Feminist Theory, Movement and History

‘A woman without rights ain’t no woman at t’all’. Feminism revolved around gender equality and political, economic, and social rights of women. In the book Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston was published in 1937 with many controversial issues. In Zora’s book she describes several feminist theories consisting of the repression of women, patriarchal society, and male vs. female hero.

Men had complete control over women and were allowed to enforce abuse if not compliant to their wants. Janie was the ’paradigm’ for all colored and non-colored women, black or white, who wished to break free of their controlling men, bonds of society, and to reach the point of becoming independent women. Logan had rights over Janie, her life and land and failed to make her happy, leading her to run off with another man. Joe was ‘love at first sight ‘ and represented the change for change, but he became possessive of Janie and thought of her as only a possession to boost his appearance. For this Janie gets angry at him and threatens to leave him. Once Joe had died, new opportunities became possible for Janie and love became emotional. She met Tea Cake, who became her emotional necessity to happiness and was the ideal man for her. Yet, when she decided to marry Tea Cake, she suppressed any feelings to reach equality by loving him. The beating and jealousy after the storm brought the end to Tea Cake and eventually gave Janie her life.

Janie had no right over her life or land as she was married to her three husbands. Her property and title of inheritance was ’ruled by fathers’ even when it should have been rightfully hers. Logan had all the rights over Janie, not helping her to fall in love with him. Joe was just the same except he took awhile to reveal his plan of controlling her and the land, giving her no rights. With each new marriage, Janie was rewarded with new opportunities and even achieves equality by working along side the males. In the development of Janie and Joe’s love, Janie finds out he basically married her for her looks, not for her brains. Even with all these different men, none ever allowed her to achieve self-realization, dreams, or ambitions to become equal.

Janie always had her ’thinking silence’ to gain her power and independence. Even as women were excluded from power, Janie became an emergent female hero. She ’excepted the darkness’, which meant that she excepted her color and realized that she wanted to become the individualized women she always wanted to be. Every male in Janie’s life could easily take away her rights and freedom, as easy as a snap of their fingers. Her men were masculine and strong, excepting in the beginning, but all became obsessed with their power over her. Janie was considered crafty and smart, but not allowed to show it when Joe was around. After Tea Cake died, Janie was allowed to finally find independence and identity fulfillment, making her story beautiful from her saddening past. She became stronger and assertive after Tea Cake died, justifying her dreams and becoming a Homeric epic hero.

When a society is based off of having males as primary authority over women, children, and land; the rights of women dwindle. In Zora’s book Their Eyes Were Watching God , Janie expressed her feeling towards her controlling husbands’ and men in her life. The only way Janie could truly be independent and free to do what she wanted was to not be married or controlled by a man. These issues today have been resolved to a point, but many more are to be discovered and witnessed through the eyes of God.