“Bernice Bobs her Hair” by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Quote of Note: “But I thought,” interrupted Bernice in bewilderment, “that you despised little dainty feminine things like that.” “I hate dainty minds,” answered Marjorie. “But a girl has to be dainty in person. If she looks like a million dollars she can talk about Russia, ping-pong, or the League of Nations and get away with it.”
This is war: a war between cousins, a war between women, a war between two different ideas of femininity. On the one side: mousy, quiet Bernice who quotes “Little Women,” longs for “confidences flavored with giggles and tears,” and thinks women should behave “appropriately and blessedly feminine.” We’ll call her moral femininity; women are good and kind and always behave decorously. On the other side, representing the roaring twenties, we have Marjorie, who rejects moral femininity in favor of boldness and style, though she does so superficially and in the service of men. We shall call her cool girl femininity. For much of the story Marjorie and her carefully earned popularity (power) run the show, embarrassing, insulting, and ultimately entreating Bernice to join the realm of the cool girl. Enter: the bob. In a twist of fate, Bernice, under some coercion from Marjorie, bobs her hair, in order to become the epitome of sophisticated and modern, but ends up in danger of offending some high society lady who thinks bobs are morally degrading. Ironically, this lady probably would have simply adored Bernice and her moral femininity to begin with. In the end, Bernice leaves, but not without chopping off Marjorie’s perfect little braids in the dead of night, thus settling us all on a modern I-do-what-I-want kind of feminism. (Though it should be noted, that I do think modern feminism needs to include positive an healthy female relationships. Though, reading about Bernice chopping of all of Marjorie’s hair was rather satisfying).
