Defining Voices: Conflicting Femininity on Remember
WENN
One would think that going back to
an earlier era would allow for fewer conflicts within the traditional gender
roles. However, on the television
program Remember WENN, set at a radio station during the pre-war 1940s,
the traditional gender roles are just as conflicted as those in modern
times. A prime example of conflicted
femininity can be found in the episode “A Girl Like Maple,” written by Rupert
Holmes. From this episode, I will use
semiotic analysis to prove that the character of Maple LaMarsh has a conflicted
femininity.
The essence of Maple’s character
indicates how her femininity came to be conflicted. The portrayal of her character shows her to be a gum-chewing
actress with dyed red hair and a working class Brooklyn accent. In
“Working-class women and the media,” Linda Bean and Julie Cotterill state that
“[a]ccording to the media, working-class women do not exist or exist only as
stereotypes. The most common
stereotypes used and recycled by all areas of the media, but especially
television, are the cleaner, the cook, the tart, the housewife, and the victim”
(54). Maple is a perfect example of
“the tart.” The other men at the
station feel comfortable telling off-color jokes around her because, to quote
Mackie Bloom, “You’re different. You
know, a girl like you” (Remember WENN).
Apparently, Maple does not realize the differences between her and other
girls and needs to have these differences explained to her by Betty Roberts,
the more innocent woman whom men protect from their dirty jokes. When she discovers that the differences boil
down to experience with men, Maple becomes incensed. After being provoked, she has a speech that shows how she has
become conflicted over her femininity.
“I am not a girl like me. I am a
girl like Maple. I am not a used DeSoto
that’s been around the block enough times that anyone should feel free to kick
my tires. I am not Miss “Good Times”
and a good time was had by all” (Remember WENN). Through this speech, Maple articulates her
anger at being pigeonholed into a typical gender stereotype of “the tart.” She doesn’t want to be “the tart,” but
rather “a girl like Maple” who is judged by her qualities alone. To her, femininity has two definitions: the
girl can either be experienced and have camaraderie with men or be innocent and
pure. Each definition of femininity
fulfills a stereotype of women, having them be either the virtuous type or the
experienced type, but definitely not both.
The conflict between these two
different definitions of femininity drives Maple to change herself in order to
be attractive to a man who is seeking a virtuous woman. When Maple speaks in the cultured high
society voice, Congressman Bob Farraday finds her appealing and asks her out on
a date. However, when Maple uses her
normal Brooklyn voice, he believes that she is spoofing the audience that he is
trying to reach. He even says after
hearing her speak in her regular voice, “That’s exactly the kind of person I
wanted to reach – lower class, maybe never finished high school, that
gum-chewing waitress at a greasy spoon” (Remember WENN). Congressman Bob buys into the stereotypes
that women with heavy Brooklyn accents are uneducated and lower class. Renita Weems says in “My Other Me” that:
Stereotypes cheat us of possibilities. And they are sure to keep us from getting to
know people for who they are: individuals with their own distinctive
personalities and styles. For in
reality, human beings are far more complex and enigmatic than our tidy
categories and nearsighted norms can account for. (72)
Maple
decides to play into the stereotype that Congressman Bob has already put upon
her and continues the charade. In doing
this, she perpetuates the stereotype and further places her femininity into
conflict by choosing to act like a person other than herself. Because she behaves like the virtuous high
society woman, Congressman Bob cannot get to know her for individual personality;
rather he has molded her into the type of woman he wants. Though Congressman Bob does not cause this
transformation consciously, he helps start it by indirectly criticizing Maple’s
voice and appreciating Maple for her articulateness.
