Gender Roles & Surrealism

What makes women, women? Having breasts or giving birth? A question asked by Apollinaire with his surrealist drama, “The Breasts Of Tiresias”.

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From fighting to prove they have souls to fighting for equal rights, from the dark ages to the 21st century the journey of feminism has not been an easy one. The world still argues whether a man and woman can be equals or even if they should have equal rights. From pink taxes to unjust work environments or politicians arguing over what a woman should wear and how she should look or if they should have abortion rights, the list goes on. We start the 21st year of the 21st century but how far have we come? To answer, let us look at 20th century feminism from a different perspective, with the play of Apollinaire “Les Mamelles de Tiresias”, to both improve our mood in this depressing time and to see the road we covered on our way to equality, even though we are yet to achieve it in every aspect of our life.

What is the place of women in society? Surely not as generals, not in 20th century France. So where does this leave them? Guillaume Apollinaire asked the question in his play “The Breasts of Tiresias”, which was later turned into a musical by Francis Poulenc. The play is important because of its idealistic attitude towards feminism but also because it is the first surrealist theatre piece.

The surrealist movement was inspired by the depression of the postwar world in the 20th century. This is a movement that forces the limits of rationality by advancing by bringing the creativity and the subconscious forward. The term surrealism was given to the movement by Apollinaire, who thought this theatre piece was something that surpassed the reality.

Just like Dadaism, surrealism has its own manifesto; a total of three manifestos actually. The first manifesto was written by Andre Breton. Breton was influenced by the studies of Sigmund Freud, an Austrian neurologist and the founder of psychoanalysis. His works included research into the conscious and the unconscious world of our dreams. Surrealism argues the world that we live in was not as real as the world in our dreams, where we are true to ourselves. Deduction of “art should be more true than logical, so art should be made as if in a dream” was made by the founders of the movement. Artists should not try to control themselves while they do art. They should be true to their nature, they should act as if in a dream. Surrealism defended a complete automatism, an act of the artist to surpass all control of the conscious mind to do art. Artists created art in a dream-like state of unconsciousness.

Andre Breton starts his manifesto with these words; “We are still living under the reign of logic, but the logical processes of our time apply only to the solution of problems of secondary interest. The absolute rationalism which remains in fashion allows for the consideration of only those facts narrowly relevant to our experience.“

These words freed artists from the cage of logic and reality.

Refusing the so-called logic, artists woke up to the nonsense of the society, they saw critical thinking as the main reason to do art but instead of doing it with reason and sense, surrealists did it with nonsense. The universe is random and senseless, as art should be. So to criticize the place of women in the society and gender roles in general, Apollinaire chose an extraordinary way: instead of an article or a novel he chose theater.

“Sea, I am like you, filled with broken voices,”

― Guillaume Apollinaire

The play starts with a preface, where the word surrealism was used and the movement appropriated the name. In the first act, we see Therese, a woman wanting to be more than just a woman. She doesn't want to give birth and take care of her husband. She wants to be a general and many other things. But a woman has to give birth to many babies and feed her husband and do house chores, or so it was thought. As she talks about how she wants to be more, her husband screams for her to cook and she notices her beard grow and her breasts feeling lighter.

Apollinaire points out how being a woman is seen as equivalent to having breasts. Breasts are sexualised and used as imagery of femininity. As she continues to sing, her non-womanly wants and wishes make her breasts turn into a balloon and fly away.

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No longer having breasts, Therese becomes a man. She takes the name Tiresias and forces her husband to dress as a woman. She becomes a general, takes off to Europe to do anti child birth propaganda. As she leaves, her husband becomes mad at her and tries to have children without her. The husband, dressed as a woman, is mistaken for a woman and faces the discrimination and haressement women face. He finds a way to give birth to babies without the help of a woman and has 40,049 babies. When people ask how, he says “with the power of will”. Then Tiresias comes back and sees her husband with 40,049 babies, they reconcile and live in peace.

Apollinaire breaks the chains on imagination. His thoughts on women in society and feminism are not obvious in the play. We can't make a clear distinction of his views, but we do see the questioning of femininity being based on physical appearance and having children as the play goes. The criticism of the gender roles and the objectification of women's bodies are evident. Apollinaire states: ”The plastic virtues: purity, unity, and truth, keep nature in subjection” . What society defines as virtue is something artificial. He sees that there is something not right about the perception of women and no woman dares to defy, for it is not possible for a normal citizen to do so, because of the pressure on the image of women.

“People quickly grow accustomed to being the slaves of mystery.”

― Guillaume Apollinaire, The Cubist Painters

The criticism of the view of women was made by Apollinaire in the 20th century. It is sad to see not much has changed since then. The plastic virtues of society, as Apollinaire described, are getting a more profound ground with the aid of social media platforms. Having women’s voices heard is getting easier with the globalising world but it is also easier to hear the opposing voices. The fight for gender equality may seem never ending, but just as Tresse did with her choice and her husband did with his will, we can make a difference with standing strong and making the right choices.