagraphics, 2005. Print.
Gilman, Charlotte Perkins. “The Yellow Wallpaper”. in The Norton Anthology of
American Literature (7th ed). W.W. Norton & Co. 2007. Print.
