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Omar Hamawi

Professor Ditch

English 115

3 October 2017

Conforming or Breaking free from Society's Gender Norms

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer and Annie

Barrows show many examples of people either conforming to gender norms or people radical in

their gender performance. This is seen mostly in two characters Elizabeth and Mark Reynolds.

Mark Reynolds is an American publisher who likes Juliet, so he tries to impress her and marry

her. He conforms in many ways because he is always acting masculine in his letters or when

someone is talking about him in their letters they make him sound masculine. He is masculine

because of his speech, his attitude, and how he is described. Elizabeth created the Guernsey

Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society and brought the community together. She is the mother of

four year old Kit and was deported from the island for helping a polish worker and is later killed

in a concentration camp for attacking a guard. These characters show that they are either

conforming or breaking free from the gender norms society has placed upon them. This relates

to other books that my classmates and I have read in my class that show males and females being

put into gender groups and conforming to it. But we see that woman tend to break away from

their gender performance and be more radical which is similar to what we see in this book with

Elizabeth. In the book we see Mark Reynolds conforms to his gender norms and act more

masculine and acts how society believes a man should act, while Elizabeth breaks free from her

gender norms and acting more radical.

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Mark conforms to his gender norms through the book which consist of having masculine

speech, attitude, the way his character is and acts. This could be because men are seen to be more

masculine in society and have to act this way in public while women acting masculine is not as

bad in public. Jason Del Gandio says For instance, masculine women are more acceptable than

feminine men. This is because masculinity is more valued in then femininity (Gandio 114). So

men acting feminine would not bee seen as valued in society because feminine is seen below

masculine because it is not dominant. So Mark wants to act masculine because it is important for

a man to act masculine than a woman acting feminine because masculinity is seen to be more

important. An example of Mark Reynolds being described as a masculine man is when Juliet is

writing a letter to Sophie describing what Mark Reynolds looks like. She says He is tall and

Handsome, with a crooked smile and a chiseled Jaw. He shoulders his way through the crowd,

Careless of glances, that follows him. Hes impatient and Magnetic (Shaffer Barrows 133). The

way Juliet describes Mark makes him sound like how society would see a typical masculine man.

In Rachael Groner and john F. OHaras book Composing Gender there is an article by Aaron

Devor which is calledBecoming Members of Society. and in it he says Typical masculine

body postures tend to be expansive and aggressive Person who communicates on air of

authority ora readiness for aggression by standing erect and moving forcefully also tend to

appear more masculine (Devor 42). this shows that masculine men show more dominant

features and are more aggressive. They take up more space by expanding their legs or pushing

their way through the crows like Juliet says mark does. So we can see that Mark acts more

masculine when he is with Juliet and we don't see him having any feminine features. Another

thing that shows Mark acts manly and masculine is how Juliet describes him as tall. This is

because early in the book Juliet says While I am slender, I am not tall enough to suit me.
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(Shaffer Barrows 118) which shows that Juliet is short and in Ruth Hubbard's Rethinking

Womens Biology she says The impression that women are shorter than men is enhanced by

our social convention that when women and men pair off, it is considered preferable for the man

to be taller than the woman. (Hubbard 47) Which shows how Mark is conforming to gender

norms forms of a man by going out with a woman who is shorter than him because it is seen by

society to be more masculine and manly.

Masculinity is not just about how you look or the way you move it is also how you talk.

If you talk with more dominance and aggressiveness then you are seen as more masculine. Mark

does this when arguing with Juliet when they are on their date. In Alan Dolan and Christine

Coes journal Sociology of Health & Illness it says Many men therefore align themselves with

characteristics such as stoicism, displays of self-confidence and the denial of weakness, and seek

to emulate hegemonic forms of masculinity that are equated with being successful, capable and

in control (Courtenay 2000). Which shows that Mark is being more dominant and in control of

this conversation by talking over Juliet and not letting her speak. She says I Kept trying to

explain and he kept shouting until I began to cry (Shaffer Barrows 133) This shows how Mark

is acting more masculine because he is being more dominant in the conversation and not

showing any emotion except aggressiveness. This has always been seen as more masculine in

society today and shows he is conforming to gender norms by yelling. This also shows Juliet is

being the woman and more feminine one cries because he is showing his dominance and shows

emotion which is seens as normal by society because she is conforming to gender norms for a

female by being more feminine. Which again is another example of him conforming to society's

views on gender norms. Another example of Mark acting more masculine is when he was writing

a letter to Juliet about something that happened at work. He says Hendry had telephoned, but I
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smacked a few heads together and theyve cleared the whole shipment through customs

