Sexism In Brave New World Essay

Where do you see women’s rights in the future? Will they continue to progress until men and women are regarded as equals? Will they regress and go into the past? Or will the same gender roles continue to be enforced? In Aldous Huxley’s novel Brave New World the people of a future civilization called the World State live by the mantra “everyone belongs to everyone else,” and relish in a plethora of drugs, promiscuity, and pleasure. There is no monogamy, religion, individuality, or family, but there is also no sickness or aging, and everyone’s basic needs are fulfilled. The civilization portrayed is both a dream and a nightmare, fueled by advanced technology that bestows them the ability to play God in an attempt to create a perfect society, at the cost of free thinking. Although Huxley was able to successfully create a terrifying dystopia, he neglected to omit his own misogyny and sexism from his work, and in doing so managed to embed inconsistencies of ideology

The position of women is not the primary focus and so it is easier for Huxley to just write women as they are in his society” (Kon) rather than giving them any actual depth or purpose. Huxley manages to not only degrade his female characters, he actively ignores the significance of their actions. Lenina should be considered a rebellious character, as she partakes in unorthodox behavior similar to the leading men of the novel by being “truculent” about dating a single coworker for an extended period of time (Huxley 53) and even pursuing the outcast Bernard Marx as a companion, both actions that are heavily discouraged in their society because the government “objects to anything intense or long-drawn (Huxley 53) and considers anyone who goes against the grain a menace to