Gender Roles

In Chapter 7 of Their Eyes Were Watching God, Jody, now in his 50s, has bags under his eyes and a prominent, flabby stomach. Insecure about his own age, he constantly belittles Janie by trying to make her feel old even though he is over 10 years older than her. At first, she thinks Jody does not look well, so she says nothing; however, by the end of the chapter she is determined to speak her mind because of this unfairness from Jody and calls him fat, which wounds his pride and causes him to slap her and drive her out of the store.

This all occurs because of his desire to be, and have, the best. But perhaps even more importantly this happens because Jody is a man, a man who has a lot of power in Eatonville. If Jody were a women and Janie were a man, and they had all the same character traits, it would be a totally different ballgame. Since the men of the town are biased towards other men, if Janie was the man, no one would have cared if she called Janie fat because no one cared about the pride of women in those times.

Nothing else in the book will change except that in Chapter 7, and Chapter 7 only, Janie and Jody switch genders. How would the plot change based on the gender differences? Give a brief summary of what would happen and relate what you thought of to the roles of men and women in society during that time.