Gender Cluster-Butler’s Take on a Modern African American Woman in the Past.

In Octavia Butler’s book Kindred, many societal issues are brought to light throughout the book, both in her trips to the past and her interactions in her present time. Race, gender, marriage, and family all take center stage in Kindred.

What I thought was most curious was the gender role issue that was present during Dana’s trips to the past. Obviously race was a major issue, but some of the factors that we assume were problems, might have actually been gender issues, and not necessarily racial issues. For instance, the interactions between Dana and Rufus.

Throughout the story, I got the feeling that Rufus felt like he possibly owned Dana. I didn’t contribute this to his owning slaves, but how he treated women in general. With Alice he decided that he was entitled to her, and her body. With his mother, he would dismiss whatever she was saying, if he was no longer interested he would simply tell her to leave. With Dana, he was entirely sure that she was his property.

In my opinion, gender was a much bigger issue than it was made out to be, it seemed to be clouded by the obvious slavery and white supremacy that was so prevalent the novel.