A Reaction Paper on Gold Rush Brides.
My paper will reflect my reaction to Natalie Merchants song Gold Rush Brides in the context of the Gold Rush and gender issues. The Gold Rush extended not only the boundaries of the expanding nation but also resulted into the breaking of the traditional sexual roles.
The first stanza of the song described the beauty that could be found in the uncharted roads and the small communities created by the men and women who have travelled west. The arrogance of the white men in considering the western territories as open spaces, a land for anybody to take, led to the ravaging of the Native Americans, rape of innumerable women, massacre and destruction of the Indian nations. The gold rush and the conquering of the Wild West built the prosperity of the present states like California. But this was borne out of the blood and sacrifices not only of the men who rushed into the mines and battlefield but also by women who travelled with their husbands, women looking for economic opportunities and most of all by the Indian women.
The second stanza of the song talks of Dakota presumably a reference to an Indian woman. Her description of the woman as broad yet maidenly is an over simplistic perception of the Indian woman, giving a picture of innocence and purity. Anglo Californians seldom had a kind word for native women (Hurtado 11).
Reading Hurtados book Sex, Gender, Culture and a Great Event gives me a better understanding of the white mans perception of women as domestic labour, reproductive vessel, prostitutes and in worst cases as no better than animals. Indeed, white womens value in the home working on domestic jobs, reproducing offsprings and rights in marriage had soared due to their scarcity in the west. Divorce laws were made more liberal not solely because of the recognition of womens rights but more often based on economics. The woman was freed to marry another man, most often going up the financial ladder. Foreigners, like French women were seen as prostitutes. The level of respect to women goes down when it comes to other races. On the lowest level were the Indian women who suffered the most at the hands of the white men.
Hurtados book described the massacre of women and children and depicted a macabre mural that belies the crawling Indians in the mural of history depicted by Merchants song. Indians did not just crawl around the mural of history(Merchant) they were butchered and humiliated. Driven out of the South towards the west they were repeatedly stripped of any rights as a nation.
The third stanza asks the questions about the many nameless women who travelled west and the untold stories of their sufferings. White women suffered from childbirth, diseases and violence but not as much as women of color. The white woman had a choice whom to marry as there were more women than men in the west at that time. The land wasnt free as simplistically described by the song if the price was the blood of countless men and women not only the whites but of many colored nations.
The fourth stanza is the destruction of the family in search of gold. The diffliculty of widows in staking claims over her husbands find. Death was not the onlyway that families were destroyed. The ease by which women and men could file for divorce helped increase the number of broken families. If the woman could not stake a claim by herself she could always find another man to give her a better life. Women could leave their old husbands for newer ones who were richer or who otherwise suited them better (Hurtado 17). I sympathize with the suffering of the gold rush brides but isnt it their choice that they went to the west. They were not totally ignorant of the perils of going to new frontiers. The suffering they experienced was not even half of what the Indian women suffered at the hands of the white men.
As the white woman read about the sufferings of her sister who went west, I if it stopped them from travelling too. White women still continued travelling west despite the accounts read by them. Getting married in the west and making their own fate and fortune were most probably in their mind, thinking that the misfortune of one could not also be her own. Women in the west made their own fortune and by marrying higer and higher into the social structure, while the Indian women were discriminated on, made into mistresses, raped and violated. The west was won with the sacrifice of women too.
Merchants song in a way brought into the picture the untold stories of women who travelled west. It is true that she challenges the idea that the West depicted in popular films as a place for adventure, ruled by courageous men willing to defend womens honor. She showed that women suffered as they accepted their roles as gold rush brides. But her depiction of the Indian woman so simplistic and of Indians crawling in the mural of history leaves much to be desired.
The first stanza of the song described the beauty that could be found in the uncharted roads and the small communities created by the men and women who have travelled west. The arrogance of the white men in considering the western territories as open spaces, a land for anybody to take, led to the ravaging of the Native Americans, rape of innumerable women, massacre and destruction of the Indian nations. The gold rush and the conquering of the Wild West built the prosperity of the present states like California. But this was borne out of the blood and sacrifices not only of the men who rushed into the mines and battlefield but also by women who travelled with their husbands, women looking for economic opportunities and most of all by the Indian women.
The second stanza of the song talks of Dakota presumably a reference to an Indian woman. Her description of the woman as broad yet maidenly is an over simplistic perception of the Indian woman, giving a picture of innocence and purity. Anglo Californians seldom had a kind word for native women (Hurtado 11).
Reading Hurtados book Sex, Gender, Culture and a Great Event gives me a better understanding of the white mans perception of women as domestic labour, reproductive vessel, prostitutes and in worst cases as no better than animals. Indeed, white womens value in the home working on domestic jobs, reproducing offsprings and rights in marriage had soared due to their scarcity in the west. Divorce laws were made more liberal not solely because of the recognition of womens rights but more often based on economics. The woman was freed to marry another man, most often going up the financial ladder. Foreigners, like French women were seen as prostitutes. The level of respect to women goes down when it comes to other races. On the lowest level were the Indian women who suffered the most at the hands of the white men.
Hurtados book described the massacre of women and children and depicted a macabre mural that belies the crawling Indians in the mural of history depicted by Merchants song. Indians did not just crawl around the mural of history(Merchant) they were butchered and humiliated. Driven out of the South towards the west they were repeatedly stripped of any rights as a nation.
The third stanza asks the questions about the many nameless women who travelled west and the untold stories of their sufferings. White women suffered from childbirth, diseases and violence but not as much as women of color. The white woman had a choice whom to marry as there were more women than men in the west at that time. The land wasnt free as simplistically described by the song if the price was the blood of countless men and women not only the whites but of many colored nations.
The fourth stanza is the destruction of the family in search of gold. The diffliculty of widows in staking claims over her husbands find. Death was not the onlyway that families were destroyed. The ease by which women and men could file for divorce helped increase the number of broken families. If the woman could not stake a claim by herself she could always find another man to give her a better life. Women could leave their old husbands for newer ones who were richer or who otherwise suited them better (Hurtado 17). I sympathize with the suffering of the gold rush brides but isnt it their choice that they went to the west. They were not totally ignorant of the perils of going to new frontiers. The suffering they experienced was not even half of what the Indian women suffered at the hands of the white men.
As the white woman read about the sufferings of her sister who went west, I if it stopped them from travelling too. White women still continued travelling west despite the accounts read by them. Getting married in the west and making their own fate and fortune were most probably in their mind, thinking that the misfortune of one could not also be her own. Women in the west made their own fortune and by marrying higer and higher into the social structure, while the Indian women were discriminated on, made into mistresses, raped and violated. The west was won with the sacrifice of women too.
Merchants song in a way brought into the picture the untold stories of women who travelled west. It is true that she challenges the idea that the West depicted in popular films as a place for adventure, ruled by courageous men willing to defend womens honor. She showed that women suffered as they accepted their roles as gold rush brides. But her depiction of the Indian woman so simplistic and of Indians crawling in the mural of history leaves much to be desired.
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