Feminism in Tom Robbins’ Even Cowgirls Get the Blues :: Even Cowgirls Get Blues

Feminism in Tom Robbins’ Even Cowgirls Get the Blues In the novel, Even Cowgirls Get the Blues by Tom Robbins, Sissy Hankshaw is a young woman who gets introduced to the world via hitchhiking. From the beginning of the novel, Sissy’s sexuality is foreshadowed. She goes with her mother to see a psychic, Madame Zoe. When asked if Sissy will ever get married, Madame Zoe replies, "There is most clearly a marriage. A husband, no doubt about it, though he is years away†¦There are children, too. Five, maybe six. But the husband is not the father. They will inherit your characteristics" (Robbins 33). There is also a lot of defying of traditional gender roles in this novel. Sissy hitchhikes all over the eastern United States by herself. Her self-reliance and determination was previously thought to be more of a male characteristic. Along these lines it is also relevant to use Feminist Literary Criticism to assess this novel. Even Cowgirls Get the Blues and its main character, Sissy Hankshaw epitomize the change in women and sex roles in the late 1960s and 1970s. First of all, this novel can be looked at as representative of the sexual revolution in the 1970s. According to Linda Grant, author of Sexing the Millenium, up until the mid-1960s, single women had a difficult time obtaining birth control and were given the responsibility of remaining virgins until they consummated a marriage. Abortion and homosexuality were not only illegal, but were taboo topics of discussion. Furthermore, a number of women were trapped in loveless marriages due to strict divorce laws (2). Lillian B. Rubin, author of Erotic Wars, describes the beginnings of the Sexual Revolution: Then came the sixties and the sexual revolution. The restraints against sexual intercourse for unmarried women gave way as the Pill [oral contraceptive] finally freed them from the fear of unwanted pregnancy. Seduction became abbreviated and compressed, oftentimes bypassed altogether, as women, reveling in their newfound liberation, sought the sexual freedom that had for so long been ‘for men only.’ The assumption of the era was that she wanted sex as much as he did, the only question being whether or not they wanted to do it with each other. Young people lived together openly, parading their sexuality before their parents’ outraged and bewildered gaze (13). She goes on to report about an interview with a 15-year-old boy who says, "I guess sex was originally to produce another body; then I guess it was for love; nowadays it’s just for feeling good" (13).