Patriarchy, Feminism, and Gender in The Steel Brassiere

Muhammad Faruq Bukhori

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Patriarchy, Feminism, and Gender in The Steel Brassiere

by Irish Sheila G. Crisostomo

The Steel Brassiere is a short story by Irish Sheila G. Crisostomo, this story takes the story of the life of a woman who in her day was a victim of oppression for her husband. The Steel Brassiere story contains elements of patriarchy, feminism, and gender in it, for that I will analyze all three, the method I use also through close reading.

1. Patriarchy

Patriarchy here means a social system where the man holds power in the domestic sphere (home) and dominates the woman (his wife), male figure in the form of a father or husband who has authority over his property, his wife and children[1].In the story of The Steel Brassiere, the patriarchal figure in the story is the husband of the narrator, Lindoln. This characteristic of Lindoln is described as being stingy, like to regulate, and like to scold his wife and even including possessive people. In a story illustrated that the narrator was locked from the house by her husband. Lindoln is financially good and he also gives his house and garden for his wife on the grounds that she feels comfortable at home and does not look at the outside world. This can be seen from the fragment of the story below.

Lindoln was a good provider, the sales manager of a pharmaceutical company that paid well. He gave me a big house with a lush garden, a dutiful maid and an excellent cook. There was nothing more to ask but I felt I really had nothing.

"Stay home. It's best for you and our children," he told me after I gave birth to Jonathan. He thought he was relieving me of the trouble of working outside the home but he was really closing a door and locking me in.

From the conversation fragment above it appears that Lincoln is a patriarchal and possessive figure towards his wife. In its culture, patriarchy is still very much attached because the social construction of men who have to work hard for their families and wives must obey what their husband ordered.

In this story it is impressed that women in a culture of patriarchy and discrimination. In one action it also illustrates that the narrator was yelled at by her own husband because the narrator invited their children to play in the garden and at that moment the rain came suddenly and wet the children, knowing that Lindoln scolded the narrator.

"Haven't you any sense at all?" he asked, slamming the closet door with a loud thud. "No mother in her right mind would permit her children to play in the rain. And what's worse, they did not even ask to do it. You actually invited them to play. So what do you call that?"

"I'm sorry," I replied flatly. "'Something just got into me. It will never happen again."

"Unbelievable. The kids get into more trouble when they're with you," he barked then crept into bed with his back turned to me.

In that case it was clear that Lindoln had arbitrarily treated his wife improperly by speaking out rude words, and this included verbal abuse and could cause his wife to become psychologically bad. This is of course not only the narrator who has always been a patriarchal victim of her husband, narrator friend Tiya Anding was also cursed by her husband (Tata Fernan) because he smoked.

2. Feminism

Feminism is a women's movement that demands its right for justice, This feminist thought and movement first appeared in the 19th century. [2]The demands of the feminist movement are to demand the right to participate in including opinions, gender equality rights, and rights in politics. The feminist element in the Irish Steel's The Steel Brassiere story depicts a woman who feels oppressed by her husband. Because of that he felt depressed and their marriage was not good. The feminist character in this story is a friend of the narrator, Tiya Anding, who is against her husband's decision to forbid her from smoking, and she calls her husband unable to live without it, the background that causes this thought is because women always feel oppressed and not able to express themselves freely in front of the public.

Tata Fernan hated her smoking. But Tiya Anding brushed aside all his words aside calling him a coward because he feared for her life.

"That old man just cannot live without me;" she said with a smirk on her face.

In the history of the second wave of the feminism movement, women are demanding their rights to get a fair wage, equal pay and to eliminate the gender wage gap. This can be seen from the fragment of the story when the narrator asks for 500 pounds from her husband, Lindoln to invite her children to play in the park. However, Lindoln changed his mind and gave the narrator 300 pounds of money, then the narrator took it and squeezed it in his pocket while saying "THANK YOU" out loud. This can be analyzed that the phrase  "THANK YOU" includes sarcasm for her husband who is a patriarchal figure.

AFTER breakfast, I asked him for money because I would be taking little Gina and Jonathan to the park that afternoon. He took out P500 then changed his mind and gave me P300 instead. I whispered "Thank you" loud enough for him to hear but my hand was crushing the bills inside my pocket.

Feminists focused attention on analyzing the role of law in the survival of patriarchal hegemony. Patriarchy in society and legal provisions are the cause of injustice, domination and subordination to women, so as a consequence are demands for gender equality.[3] Because women are considered weak and do not deserve to have a lot of money or property.

The story also explains the marriage between the narrator and Lindoln is not good, because the narrator asks what is the role of their marriage love when they both decide to live together, because the narrator feels he is always blamed in matters of home and child, and her husband has no role to take care of children their children.

I had been married to Lindoln for eight years but it felt like I'd been living with a stranger. He was the champion debater in my class and he won me over an argument why two people needed each other to live: "A man needs a woman to take care of his needs and the woman needs a man to support her." Later I wondered about the role of love which was supposed to be the reason why two people share their lives

This gesture of feminism appears to campaign for women's rights in having the same rights in marriage. This can be seen from the following fragment of the story.

3. Gender

Gender is not a biological gender difference but rather refers to a person's behavior and procedures in his society. [4]Its basic properties are masculine and feminine, the concept of gender is formed through social and cultural construction. From the explanation of gender it can be concluded that in marriage the affairs of the child and the house in the social environment is the business of a wife and husband is only providing. This is consistent with the content in the story of The Steel Brassiare, the narrator in the story he is fully taking care of his child and his house while her husband has no rights in the matter.

As expected, the children came down with a cold and Lindoln kept me up all night with his how-to-be-a-good-mother lectures.

"Haven't you any sense at all?" he asked, slamming the closet door with a loud thud. "No mother in her right mind would permit her children to play in the rain.

There is one interesting piece of story to discuss in this gender chapter when narrator friend Tiya Anding tells about her husband who barred himself not to smoke.

Tata Fernan, who used to berate her about her smoking. Tata Fernan hated her smoking. But Tiya Anding brushed aside all his words aside calling him a coward because he feared for her life.

"That old man just cannot live without me;" she said with a smirk on her face.

Socially in gender, indeed a woman is not fit to smoke and it is a male act, but it is very clear that gender and sex are clearly different, like the man has to play ball, and the woman plays doll, the man has to wear macho and the woman has to dress feminine.

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[1] Bressler, Charles E. Literary Criticism: An Introduction to Theory and Practice 4th-ed. Pearson Education, Inc. 2007. ISBN-13: 978-0-13-153448-3

[2] Goodman, Robin Truth (2010). Feminist Theory in Pursuit of the Public: Women and the 'Re-Privatization' of Labor. New York: Palgrave Macmillan.

[3] Brunell, Laura; Burkett, Elinor. "Feminism". https://www.britannica.com/topic/feminism. Accessed on 16 November 2019.

[4] Mikkola Mari (2011). " Feminist Perspectives on Sex and Gender". https://plato.stanford.edu/archives/fall2012/entries/feminism-gender/. Accessed on 16 November 2019.