{"product_id":"564-go-west-and-rest-gendering-medicine-and-fitzgeralds-fairy-tale","title":"564. GO WEST AND REST: GENDERING MEDICINE AND FITZGERALD'S FAIRY TALE","description":"\u003cp\u003eF. Scott Fitzgerald’s \u003cem\u003eGretchen’s Forty Winks\u003c\/em\u003e, included in his masterful collection \u003cem\u003eAll the Sad Young Men\u003c\/em\u003e (1926), is much more than a fairy tale about fidelity and domestic harmony. When placed in the context of late-nineteenth and early-twentieth-century medical cures for nervous disorders, the recurring threat of mental collapse in the story offers a provocative commentary on modern medicine and gender roles in America. Fitzgerald appears to draw on the writings of two prominent turn-of-the-century “nerve doctors” in his portrait of mental health—George Beard and Silas Weir Mitchell. Mitchell’s infamous \u003cem\u003eRest Cure\u003c\/em\u003e, as damningly portrayed in Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s short story \u003cem\u003eThe Yellow Wallpaper \u003c\/em\u003e(1892), isolated women from family and friends, forbid any mental activity from sewing to writing, and restricted them to complete bedrest. His solution to the nervous conditions afflicting men, which he and Beard called “neurasthenia,” involved the exact opposite. His \u003cem\u003eWest Cure\u003c\/em\u003e encouraged men to work on ranches and farms in order to ride horses, hike, hunt, fish, and camp. In short, they were advised to spend their days outdoors and to journal about it at night. Fitzgerald juxtaposes the Rest Cure and the West Cure in \u003cem\u003eGretchen’s Forty Winks\u003c\/em\u003e to highlight problematic gender norms and a consumer ideology that values money over emotional engagement.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\u003cmeta charset=\"utf-8\"\u003e\u003cspan\u003e\u003cb\u003eDetails\u003c\/b\u003e:\u003cbr\u003eGo West and Rest: Gendering Medicine and Fitzgerald's Fairy Tale\u003cbr\u003eProfessor Thomas Fahy\u003cbr\u003e1 session: Monday, June 8\u003cbr\u003e10:00 – 12 noon \u003cbr\u003eFee: $35\u003c\/span\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"The Frick Estate Lectures","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":52057516310811,"sku":null,"price":35.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"url":"https:\/\/thefrickestatelectures.org\/products\/564-go-west-and-rest-gendering-medicine-and-fitzgeralds-fairy-tale","provider":"The Frick Estate Lectures","version":"1.0","type":"link"}