Prof. Wexler
English 436
August 10, 2010
***side note: My works cited page contains some of our readings which I had to find on the internet because I returned my book to the bookstore on Thursday and later needed to use certain sources. I just wanted to point that out so you knew I was aware that they were in our textbook, such as Saussure and Gorgias.***
Applying Feminist Theory to The Little Rascals
“Recently a male student wrote . . . ‘Every woman student who goes into medicine or law robs us of a job’” (De Beauvoir 14). Statements like these have been uttered throughout history, allowing for women to become the inferior sex and for prejudices about women to be passed on for generations. Many women believe they have been cursed from the beginning of time, as the first Bible story depicts Adam as being tempted into a life of damnation by Eve. But why is there such an attack on women? It seems gender has confined women to the inequalities they face in society. Due to the media and passed-down beliefs, negative stereotypes about women continue to exist. A prime example of such stereotypes is portrayed in the 1994 film rendition of The Little Rascals. Although it is a seemingly innocent and light-hearted comedy, the film is littered with examples of the unequal treatment and stereotypes women have faced throughout history. Even though these stereotypes still take place today, women are taking small steps in the direction of equality.
One universal stereotype about women is that they are the cause of despair, specifically to men. According to Simone de Beauvoir, “Man represents both the positive and the neutral . . . whereas woman represents only the negative” (4). Women are often blamed for events which are not their fault. For example, in The Little Rascals, Buckwheat complains about his sister leaving the toilet seat down, claiming that “women make men miserable.” Later, the He-Man Woman Haters Club, a club specifically designed around hating women, blames Darla for the burning down of their meeting place when the fault lies on their own member, Alfalfa. The boys refuse to blame Alfalfa for the fire simply because he is male and, instead, the blame is placed on Darla because she is a woman. Spanky, the leader of the He-Man Woman Haters Club, advises Alfalfa that he’ll “feel like a new man” if he dumps Darla. Alfalfa is so persuaded by the club that he proclaims, “I never knew that liking a girl could lead to all this. I let my pals down, I let the club down, and I let my best friend down.” But is the problem in these situations really the woman or is there more to every story? This concept of pointing the finger at women is not new to Western culture by any means.
Many people blame Helen of Troy for being unfaithful to her husband, Menelaus, when she is abducted by Paris, ultimately causing the battles of the Trojan War. However, there have been arguments that she is not the one at fault. Gorgias defends Helen in his speech entitled Encomium of Helen. In his speech, Gorgias claims there could have been other factors which contributed to Helen’s abduction, such as force, predetermination, and seductive use of persuasion through speech. Gorgias emphasizes that people don’t put into account the fact that most people would succumb to such a decision when under extreme pressure or ignorance. He places the blame on her captor because he claims Paris has presented Helen with a false argument in which “the force of persuasion prevails” and “the persuader, like a constrainer, does the wrong and the persuaded, like the constrained, in speech is wrongly charged” (Gorgias 2).
Even though society is slowly moving away from the idea that women are the cause of despair, we still maintain negative stereotypes about women. In general, women are expected to be frail creatures who are “frivolous, infantile, irresponsible . . . [and] submissive” (De Beauvoir 13). In The Little Rascals, Spanky complains about women when he asks, “Why do [women] have to be so different? Boys stand up for themselves. Boys take what’s theirs.” Spanky is exhibiting the behavior he has been programmed to believe about women not being as strong physically and emotionally as men. But where do we get these criteria? According to Dr. Georgia Witkin, “It may be because women’s muscles are smaller than men’s, which means less physical strength” (124).
There are biological factors which could contribute to some biases about women. For example, women are often referred to as being the “emotional sex.” According to the Ramsey Clinic Dry Eye and Tear Research Center in St. Paul, women cry four times as frequently as men. Tears produced from emotional reactions (as opposed to tears from an eye irritation) contain the hormone called prolactin, which is the hormone responsible for promoting breast-feeding. By the time women turn eighteen, they have 60 percent more prolactin in their bloodstreams than men (Witkin 71). Although this is interesting research, we must ask: What makes crying a negative aspect when it comes to the different sexes and how do we create the negative associations about women based on the act of crying?
One answer to this question is: language. Diction plays a major role in the way we perceive men and women. For example, if we want to make fun of a man for being weak or emotional, we call him feminine. However, if we want to praise a woman for being strong and courageous, we call her manly. Although women are thought of as having positive characteristics, such as gentleness and virtue, these characteristics are seen as negative when applying them to a man’s behavior (De la Barre 13). Some might call a man a “sissy” or some other name, implying that he is acting “womanly.” According to Ferdinand de Saussure, the choice of connection between the signified and signifying creates an arbitrary value (5). When we call a man a “sissy,” it is society which determines the negative connotations of the word. The word itself is arbitrary as its meaning cannot be determined in advance (Saussure 6).
With language, there is a binary relationship amongst words. Word opposites, such as “black” and “white,” produce the master/slave relationship as well. When we pair such words, we create the Self and the Other. Some cases include cat/dog, Christian/Jew, rich/poor, straight/gay, and, of course, man/woman. In all of these relationships, status is defined by society even though the words themselves are arbitrary.
Although our actions may perceive women negatively in many ways, society today seems to be more open to the idea of the “strong” woman. Many women are entering the work force while at the same time maintaining their households and raising children. We have shifted away from the idea that women are limited in the things they can do simply because they bear children. According to society in the past, women were expected to be on the sidelines, cheering on men. In The Little Rascals, Darla breaks away from this stereotype when she helps Alfalfa and Spanky win a soap box derby. Since Spanky is unable to tell that Darla is a girl under her helmet, he assumes she must be a male since she is participating in the race. Spanky extends an invitation to Darla to join the He-Man Woman Haters Club, but faints when Alfalfa informs him that the driver is a woman. Spanky is also taken by surprise when he finds out his favorite race car driver, A.J. Ferguson, is, in fact, a woman. Spanky’s perception of women is reflective of the way society expects women to be the docile sex, incapable of “masculine” tasks, such as racing cars. This pattern of thinking leads to the way we label characteristics of the sexes and whether they are perceived positively or negatively.
