I'll Think About That Tomorrow

Scarlett O'Hara is quite possibly the most head strong and independent woman of her time as seen through film, Gone With the Wind. That is, at least she is in my opinion. I will admit, I have probably watched this movie about 50 times or more, and not in the DVD form. Oh no, break out the VHS tapes! Younger people who are reading this are probably thinking "VHS...is that an app?" Yes I am dating myself by saying that, but whatever! It's a good movie, end of story. It not only shows life for men and women during the Civil War, but also the roles that women were expected to play.

Scarlett O’Hara is a young female from a generally wealthy family who lives in Georgia during the 1860s. Living on a cotton plantation with slaves waiting on her every beck and call, some could call Miss Scarlett a spoiled brat. Fancy floor length dresses and men falling over themselves to

capture her love might have been fun, but there were socially unacceptable things that Scarlett was bound and determined to do. Running out of the house with no shawl or parasol to keep the sun off of her perfectly pale white skin, (back then having pale skin was a sign of wealth), or going up to men and flirting with no shame are just a couple of things that Scarlett pushed the rules on. Her main slave, Mammy, can be heard on several occasions with saying, “It ain’t fittin’…it ain’t fittin’. It jes’ ain’t fittin’…It ain’t fittin’” (IMDb, 1940).

Let’s break this down shall we? By using the Media Analysis Techniques

textbook by, Arthur Asa Berger, we can apply a sociological perspective to this film. In all honesty, this movie covers quite a variety of things, but let’s narrow that down to two for the sake of time. Let’s start with culture. The culture can tell us a lot about the role that women were expected to play. In the southern culture that Scarlett was a part of, there were norms that the women were expected to follow. Being a lady meant being kind and gentle and knowing when to speak and not to speak. The role of Scarlett was to be quiet and act lady-like and eventually marry well and raise children while supporting her husband. Unfortunately, anyone who has watched this movie knows that’s not quite how it goes for dear Miss Scarlett. The next sociological element we can look at is deviance, and this can be seen in an early scene. At one point in the movie, all of the ladies are upstairs at a party taking naps, but not Scarlett. When she is caught downstairs she is reprimanded for this and asked why she is not upstairs with the other girls resting. It was expected that the young ladies of that time took naps and rested during the hottest part of the day (Berger, 2014). This film reached a great number of people and can be considered mass media for that reason (Berger, 2014). So to answer the question She did what?! Scarlett O’Hara is depicted as a southern bell that is just a little bit rebellious. Her role in this movie is true to the time period but with a little bit of a twist. She has the strong personality that some of the southern women were blessed with. I won’t spoil the movie for anyone who has not seen it so I will leave that there.

*All pictures were taken from Google Images

*All information about the movie is from personal knowledge but can also be found in the film (cited below)

- Berger, A, A. (2014). Media analysis techniques. SAGE Publications, no. 5.

- Fleming, V. (Director). Selznik, D. O. (Producer). (1939). Gone with the wind [film]. Los Angeles: Culver Studios.

- Information courtesy of The Internet Movie Database (http://www.imdb.com). Used with permission.

#sociologicalanalysis #womensrole #film #feminism #southerbell #civilwar #Lady