Femininity and Masculinity in Persepolis and Satrapi's Experiances

In Persepolis and Satrapi's experiences, femininity and masculinity really shows up as a major role in the rules made by religion. The women at this time are forced to wear long everything and veils in order to cover their woman qualities This act of covering them is partially removing some of the femininity and ways to express them selves. A women's hair is something that really is precious to making them feel feminine and when forced to cover themselves, they are not able to have this quality. Along with hair is makeup, for most women makeup makes them feel more presentable and beautiful which gives a confidence. Another issue that involved the religion and government was the stereotype that women are week and cannot speak for themselves. Some wives are spoken for by their husbands to others. This brings up the point of masculinity, that men like to be in control. A certain controlling power is given to the man when he his wive allows him too speak. At this time, the emperor was a man, like most rulers but this is another example of masculinity.

I also thought it was interesting when Marji was seriously dating a guy who was just admitting to himself that he was gay. Many times men think that we are looking for the masculine qualities such as power, control, strength but really what we want is someone we can talk with. In this situation Marji became close to this man for his personality which was more feminine.

Lastly, I thought it was interesting but in a way typical of the idea of the men going to war and the women staying at home, not rebelling, and following the ridiculous rules set for them. It was thought be many to be unfeminine to join in the riots and rebelling against the government, they were sometimes every punished for it. Along with that boys being sent to war because it was the masculine thing to do, yet they are not yet of an age to truly understand this. Many of the rules and ways for life in the middle east were built upon the stereotypes of what is feminine and masculine and expecting that exact reaction from all of them.