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B*****s Be Crazy
We all know of the trope of the crazy woman, the madwoman in the attic, hidden away for the ‘good’ of those that ‘care’ for her and herself. She can’t be trusted. She’s erratic, emotional, and just basically an intense mess. She’ll just set fire to the whole house and try to kill everyone. And yes, this is Jane Eyre. Yes, it is Bertha, an inconvenience, easily labeled as mad and swept away as if just a minor problem stemming from feminine insanity, despite being massively mistreated.
The same can be said for the main character in Charlotte Perkins Gillman’s short story The Yellow Wallpaper. After the birth of her child, a woman is forced into isolation in her room, away from her child and husband. Even though she most likely is suffering from post-partum depression, she is labeled as hysterical, as if this is an inherently weak female attribute. The story follows the decline in her mental health.
Mental health issues are clearly important, regardless of gender. Some disorders are demonized more than others in the media and on a societal level. However, what I want to look at here is the specific treatment of women and mental health. From a personal experience and objectively, the treatment of men and women in this respect is very different. It wouldn’t be a far stretch to think of a variety of ‘crazy’ lady stereotypes used in the contemporary film (Misery, Wayne’s World, Psycho…) that…
