The most influential people in Groom Service are clearly women. One family in particular, Blanche’s family, is the most influential family in the story. The source of their power and influence are children, specifically daughters. Female offspring are more highly prized in the gynocentric society. “She’s [Marie] of pure quartz, A one-in-a million that you find after walking the beach for half your life with your eyes on the ground.” (Dorris, 1) Women with daughters are of higher rank than women without daughters. This is evident when Martha, Bernard’s mother is pleading with Blanche, Marie’s mother for a marriage proposal between their children. Marie is talking as though she is the inferior talking to a superior. In addition, power and influence in this society are relative to how many female offspring a family has. “Blanche’s daughter was the hope of the next generation, the one who had to bring in a husband and produce more daughters than her mother or aunt, if the family was to regain its position.” (Dorris, 3) This statement suggests that Blanche’s family is hoping that Marie’s potential marriage to Bernard will produce many female offspring that would raise their family’s position. Another measure of how much power and influence a woman’s family has in the society is natural resources. For example, Blanche’s family deals with fishing. A source of her family’s influence in their society would be her knowledge and access of good fishing sites. “For another, Blanche’s and Bonnie’s husbands had begun to join him on his hunts, to show him places to fish that only members of this household knew.” (Dorris, 6) Furthermore, it is possible for a male to gain some influence in this society through marriages to powerful women. This is evident when Theodore urges Bernard to go through the ritual of groom service. “It’s a daughter-poor clan and the one they’ve picked out for you is going to control everything someday: rich fishing sites, a big house.” (Dorris, 4) This implies that if Bernard is successful with groom service he may gain some influence with a powerful family.
The ideal characteristics of women important to the gynocentric society are leadership traits, such as assertiveness, decision-making, and ability to cook. Since women were seen as the dominant gender of the human species, leadership traits were adapted to show their control over the men. One of these traits is decision-making, which was displayed when Blanche was deciding whether the game Bernard brought to her was acceptable. Decision-making was important to ensure that the man who wanted to propose a marriage with their daughter was worthy enough to support their future wife. Meanwhile, cooking was also considered an ideal characteristic. Throughout the story, men were seen as the servants who simply gathered the ingredients, while the women were seen as talented people, who could change the game into something edible.
Meanwhile, the ideal characteristics of men which were important in the gynocentric society seemed to be obedience, gratitude, and ability to hunt. "You don't complain...You stay out of the way, because you never know what they're going to find to dislike. You be what they want," (Dorris, 5). Throughout the story, as in this incident in which Theodore was talking to Bernard, men were expected to do as the women told them because of they were thought to be born inferior. Gratitude was also considered an ideal characteristic because this was the one way the men were evaluated in the ritual. Whether or not the woman they are proposing to accept them is dependent on how the man shows that he appreciates the meal provided. Last, but not least, men were expected to be able to hunt. The women depend on the men to gather the meat so they can cook, once again, their hunting abilities determines whether or not they are worthy as a husband.
The society in Groom Service is very different from our society. It is a gynocentric society where the women rule and the men have to prove his ability to hunt for the women’s hand in marriage. This is obviously unimaginable in our current society; however, the idea that one must prove their potential to their future spouse is an interesting one. This could certainly be applied to our own society. A ritual performed by both sexes to prove their worth, fit as a couple and the ability to provide basic necessities for each other. Perhaps it would lower the number of failed marriages because of the extensive ritual where only strong relationships could pass. In their society, the men would move into the women’s household after marriage. In our society, this would be shameful for the man and his family. Our society could take some of the qualities of the society in Groom Service and loosen the pressure of bringing pride to the men’s family. Nevertheless, the society in Groom Service is extremely radical and different from our society and not much can be applied.
The short story Groom Service is a society where women rule and it is matrilineal. It has many rules and customs including the Groom Service ritual for a marriage proposal and the men moving into the women’s household after marriage. In this society the women are the most influential because of their power and influence in a gynocentric society. The ideal characteristics for women are assertiveness, decision-making, and ability to cook while the ideal characteristics for men are obedience, gratitude, and ability to hunt. The aspect of a ritual for courting before marriage might be applied to our society.
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