There are many instances where the social construction of gender has been performed and challenged. By taking a look at Rhine, we can see this a little clearer. On page 55 of Forbidden, Rhine senses something between him and Eddy, but tells himself that the best way to handle the situation is to ignore it. Ignoring a problem is a stereotypical gender quality for men, and that is just what Rhine does. By ignoring this problem, it just gets bigger and bigger. Both him and Eddy are struggling with their feelings because they are trying to hide it from themselves and each other.
Sure, it doesn't take him long to start actually flirting with Eddy, and make advances towards her, but at this time, he knows he shouldn't be doing this. His thoughts go to his wife at the time, Natalie, and tells himself that he should be thinking about her instead of Eddy, because this is wrong. He's trying to convince himself that Natalie is the one for him, just because she is convenient and she can get him connections with politics. But, by trying to hide his true feelings, he becomes more and more aware of them, which in turn, makes him confess his love to Eddy.
Later on in the story, page 128, Natalie is saying how Rhine is supposed to provide for her, take care of her, and make her happy. In Natalie's mind, because he is the man, he is supposed to be assertive and in charge, so to put that into action in her mind, he should be making her his top priority. At first, he does do this, and he even says that is what he will do, minus selling the saloon, but he eventually realizes that is not what he wants to be doing. He calls off the wedding and marries the girl of his dreams. He is treated very poorly by Natalie because he is not doing what she wants and later in the novel, threatens to kill him and Eddy, but that was under a different circumstance, but because Rhine didn't want to continue to use her, it had both positive and negative outcomes.
In this case, by not following a certain set of gender norms, he ended up being a lot happier with his life, and ended up realizing what true love felt like. Another thing is that men are seen to use either force or intimidation to be in control over the woman, but in this case, Rhine didn't act like that towards Natalie or Eddy. By not behaving in that manner, he was able to lure Eddy in with his charm, and get her to fall her him. Granted Eddy felt she could not be with him due to race, she still had tremendous feelings for him because of the way he treated her and acted towards her and everyone. Because Rhine didn't follow certain gender norms of force, he was able to live a happier life, and so was Eddy, because she did not feel sexualized in any way with Rhine, which is also a big part of how men are supposedly seen to treat women.
I think that Rhine out of all the characters stands up for himself when it comes to his beliefs. Be this as it may, he does provide, even when Eddy doesn't want his pity, or his money. So, he stands up for people of color with Natalie and himself when he proves to Eddy that he can love her in more ways than just his money. But he does fit the gender norms relatively well.
ReplyDeleteI like how you made specific references to the book
ReplyDeleteIt's interesting to think about how Rhine challenges certain gender and race norms, and how this allows him to navigate relationships with both of these women.
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