Women are also thought to be less intellectually inferior to men. At one point in The Little Rascals, Darla is being driven around in a go-cart by her boyfriend, Walter, and she indicates that they must make a turn where a sign is pointing them in the opposite direction. Rather than taking Darla’s advice or simply telling her he doesn’t agree, Walter responds with, “Girls have no sense of direction.” Walter has given in to the stereotype that women never have any idea where they are going and, therefore, are not as intelligent as men. Of course, this stereotype is not true of all women, but Walter’s short line speaks volumes about society’s negative views of women. Ironically, Darla is correct in her assumption of where to turn, proving that women are capable of making observations about location and that not only can women be correct about their sense of direction, but that not all men are skilled in this way either.
Even though women have begun to break down the barriers which restrict them to certain stereotypes, one must wonder why it is that women have tolerated this oppression for so long. “Woman has always been man’s dependent, if not his slave; the two sexes have never shared the world in equality. And even today, woman is heavily handicapped, though her situation is beginning to change” (De Beauvoir 9-10). This phenomenon can be explained by Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel’s idea of the master/slave relationship which occurs when one self-conscious exists for another. According to Hegel:
Self-consciousness is faced by another self-conscious, it has come out of
itself. This has a twofold significance: first, it has lost itself, for it finds
itself as an other being; secondly, in doing so it has superseded the other,
for it does not see the other as an essential being, but in the other sees its
own self” (Hegel 541).
So, therefore, Woman is defined by that which is Man in relation to Man and not in relation to Herself (De Beauvoir 4). Woman is viewed as the Other and Man is defined as the Self. As the Other, a woman is expected to cater to man and define who she is by his standards. It is often believed that a woman must measure herself based on the accomplishments of her husband and that her lifelong job is to attain and uphold this status. Women lose out when it comes to being defined as an individual and are regarded negatively as the Other as Hegel states, “What is ‘other’ for it is an unessential, negatively characterized Object” (542).
Referring again to the Bible, “some say that, having been created after Adam, [Woman] is evidently a secondary being . . .” (De Beauvoir 17). Since it is determined that Man is the superior sex, women become the oppressed. It is probable that women have continued to live such an existence simply because it is easier than to stand up as an individual in order to make a difference for the whole. For example, many women today find it much harder on the family unit to leave a marriage than to go through the divorce process. As sublime as the idea might be for a woman to stand up for herself, for many, doing what is easier seems more practical. Unfortunately for women, everything works in favor of the oppressor (De Beauvoir 9). The only way to change the master/slave relationship is if both sides come together to take action (Hegel 542).
Fortunately, not all hope is lost when it comes to the idea of striving to gain the equality of the sexes. A tribe called the Mundugamor in Africa views women and men as similar and expect both sexes to behave aggressively. This behavior seems odd to Western culture, but this example proves that it is possible for barriers to be broken. Women in the Mundugamor tribe behave quite the opposite of how our society projects women should behave in that their women detest pregnancy and reject their “maternal instinct” while focusing their energy towards work and war (Ojeda 30).
The Little Rascals ends, too, on the positive notion that women will one day prevail against the negative stereotypes which mark them inferior to men. The members of the He-Man Woman Haters Club come to no longer hate women and join both sexes to create a new club of equality. Spanky questions the club about their change when he says, “Have we betrayed our forefathers? Have we trampled on the generations of honest woman haters that came before us?” The club states a unanimous “no.”
Looking back on the pattern of social change throughout history, there is hope that one day we can break down the idea that women are only on this earth to cater to men. There are signs of change towards equality as men are recognizing all human beings as equals (De Beauvoir 15). However, it will take both sexes to come together to change society’s expectations of women. As Simone de Beauvoir beautifully states, “If we are to gain understanding, we must get out of these ruts; we must discard the vague notions of superiority, inferiority, equality which have hitherto corrupted every discussion of the subject and start afresh” (17).
Works Cited
De Beauvoir, Simone. "The Second Sex: Woman as Other." Marxists Internet Archive. Web. 04 Aug. 2010. Web.
De la Barre, Francois. "On the Equality of the Two Sexes." 1673. The Essential Feminist Reader. New York: Modern Library, 2007. Print.
De Saussure, Ferdinand. "Third Course of Lectures on General Linguistics." Web. 13
Aug. 2010. Web.
Freedman, Estelle B., ed. The Essential Feminist Reader. New York: Modern Library, 2007. Print.
Gorgias. "Encomium of Helen." Gorgias' Encomium of Helen. Web. 13 Aug. 2010. Web.
Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich. "Phenomenology of Spirit." 1807. The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. Second ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2010. Print.
Leitch, Vincent B., ed. The Norton Anthology of Theory and Criticism. Second ed. New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2010. Print.
Little Rascals, The. Dir. Penelope Spheeris. By Penelope Spheeris. Perf. Bug Hall, Brittany Ashton Holmes, and Travis Tedford. Universal, 1994. DVD.
Ojeda, Auriana, ed. Male/Female Roles. Opposing Viewpoints Series. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 2005. Print.
Witkin, Georgia. The Truth About Women: Fighting the 14 Devastating Myths That Hold Women Back. New York: Viking, 1995. Print. 
