Gender Roles In Winter's Bone

Character actor Fred Ward once stated, "I think we 're struggling with trying to redefine various positions at this point in history. To allow freedom for women, freedom for men, freedom from those sharply defined gender roles." This means that socially constructed gender roles give individuals pre-assigned characters to play throughout their life, not allowing them any personal growth. Governing the way an individual presents them self to the world, gender roles bind men and women alike to stereotypical, hackneyed characters. It is confinement to these gender roles that prevent our society from reaching its true potential. In the book Winter 's Bone by Daniel Woodrell, gender roles are prevalent in the form of hyper-femininity and hyper-masculinity.

It is evident that Ree’s best friend, Gail Lockrum, is no exception. After asking her husband, Floyd, permission to use their car to search for Ree’s father in Reid’s Gap, he says no without any explanation or justification. Gail does not try to press the issue, to which Ree states, “It’s just so sad man, so fuckin’ sad, to hear you say he won’t let you do something and you won’t do it,” (35). Despite Gail’s want to help Ree, she sets free the possibility due to her husband’s opposition towards helping. Because it is expected that she remain subservient and obedient to Floyd, she is forced to pay no attention to her own wants. She is expected to completely disregard her own beliefs and instead adopt the beliefs of her husband. This prohibits formative thinking, as well as freedom of

After getting pulled over by the “law,” Teardrops immediate response is one of belligerent, dicey nature. In that moment, “Sounds like singed laughter burst from Teardrop, and he jerked the rifle onto his lap, curled his trigger finger,” (172). If Teardrop had gone any further with the actions of shooting a rifle, it is likely the policeman would have shot him in self-defense. Teardrop was willing to jeopardize the life of not only himself but also the life of 16-year-old Ree to conform to the gender-stereotype of hyper-masculinity that followed all the men of Ozark. He had not tried to reason with the policeman, and did not even know if there was need to reason before resorting to threats of violence. The expectation that male-figures in Ozark were to use violence actions as a means of conflict resolution prevent Teardrop from reaching his full potential because of the negative reputation it gave him. It is likely that had he used words, instead of threats of shooting his rifles, to resolve conflicts, he would have a better relation with not only the police but all his