Interpreting Gender Roles, By Jeffrey Eugenides Essay

Interpreting Gender Roles The concept of gender roles is a system that has been created and enforced by tradition. Society has discovered a way to categorize and condemn those who do not fit or pertain to the characteristics of their gender. In Middlesex, a novel written by Jeffrey Eugenides, characters dilute the idea of being predisposed to gender roles by challenging them and generating the idea of â€Å"loosely defined† gender superiority in the era of the American Revolution. The American Revolution when being observed from a gender conformity point of view may be seen as unruly towards those of the female gender. Women were stripped of any and all rights or freedoms that they may have had and were forced to engage in a patriarchal society which by definition is a family, society, or government ruled by male dominance. According to an article entitled â€Å"Revolutionary Changes and Limitations: Women† published by the Independence Hall Association, this tyranny ov er women was so atrocious that even the law did not recognize women as independent and allowed them no say over their civic, political, and economical constituents. In Middlesex, the American Revolution and the modern day attitudes toward women and gender formality can be blatantly seen, but characters such as Sourmelina â€Å"Lina† Zizmo, Desdemona Stephanides, Lefty Stephanides, and Calliope â€Å"Cal† Stephanides challenge these pretenses through the use of: disobedience, rejection, and self-establishment. Lina’s character