Women's Struggle for Self confidence

Modern Woman’s Struggle with Self-confidence
The Art of the Story: An International Anthology of Contemporary Stories by Daniel Halpern is a compilation of the 80 short stories. This book brings together a generation of short story writers who provide a wide range of short fiction using different writing styles to captivate the reader. These short stories address different topics and issues ranging from love to sensual examination. The portrayal of the different characters in each of the short stories provide different themes or concepts that can be applicable to the contemporary world. An example of a short story in this book that provides contemporary theme or concept is G-string by Nicola Barker. This paper compares and contrasts Jeanie and Gillian in terms of how they represent the self-confidence struggles of the contemporary woman through the symbol of the G-string.
Jeanie vs. Gillian
Jeanie and Gillian are two major characters in G-string by Nicola Barker. Barker utilizes the symbol of the G-string to depict various themes and concepts reflecting the experiences and challenges of women in the society. Jeanie and Gillian have different views and perspectives on what it takes for women in the society to be respected and admired by men. Despite the differences in viewpoints in the G-string, Jeanie and Gillian are emblematic of the modern woman’s struggle with self-confidence. In essence, one of the overarching theme demonstrated by Barker in allowing the reader to follow her protagonist Gillian and her interactions with Jeanie is struggle with self-confidence. Barker utilizes the G-string to demonstrate how fashion and trends could be the genesis of a woman’s struggle with self-identity, self-esteem, and self-confidence as reflected by both Jeanie and Gillian.
In the initial stages of this short story, Jeanie and Gillian have very contrasting views on what constitutes the modern woman and how she can gain respect and admiration in the society, particularly among men. Jeanie and Gillian seemingly believe that women gain respect and admiration through embracing the society’s idea of a contemporary woman. Societal standards and ideas of what constitutes a modern woman is used as the premise of women empowerment. Through this, Jeanie and Gillian seemingly portray the idea that we live in a patriarchal society in which men play a key role in determining who a woman should be.
Given these perceptions, Jeanie believes that embracing latest fashion and trends is the premise for obtaining respect and admiration from men. This is evident in the fact that Jeanie introduces Gillian to the G-string in the beginning of the story. Jeanie introduces the G-string as a symbol of what represents a trendy and classy woman who is respected and admired by men and other women in the society. When introducing Gillian to the G-string, Jeanie argues that “the dress made her look like an egg-box. All lumpy-humpy” (Barker, p.70). Jeanie implies that Gillian cannot be considered as a classy, trendy and self-confident woman by virtue of her dress. Jeanie describes the G-string as “truly modern knickers… These are what everyone wears now” (Barker, p.70).
On the other hand, Gillian had a very different perception and view of what constitutes a classy, trendy woman. She seemingly believed that women gain respect and admiration from others not by virtue of what they wear, but who they really are. Barker describes Gillian as “a nervous size sixteen” (p.69). Gillian sacrifices her mental thought and beliefs of who a contemporary woman is by choosing to follow Jeanie’s advice and wear the G-string. On one hand, Gillian wanted to be a contemporary woman, but on the other hand, wearing a G-string tormented her given that she did not have the required physique to look good in the G-string. Therefore, Gillian struggles with self-identity and self-confidence because of the pressures to conform to societal standards and ideas of a contemporary woman at the expense of her own self-esteem and comfort.
Jeanie and Gillian exemplify the challenges contemporary women have with regards to self-esteem, self-confidence and self-identity. While Jeanie had embraced societal ideas and standards as the premise for defining a classy, trendy woman, she had lost her internal comfort in the process. This represents the experiences of some women in today’s society who embrace fashion and trends in order to obtain respect and admiration. In some cases, this comes at the expense of self-identity and self-esteem issues. Jeanie had succumbed to societal pressures and thought that embracing latest fashion trends is what truly defines a woman.
On the contrary, Gillian had a dilemma on whether to embrace the unpleasant G-string or reject it in favor of her mental comfort and self-esteem. This dilemma reflects the experiences of modern contemporary women who do not whether their self-perceptions should be the foundation of their self-confidence or use fashion to obtain a sense of identity among their peers. By wearing the G-string, Gillian loses the sense of self-identity, self-assurance, and self-confidence that she possessed before. As a result, she eventually took off the G-string and felt a sense of relief and liberation. Gillian felt more confident, victorious and a truly contemporary woman when she took off the G-string.
In conclusion, one of the overarching themes or concepts in Nicola Barker’s G-string is the modern woman’s struggle with self-confidence. As the heart of this struggle is whether or not to embrace societal ideas or standards on who is truly a contemporary woman. These societal ideas or standards are centered on fashion trends, which are used as the definition of beauty and class. Jeanie demonstrates this struggle through embracing the G-string as the symbol of class and beauty as well as definition of self-confidence. On the contrary, Gillian demonstrates this challenge through the dilemma on whether or not to wear the G-string.
Work Cited
Barker, Nicola. "G-string." The Art of the Story: An International Anthology of Contemporary Short Stories by Daniel Halpern. New York: Penguin, 1999. Print.