The Rise and Fall of Traditional Masculinity in An Unsuitable Job for a Woman Upon first purchasing PD James' An Unsuitable

Job for a Woman, and having no knowledge that this class focused on the detective instead of the murder, I thought that the unsuitable job was a murder or a hit man! I could have never imagined that this book would be about a female detective navigating the treacherous waters of murder investigation and male dominance! "ndrocentric thinking is the practice, both consciousl# and unconsciousl#, of placing maleness or masculine thinking at the center of one$s world view! %his dominance of maleness ultimatel# shapes culture and histor#! %his dependence on male thinking is seen throughout the plot of the novel! &nce I gained the knowledge that this book was for a class about murder and detective stories, I had an immediate reaction to the title of the stor# because I knew then what the unsuitable job was! 'owever, in thinking about it a little bit more, it was clear that although our societ# no longer sa#s that being a detective is not a woman$s job it is portra#ed both in how detective stories are created, and who the# are often created b#! "lthough our stor# has a female lead, she seems to be ill prepared for the job without the help of her male counterparts, (ernie Pr#de and the elusive )uper who trained him*a man who +ordelia ,ra#, our lead has never met but is her default source of wisdom throughout the stor#! +ordelia must navigate her investigation b# recalling the things (ernie has taught her both from his own wisdom and through his reminders from )uperintendent Dalgliesh! +ordelia$s first reliance on (ernie$s maleness is when she feels the need to take his gun with her*she takes the gun, not onl# as protection straight from (ernie, but almost as a reminder that even though she has lost this male figure in her life she has a helpful skill that he has taught her to get her through! %he book goes into great detail about how (ernie taught her to shoot the gun-

%he# had driven for practice into the depths of .pping /orest and her memories of the gun were linked with dappled shade and the rich smell of deca#ing leaves! 'e had fi0ed a target to a convenient tree!!!)he could still ear the e0cited staccato orders! '(end #our knees slightl#! /eet apart! "rm full length! 1ow place the left hand against the barrel, cradling it! 2eep #our e#es on the target! "rm straight, partner!!!' 3p! 456 and how important it was to her that it was left to her after his suicide even though she had never seen it as a lethal weapon 3p! 456! +ordelia is further comforted enough b# (ernie's logic that 7i8f we ever fire in anger it will be to save our lives!!!the 9uestion of a license is irrelevant that she continues to carr# the unlicensed gun around the countr# with her! %he antithesis to +ordelia$s reliance on the gun and thus (ernie$s maleness is that she is never actuall# able to use the gun, even when she is most threatened she does not use it, just further removing her from the masculine identit# that she would need to have in this job! In fact, the night that :unn places her in the well +ordelia activel# decides not to get the gun she hesitated for a moment wondering whether to collect the gun!!!but decided that this could wait 3p! 4;<6! It$s as if taking the gun and the maleness is too big of a burden for her and instead she hides the gun and along with it the opportunit# to assert herself in the trees far awa# from her! "lthough she does not assert herself when it was most needed +ordelia angril# brandishes her gun at a man who gets in her car on the side of the road after an accident, it's the final action that shows although +ordelia has been given this s#mbolic male hood she is not prepared to use it and uses it in the wrong situations* impl#ing that even if women were given the same power as men, the# would just s9uander it when the# got emotional! In this the point is driven home that even though she has been e9uipped with a tool to give herself more power, that power is almost too much for her*and instead of embracing it she keeps it from herself! "lthough +ordelia doesn't have much e0perience with being a detective the times that

+ordelia reminds herself of the male wisdom are not times in which she is stuck, but rather in times where she seems to me as a reader to be on a roll! In a wa#, she slows down her own progress bug second guessing herself! /or e0ample, when +ordelia is first brought to the cottage, instead of taking her time and e0amining things in a wa# that would be most comfortable for her, she recalls what the super sa#s 7w8hen #ou're e0amining a building look at it as if #ou would a countr# church! =alk round it first! :ook at the whole scene inside and out> then make #our deductions! "sk #ourself what #ou saw, not what #ou e0pected to see or what #ou hoped to see, but what #ou saw! 3p! 5;6 and although she finds some clues outside*such as the half plowed garden row and the nude picture, those seem to be the clues that keep her from the truth, while the cup and food inside reall# speak to her and seem to be reall# important in her view! (ecause she follows the advice of a male that is almost contrar# to her own nature, she continues to be lead in circles constantl# 9uestioning what was found outside as that was her first arsenal of clues! .ven when she meets the super in person she is found to be thinking of tips given to her b# (ernie, 7i8f #ou're tempted to crime, stick to #our original statement! %here's nothing that impresses the jur# more than consistenc#!!!3p!?@@A?@B6 impl#ing that she is not able to outsmart a man b# her own wit, but

instead needs the input of another man to protect herself*and it is this advice that +ordelia attributes to her success, %his, she knew, was a small victor#! )he had resisted the momentar# temptation to change her stor#! 3p! ?@@6 :astl#, this male control is ultimatel# what helps her to be an accessor# to murder and get off! 'ow would #ou shoot #ourself behind the right earC ,o on, +ordelia*show! +ordelia had taken the pistol in her right hand, inde0 finger lightl# resting on the trigger, and with some difficult# had strained back her arm to place the muDDle of the gun against the base of her skull! Eou wouldn't #ou know! 1ot if #ou were used to a gun!!!If he'd reall# shot himself behind the right ear he'd have pressed the trigger with his thumb and held the revolver with his palm round the back of the butt!

Femembering (ernie and the )uper's first murder case is what helped +ordelia place the right prints on the gun that was used to kill Gr! +allendar! =ithout this little bit of information, surel# she and Giss :eaming would have been caught! %he reflection of male control in +ordelia's life is most evident when that control is lost! :eading up to this lost of control, +ordelia defaults her logic back to the stereot#pical woman$s emotion of love! '(ut what is the use of making the world a more beautiful if the people who live in it can't love one anotherC' ':oveH %he most overused word in the language! 'as it an# meaning e0cept the particular sentimental connontation which #ou choose to give itC!!!perhaps #ou prefer a more feminine more individual dentition!!!love is more destructive than hate!' 'I meant love as a parent loves a child!!!#ou could have let him liveH' 3p! ?II6 (# 9uestioning Gr! +allendar about his love for his son +ordelia makes him angr# and it is this anger that Giss :eaming hears that causes her to kill the onl# man she loves! %he use of words in this scene creates this mania in which the woman's emotion of love is so overpowering that it causes both of the women to lose control of who the# are! =ith the death of the two men who had an# control over her +ordelia, along with Giss :eaming losing Gr! +allendar as the control over her life the two women seem to lose their consciousness and abilit# to be Jproper womenJ and instead end up covering up a shootingKmurder in a wa# I as the reader didn't feel the# had to *there was so much passion in the room, I believe Giss :eaming could have gotten awa# with a crime of passion! =ith the death of Gr! +allendar the two women become the e0act opposite of ever#thing the# are presented to be in the beginning, the# are no longer women who think rationall# and logicall#, but rather the# become two people so in need of male protection that ever#one who comes across Giss :eaming seems to want to help her and +ordelia is almost unable to function without feeling tired! It is as if keeping herself safe without the guidance of a

man is so e0hausting that she is unable to sta# awake in even the most basic of situations! +ordelia soon becomes more comfortable in her new male role and is able to lie about the crime at trial and is able to get herself and Giss :eaming off free! Instead of continuing to dwell on what has happened +ordelia is able to move forward and start thinking about new cases, but this is not possible for Giss :eaming who kills herself*perhaps because of guilt, or perhaps because she felt she was in an unsuitable position for a woman!