The fact that Maple has to change her voice in order to do
the program “Men in the Headlines” is another example of how Maple has to
change herself, and thereby further conflicting her femininity, in order to
fulfill a stereotype. It would not be
proper for someone who sounds like Maple does to interview notable public
figures, only a cultured person with a large vocabulary can do the job
properly. In “Women in Public Life”
Veronica Groocock says “media preoccupation with the superficial trappings of
celebrity smacks of our societies obsession with the cult of personality”
(129). In order to be a celebrity, one
must have the trimmings to go along with the fame. In Maple’s case, she must become a more cultured person with the
larger vocabulary. To be able to do
this, Maple must give up her own identity.
She can no longer be Maple LaMarsh, a woman who is comfortable with her
own sexuality and personality, but a made-up woman who can impress a
Congressman with her voice and vocabulary.
Maple even mentions the day after her first date with Congressman Bob
that she wishes that all the things she had told him were true. Because Maple has become someone else, she
has to be the celebrity that Congressman Bob requires for the situation: a
cultured, upper-class woman who can speak eloquently.
Maple eventually decides that the dual identities that she
has been living with over the past few days cannot be worth the effort and
tells Congressman Bob about her past using her real voice. Despite Maple’s candor and honesty, Congressman
Bob turns her down, due to her checkered past experiences. Bean and Cotterill say in “Working-class
Women and the Media” that “working-class women are usually seen as losers: the
spinsters, the tarts, the housewives, always being knocked down, but unfailingly
picking themselves up, dusting themselves off and getting into the ring for
more of the same” (55). Maple has been
dealing with the conflicts within her female identity and after being rejected
by Congressman Bob, she decides to go back to being herself. Despite being “a loser,” a positive spin is
given to her loss. In the end, the
other female characters describe her sacrifice, saying, “It takes courage. It takes self-respect. It takes a girl like Maple” (Remember
WENN). Despite the fact that she
had been trying to avoid that specific definition of being “a girl like that,”
which gives her the aura of being experienced, she finally takes pride in the
characterization due to the context it is given in. Maple has taken the conflicted feminine identity that she
accumulated over the period of the episode and selected the identity that she
wants and now she can take pride in her own identity as “a girl like Maple.”
The semiotic analysis of “A Girl Like Maple” has shown that
the character of Maple does have a conflicted femininity. The conflicts in her femininity comes from
the fact that Maple fulfills a stereotypical character in a television show and
she wants to break free of the archetype, to be judged for qualities rather
than the stereotypical image. Maple
still further conflicted when she realizes that there are multiple definitions
of femininity and she does not want to have the definition already given to
her. Maple finally unites the many
stereotypes and definitions of femininity to become her own person and takes
pride in the fact that she is “a girl like Maple.”
- - - - - - - - - - - -
Works Cited
Bean, Linda and Julie Cotterill. “Working-class women and the media.” Davies 54-57.
Davies, Kath, Julienne Dickey, and Teresa
Stratford, eds. Out of Focus: Writings on Women and the Media. London: Women’s Press, 1987.
Groocock, Veronica. “Women in Public Life.”
Davies 126-131.
Remember
WENN. Perf.
Carolee Carmello. AMC, Queens, NY. 25 October 1997.
Weems, Renita.
“My Other Me.” Essence
Oct. 1993: 69-72.
Bibliography
Davies, Kath, Julienne Dickey, and Teresa
Stratford, eds. Out of Focus: Writings on Women and the Media. London: Women’s Press, 1987.
Davies, Kath, Julienne Dickey, and Teresa
Stratford. “Introduction.” Davies 50-51.
Glennon, Lynda M. Women and Dualism: A
Sociology of Knowledge Analysis.
New York: Longman, 1979.
Inness, Sherrie A. Tough Girls: Women Warriors and Wonder Women in Popular
Culture. Philadelphia: University
of Pennsylvania, 1999.
Spence, Jo. “Class.” Davies 51-53.
Sheridan,
Susan ed. Grafts: Feminist Cultural
Criticism. London: Verso, 1988.
Walker, Rodney. WENN Walk Throughs, Season 3, Episode 10. 13 Sep. 1998. 8 Apr. 2000. http://rabat.simplenet.com/season3/310.html