The Criticism of Heterosexual Patriarchy and Gender Fusion in Stanley

Pam Gems’ Stanley (1996), centering around one of the most renowned British male painters, Stanley Spencer, with two seemingly stereotypical female characters—very vicious lesbian Patricia and self-sacrificial Hilda-does not provide straightforward feminist slogans. However, despite the absence of easy statements, the play contains numerous feminist agendas and questions related to patriarchy and gender. The play eventually suggests that compulsory heterosexuality and patriarchy ironically contribute to masculinity in crisis and the collapse of binary gender. The play dramatizes that Stanley, embracing heterosexual patriarchism as a universal norm, lacks the sensitivity to discern someone’s sexual orientation, marries Patricia, a lesbian who refuses to consummate the marriage, and becomes the butt of ridicule. The play implies that Patricia’s Machiavellian approach to Stanley is the only way for her to survive in a compulsory heterosexual society. The play also dramatizes the numerous instances in which binary genders become deconstructed. In the emotional and financial entanglements with his two wives, Stanley becomes more passive than his wives, while his wives reveal very decisive and so-called “masculine” characteristics. At the end of the play, Stanley is redeemed from crisis and portrayed as a respectful artist. His survival is due to the imaginative integration with Hilda’s spirit, which reflects his artistic vision of the unification of opposing forces. Stanley, who used to regard women as objects, in the end accepts Hilda as a subject on equal footing, and his emotional and artistic wounds become healed. The play shows that integration rather than segregation is the key to healing gender conflict.