My Fair Lady is a musical that portrays the life of a ruthless phonetics professor, Henry Higgins, in his pursuit to transform a young working-class woman with a thick Cockney accent, Eliza Doolittle, into a more eloquent and acceptable member of society. Throughout the musical, cases of misogyny, devotion, and love are revealed between Eliza and Higgins. As the plot line progresses and the two characters begin to form a love-hate relationship, the themes within the musical evolves. The concepts demonstrated in My Fair Lady emphasize many sexist beliefs concerning the way a woman should act.
The musical concentrates on how the unobtrusive and reserved woman is of higher value in the world and reflects upon this in almost every scene. As a result, we can connect a lot of the themes in the performance to the lenses of gender and performativity. I argue that because of the manner in which My Fair Lady was performed, the musical both successfully and inadvertently spreads awareness of the prevalence of gender roles in society, and how they relate to the societal limitations set against women.
At the beginning of the musical, Eliza Doolittle is portrayed as an impoverished young woman yearning to make money and establish a better life for herself. In the first few scenes, the audience witnesses Eliza’s first encounter with Henry Higgins. Eliza offers Higgins her flowers for sale in which he scorns that, “A woman who utters such depressing and disgusting sounds has no right to be anywhere-no right to live” (Lerner 21). His immediate attack on her outlandish dialect is when the concept of gender roles is first introduced. Gender roles are defined as, “Social and behavioral norms which, within a specific culture, are widely considered to be socially appropriate for individuals of a specific sex” (Gender Roles n.d.). It is commonly believed that the gender we identify with correlates with how we should behave.
For example, women should be polite and compliant, and men should be authoritative and masculine. While society has advanced, and people have become more accepting of women and their rights, it is constantly reinforced that women are supposed to mirror innocence. The vulgar dialect Eliza uses in the scene is viewed as ‘unladylike’ due to its sinful nature. However, men can engage freely in this sinful act because they are not limited to same expectations placed on women to uphold the idea of innocence. As Higgins condemns Eliza for her dialect, he uses aggressive language but his words are justified and viewed as intelligent because of the male gender he performs. This contributes to the overall effects of misogyny, because it impacts how women think, talk, and generally portray themselves in public.
In order to be taken seriously in My Fair Lady, the main female characters must successfully perform their specific gender role. This also feeds into the notion that women who do not present themselves as “polished” or “opulent” and who do not possess certain feminine related characteristics are not going to be deemed respectable. This provides the basis to the plotline of My Fair Lady because after this point is recognized, the plethora of sexist acts that take place in the musical begin to accentuate the relationships between the main characters.
One particular part in My Fair Lady that accurately displays how gender performativity is incorporated in the musical is Act 1: Scene 5. In this scene, the audience witnesses what Eliza endeavors when residing with Henry Higgins. It is shown that Eliza is forbidden to go to bed until she learns to speak properly. Higgins pushes Eliza to extreme limits; torturing, starving, and forcing her to enunciate words with marbles in her mouth. As the scene progresses it is made known that no matter what advancements are made, Eliza is never recognized for her achievements.
As a society, we constantly envision that a woman’s role is to be a convenience for others, however, women are rarely acknowledged when they provide these conveniences. I believe that because of the way people have been conditioned to view women, they are put in tight boxes when it comes to gender performativity. Judith Butler states, “Gender reality is performative which means, quite simply, that it is real only to the extent that it is performed” (Butler 278) Simply stated, this means that gender extends past the biological sense. If someone were to identify as a female, they would display actions that depict their understanding of what the female gender consists of.
Since identifying as female requires the performance of the gender, it is up to the onlooker or the audience to define whether or not she is successful. The image society has depicted for the female gender based on this concept, places an expectation on women to perform highly, but rarely reap the full benefits of their success because of outside judgment.
Consistently throughout the performance, Eliza struggles to be treated fairly and taken seriously amongst her male overseer Henry Higgins. She persistently attempts to be the perfect woman in order to satisfy Higgins’ abnormally high standards by altering her appearance, speech, and actions throughout the musical. However, her efforts repeatedly go unnoticed, and Higgins remains pompous and arrogantly devoted to himself. The power struggle between the two embodies the musical and eventually deteriorates their relationship. This gives rise to many questions surrounding the main enigma of the musical. Can a woman ever uphold all of the societal standards set upon her?