(Shaffer Barrows 130). His talk is more dominant and aggressive. There are many different

words that Mark could have used to describe what he was saying but he used smacked which

is aggressive and masculine. Aaron Devor says Speech characterized by inflections, intonations,

and phrases that convey non aggression and subordinate status also aek a speaker appear more

feminine. (Devour 41) This shows that him speaking more aggressively is a masculine trait

because in the quote it shows that speaking with phrases that convey non aggression would be

feminine and Mark is a man and society sees men as speaking masculine which would mean

showing aggression in their phrases and not feminine. Which shows that Mark is acting more

masculine by using this type of speech and conforming to gender norms.

Meanwhile Elizabeth acts very radical in her gender performance and act more dominant

and aggressive which are masculine traits. In the book it says She had ahold of Adelaide's arm

and told her to SHUT UP. and then she slapped Adelaide right across the face (Shaffer

Barrows 127) She is showing more masculine features because she slapped another person and

this is not conforming to her gender norms because in society women are seen to be more

passive, non-violent and recessive which relates to aaron devors quote that was stated before.

This goes with Rhetoric for Radicals book by Jason Del Gandio when he says Woman, by

contrast, is constructed as dependent, subordinate and secondary (Gandio 115). and we see that

Elizabeth is not dependent or subordinate throughout the book. She also acts more masculine by

being aggressive and yelling at Adelaide which shows she is being radical in her gender

performance. Another place where we see Elizabeth being more masculine and not feminine is

when Juliet says Elizabeth had been arrested for sheltering a Todt worker (Shaffer Barrow

215), this shows that Elizabeth is again breaking rules and being rebellious which is seen to be
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more masculine because women are seen to be more dependent and would not do this. Later in

the book Elizabeth gets shot because she beat a guard over the head because he punished

someone Elizabeth knew unjustly. She was later shot in the back of the head because of this.

Which is an aggressive act and is a more masculine trait In a New York Times article by Bryce

Nelson he says The greater aggressiveness of the male is one of the best established, and most

pervasive, of all psychological sex differences,'' wrote Dr. Eleanor E. Maccoby and Dr. Carol

Nagy Jacklin, which show that men are seen to be more aggressive and that is a sex difference.

Men are seen to be more dominant and be more violent because of testosterone so Elizabeth

beating a guard over the head is seen as aggressive which shows she is radical in her gender

performance because she is violent and more masculine. Elizabeth's characters reason for

breaking free from gender norms is because her character is rebellious. So because she is

rebellious she would also not want to follow the rules that society has placed upon her because

she is a woman and that could be why she breaks free.

We see that Elizabeth is more radical in her gender performance while Mark Reynolds

conforms to his gender norms. Masculine men are seen more important than feminine woman, so

people see women being more masculine has good because they would be more productive or

useful in society rather than having feminine men because they would not be useful in doing

things because feminine people have restrictions because they are seen as taking care of people

and being recessive and not doing the hard work. So this could be a reason why we see the Mark

Reynolds act more masculine in the book while Elizabeth acts more radical in her gender

performance because Mark would not be seen well in society if he would have acted feminine

and he would want to be seen as masculine while Elizabeth does not care because she breaks free

and it would not be as big of a deal in society if she is showing more masculine traits.
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Work cited

Groner, Rachel, and John F. O'Hara. Composing Gender: a Bedford Spotlight Reader.

Bedford/St. Martin's, 2014.

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Dolan, Alan, and Christine Coe. Men, Masculine Identities and Childbirth. Sociology of Health

& Illness, vol. 33, no. 7, Nov. 2011, pp. 10191034., doi:10.1111/j.1467-9566.2011.01349.x.

Nelson, Bryce. AGGRESSION: STILL A STRONGER TRAIT FOR MALES. The New York

Times, The New York Times, 19 June 1983, www.nytimes.com/1983/06/20/style/aggression-

still-a-stronger-trait-for-males.html.

Gandio, Jason Del. Rhetoric for Radicals: a Handbook for 21st Century Activists. New Society

Publishers, 2008.
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