Gender Abuse: Where Did It Start & When Will It End?

Cholly hated Pauline because she reminded him of his inadequacy to protect not only himself, but his girl-friend, against those white men in the bushes.

The same, male gender abuse continues in Gloria Naylor’s The Women Of Brewster Place. Ben was the drunk, old handy man who lived in the basement of a building on Brewster Place. Yet, Ben did not willingly move to Brewster Place, he was beaten into Brewster Place, by his wife’s verbal and psychosomatic cruelty, as well as his own guilt, expressed here in this dialogue,

“Nigger, what is wrong with you? …You better get some sense in you head ‘fore I knock some in you! …Ben stood with his hands in his pockets…balling his fists up in his overalls…

“It ain’t right, Elvira… She came to us, Elvira…She came to us a long time ago”.

“She came to us with a bunch of lies ‘bout Mr. Clyde ‘cause she’s too damn lazy to work. Why would a decent widow man want to mess with a little black nothin’ like her? No, anything to get out of work just like you”.

(The Women Of Brewster Place 152)

So, Ben was mentally and emotionally mistreated by his wife’s comments, but what caused Ben even more emotional and psychological abuse was his incompetence toward his own daughter. Ben did not and could not confront and punish Mr. Clyde (the white land owner) for sexually abusing his daughter, after she made it clear to Ben. Therefore, Ben could no longer endure seeing his daughter with a saddened mind and spirit, so he turned to alcohol to numb his senses and guilt and went to Brewster Place to continue numbing any emotion.