If it is perceived from an outside view that she does not uphold these standards, however, she feels content, is she still perfect? Can there even be a perfect woman? These questions relate back to the theories surrounding gender roles and the concept of performing a gender. Judith Butler states, “Gender is instituted through the stylization of the body and, hence, must be understood as the mundane way in which bodily gestures, movements, enactments of various kinds constitute the illusion of an abiding gendered self.” (Butler 519)
Throughout My Fair Lady, Eliza is frequently told that to be considered respectable, she must change how she appears to people on the outside. She was tasked with performing her gender in a new way, and since this task was entirely different from how she previously performed her gender, Eliza struggled immensely to perform in a way that was favorable to Higgins and other affluent members of society. As a result, Eliza’s new way of performing the female gender, failed to get her what she wanted, because it was it was ineffective and unsuccessful to those who examined from an outside perspective.
Eventually, near the end of the musical, Eliza is molded into what would have been considered “the perfect woman”. She was able to modify her thick Cockney accent to learn a new, more “respectable” dialect. She managed to develop a more elegant way to walk and present herself when in the presence of others. She also made adjustments to her physical appearance and started to dress more exquisitely. However, ultimately, in the end, Eliza was still not content. The issue primarily pertains to the fact that although Eliza was able to successfully perform the role of a woman, the standards society sets in place for women were never meant to be beneficial. The limitations set against women were meant to be limitations, which explains why despite her successes her main goal was not fulfilled. Overall, in the end, we see that the way an individual performs does not necessarily guarantee satisfaction, even if it is seen as satisfactory from the outside.
The performative aspects employed throughout My Fair Lady both advance and complexify the themes in the musical. I’ve concluded that despite the repetitive use of sexist humor to establish the plot, it still can be interpreted in a way that spreads awareness of the inequality women have in our society. According to Marcie Ray:
Friedan argues that so-called experts (doctors, therapists, editors of women’s magazines, advertising researchers, and academics in the fields of anthropology, sociology, and family life education) attempted to teach women to find fulfillment only in their roles as wives and mothers. These ‘experts’ transformed the suburban housewife into woman’s ideal. In My Fair Lady, Eliza Doolittle recognizes that her transformation has afforded her fewer opportunities. She laments that after her metamorphosis she’s only fit to ‘sell herself’ into marriage. As Friedan put it, ‘the new feminine morality story is the exorcizing of the forbidden career dream. (Ray 315)
In this quote from her journal article, Marcie Ray discusses how Eliza never individually gained from all of her efforts in My Fair Lady. In fact, she is left alone and miserable at the end, because she has acquired nothing she aspired to have at the beginning of the musical. Eliza shares similarities with most women, in that she exerted herself to perform and even live up to the standards of others concerning her gender, but was disappointed when those actions did not equate to actual success. As a society, we perpetuate the idea of gender roles, but we never realize why they can be a cause for distress. Everyone in their own way performs what they believe a gender or no gender consists of, and everyone performs this to a certain extent in that it exists for outsiders to see.
Correspondingly, people listen to how others view their performance of gender and are impacted because of that. In the end, members of disadvantaged groups, such as women, are lead on to believe they must perform a certain way because of this overarching idea of gender roles. As indicated in My Fair Lady, this journey of fulfillment does not always end in a favorable outcome. Ultimately, the methods society uses to simplify the concepts of gender and performativity, more so complicates them, and sets unrealistic standards for those who perform in ways that do not comply with the specific gender roles.
One particular part in My Fair Lady that accurately displays how gender performativity is incorporated in the musical is Act 1: Scene 5. In this scene, the audience witnesses what Eliza endeavors when residing with Henry Higgins. It is shown that Eliza is forbidden to go to bed until she learns to speak properly. Higgins pushes Eliza to extreme limits; torturing, starving, and forcing her to enunciate words with marbles in her mouth. As the scene progresses it is made known that no matter what advancements are made, Eliza is never recognized for her achievements.
As a society, we constantly envision that a woman’s role is to be a convenience for others, however, women are rarely acknowledged when they provide these conveniences. I believe that because of the way people have been conditioned to view women, they are put in tight boxes when it comes to gender performativity. Judith Butler states, “Gender reality is performative which means, quite simply, that it is real only to the extent that it is performed” (Butler 278) Simply stated, this means that gender extends past the biological sense. If someone were to identify as a female, they would display actions that depict their understanding of what the female gender consists of.
Theoretically this makes sense because people are interpreted in a way that connects actions and performance to gender. Yet, does this mean that gender itself has no substance until a performative action declares or indicates that it does? A person who identifies as a woman, in that case, performs as whatever their interpretation of a woman is. Nevertheless, it is up to the onlooker or the audience to define whether or not she is successful. I think that because of this concept and the image society has already depicted for the female gender, women are expected to perform highly, but rarely reap the full benefits of their success because of outside judgment.
