SHADES OF GENDER
The Symbolism of Colors • Black – authority and power, evil, can also stand for mourning and submission: masculine (ex. submission) • White- usually a symbolic of purity, feminine • Gray-sorrow, security, maturity, combination of good and evil. • Red- blood, sexual immorality, anger • Pink- love, sexuality, purity, health, feminine • Blue- calming, cold, depression, also symbolizes loyalty, strength, wisdom, and trust, masculine
The Symbolism of Colors Cont. • Yellow- considered cheerful, but it also represent cowardice, fearfulness, and insanity • Purple- the color of royalty, it symbolizes wealth and luxury, feminine and romantic, but can also symbolize artificiality. • Brown- dirt, wood, leather- masculine • Green- envy, fertility, growth, health, wealth, safety, naturalness, and luck- usually feminine • Orange-fire, the sun, warmth, and autumn
Literature of Fashion • In the 18th Century, some literature devoted to modes of dress as visible symbols • Mass market of clothing causes distress as distinctions blurred regarding class, gender, status, and sexuality • Language of clothing- belief in connection between body, mind and clothing • Signals gender differences- theories of the construction of sex and gender. • Styling Texts: Dress and Fashion in Literature
Importance of Color and Fashion • Faulkner’s only mention of Drusilla together with color is when she is wearing an inappropriate ball gown, the color of yellow- which is associated with insanity- combined with the dress- and it’s importance to her gender role
Shades of Gray
Shades of Gray Cont.
ScarlettinGreen • Alluring “Seductive” • “Green with Envy” • “Businessman”
Scarlett in Dull Red • Authoritarian • Kills a Man • Hero • Pseudo masculinity
Scarlett in Blue • Restricted • Portrait “fake” reminder of what she should be • Assaulted/Unhappy
Scarlettin Scarlett • Manipulative • Sexualized • Warning for other women
Works Referenced • Batchelor, Jennie. “Let Your Apparel Manifest Your Mind”:Dress and the Female Body in Eighteenth-Century Literature.” Chapter 6: Styling Texts: Dress and Fashion in Literature. New York: Cambria Press, 2007. Print. • Faulkner, William. TheUnvanquished. Print and Kindle Copy • Johnson, David. “Color Psychology.” http://www.infoplease.com/spot/colors1 • Harvey, John. Men In Black. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1995. Print. • Kaufman, Will. The Civil War in American Culture. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2006. Print. • Kuhn, Cynthia and Cindy Carlson, eds. Styling Texts: Dress and Fashion in Literature. New York: Cambria Press, 2007. Print. • Mitchell, Margaret. Gone With The Wind. New York: The Macmillan Company, 1936. Print. • Stokes, Karin. “Colour, Gender, and Gone With The Wind” Conference Paper- web. www.tasa.org.au/conferences/conferencepapers07/papers/270.pdf
