Head Rags
Janie and Jody get married and it seems like it’s all going
to be okay, because Jody seems a lot better than Logan, but we quickly realize
that this isn’t true. Jody starts to control Janie. He tells her how to act,
what to where, etc. He doesn’t let her express herself. She’s forced to put on
an act to maintain their reputation. Janie ends up feeling just as trapped as
she did when she was with Logan.
One of the things that really struck me was how Jody wanted
Janie to just sorta stand there and look pretty, but at the same time he didn’t
want her to look too pretty because he didn’t want guys to look at her. Honestly,
I don’t understand how he expects her to walk this fine line, he has unrealistic
expectations of Janie. Jody goes as far as to force Janie to wear a head rag to
cover her long beautiful hair. Janie really hates this, shown by the fact that after
Jody dies, she literally burns all of her head rags.
Jody making Janie wear head rags made me really
uncomfortable. It sorta reminded me a bit of how I wear a scarf around my head
that covers my hair, a hijab. Their only similarity though is that they both
cover hair. Jody made Janie wear a head rag because he didn’t want other men to
look at her, but a no one should be wearing a hijab because a man told them to
(cuz it’s not for men). The reason this resonated with me so much is because no
man should tell a woman how to dress. Also, I said that no one should be wearing
a hijab because a man told them to, but that happens often. Unfortunately,
there are places that force women to wear a hijab, while on the flipside there
are also places that won’t let them. Both suck because they’re not letting
women make their own choice.
In general, Jody & Janie’s relationship brings up a lot
of issues. It’s a toxic relationship, Jody is super controlling of Janie &
Janie is unable to express herself and feels trapped. The issue with Jody making
Janie wear a head rag is that a man shouldn’t tell a woman what to wear,
whether he be telling her to put on more clothes or less. At least for me, I find
it super annoying and rude when someone tells me I shouldn’t wear a scarf because
it’s oppressive (which thanks, I didn’t know I when I decided to start wearing
one lol), but it’s equally annoying when before I started someone would tell me
I needed to start or now people will say things like I’m not wearing it
correctly or I should be covering up more.
So, Jody shouldn’t have been so controlling of Janie, and don’t
tell someone what they should wear, it’s their choice.
Damn this was a good blog post. It started out amazing with the analysis of jody's unrealistic expectations of janie--it is a weird fine line! I felt that at first he was fine with the hair because he knew everyone was jealous of him/janie but he eventually became jealous when he saw that man act on it by touching the hair, which he didn't expect. He also began to feel threatened by Janie's youth and beauty in contrast to his sagginess. Then the blog got even better with your personal connection to it. I like your point that it's about personal choice, not oppression.
ReplyDeleteYou made a lot of good points about the double standard Janie is forced to comply with. How is she supposed to know what's pretty but not too pretty? Janie covering her hair doesn't really have anything to do with this, it's just about Joe's fragile masculinity and need for control. I also like how you tied this theme in with your experiences wearing a hijab. Women should get to choose how they want to present themselves, since both the choice to cover up and to not cover up can be empowering.
ReplyDeleteI really like how you talk about the double standard placed on Janie and how you connect that theme to women wearing hijabs. I agree that it's a fine line and how it isn't necessarily Janie's fault. I think it's important that women have the freedom to express themselves how they choose and not feel punished or in trouble by having men respond inappropriately. Through Jody's treatment of Janie, Hurston is commenting on a much larger social issue that is still very problematic today.
ReplyDeleteI agree. Joe's toxic masculinity escalated into him being extremely controlling of Janie- even controlling how her hair looked. I think this novel was set around the early 1900's and I would definitely argue that this oppressive behavior still exists today. On social media, I've heard about men controlling their female s/os into not wearing certain things or maintaining friendships with friends who are also male. This problem has existed long before us, and I wish it wasn't still so prevalent today.
ReplyDeleteThis is so true, social media has a brought a completely new aspect to this problem. Some men don't like their s/os to post things that are "too revealing" or don't even like them to follow other men. This problem doesn't seem to have gotten much better since the early 1930's, it only shows itself in different ways.
DeleteI agree, Jody treats Janie horribly. I feel like Jody started off really nice to get Janie to marry him, but once they were married he changed into a completely different person. Richard Wright thinks that Hurston's novel isn't enough of a protest novel, but clearly Hurston is trying to make this social issue more prominent. Now, and especially in the 1930s, men can be very controlling over women and what they wear, which isn't right.
ReplyDelete