Jenae Valvoda

Eng 330
30 Nov 2014
Dr. Wicktor
Gold-Digging: Socioeconomic Mobility in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes
The Progressive Era, a period in the United States between the end of
the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century, contributed many
social and economic reforms that influenced themes in Anita Loos novel,
Gentlemen Prefer Blondes: The Intimate Diary of a Professional Lady,
published in 1925. Namely, what is known as the first-wave of feminism was
having success as a movement to improve womens rights, promoting social
equality amongst genders. The movement proved successful with a
constitutional amendment in 1919, giving women the right to vote; however,
that is just one aspect of what women asked for. Charles Bressler notes, the
first wave was mainly concerned with the right to vote, education, sexual
choice, literature, and the acceptance to be as socially active outside the
home as men were in a sphere (Feminism 171). It is recognized that
patriarchy is the norm in western cultures, where men define what it means
to be human, including what it means to be female. Since the female is not
male, Simone de Beauvoir maintains, she becomes the Other, an object
whose existence is defined and interpreted by the dominant male, he
remarks (Feminism 173). In this othering process, the female feels
secondary and therefore a subordinate figure to both herself and the
patriarchal environment surrounding her. Therefore, notions such as
Valvoda 1

independent thinking and loosening inhibitions, the polar opposite of many

generations of women before them, comprised the popularized flapper
lifestyle of the 1920s as trying to break out of the patriarchy. Women, for the
first time, started to become a part of the social sphere and not just working
objects around the household, acting faintly more like men to prove a point
about gender equality or to mimic what was solely happening in the sphere
they were trying to enter and do so with subtlety. Flappers drove
automobiles, cut their hair in boyish styles, drank alcohol, and treated
intercourse casually in order to promote egalitarian ideals.
Loos depicts flapper lifestyle in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes and was also
known to participate in the cultural phenomenon herself. Because of her
close connection to the societal shift, the reader is able to correlate the two
and easily see her novel as a comical representation of women transitioning
from the traditional way they were raised as ladies in a small town, to
embracing the more liberal ideals of feminists and flappers that have a
global outlook for equality. For this reason, this analysis will focus on golddigging acts in Gentlemen Prefer Blondes as a form of social agency in order
to gain economic mobility and aspire to a higher social status in a capitalist
society.
Lorelei Lee, the professional lady in Loos novel, is undisputedly one
of the first portrayals of a gold-digger since she is obsessed with material
possessions and strictly uses her charm in order to obtain them. Gold-digger
gained a new connotation in English lexicon through a production by Avery
Valvoda 2

Hopwood in 1919, as documented by the Oxford English Dictionary;

previously meaning simply one who digs for gold, it became slang for a
woman who portrays interest in a man solely for benefitting from his wealth,
and may do so to multiple men at once. Though patriarchy makes this term
a negative comment on a woman, this is a way that culturally women shifted
to a less subordinate role than they had been for all of eternity prior in the
Western world. Correlating with The Progressive Era that had just abolished
prostitution in an effort to supposedly better womens social standing and rid
society of sexual pollution, gold-digging became a means for which men
could attract women to spend time with them and for women to continue to
profit off of the situation, since prostitution is in fact the worlds oldest
profession and habits so old are not easily broken (Barry 222). Women of
this period had very few ways to earn wages of their own and liberate
themselves, especially now that prostitution was more taboo and illegal than
ever, to a more capitalist market rather than the purely ascribed status of
their fathers or husbands, which is the main argument behind why a woman
would want to practice gold-digging in the 1920s. Charlotte Perkins Gilman
defined material feminism, to be concerned with relieving traditional duties
women are typically assigned with such as domestic responsibilities and
child rearing (Feminism 181). These activities were caging women to
homes, unable to have the opportunity for financial or social independence
from their husbands or fathers. Marxism is closely related to this notion
since it is concerned with how economic and social inequalities shape the
Valvoda 3

way we behave morally, ideally a society would want to create egalitarianism

so as to obtain harmony and not jealousy through competition (Marxism
192). Therefore the reader can determine digging is an egalitarian move
because it attempts to correct what men have kept out of reach to women
for so long (Barry 302).
Pamela Robertson argues the opposite in her article, Feminist Camp in
Gold Diggers of 1933," by stating:
The concept of gold-digging still raises questions related to the
effects of commercialization, industrialization, and urbanization
on sex roles and sexual behavior. But, because the gold-diggers
actions are attributed to greed and not need, her image is
divorced from the broader issue of womens inequality that had
previously grounded feminist concern over the cultural emphasis
on material acquisition and commercialized leisure (138).
Robertson clearly misses the mark by not accounting for the limits put on
women of the period to earn wages of their own and that this was a way for
women to introduce themselves to society slowly, so as to learn cultural
norms and behaviors before fully taking on a previously exclusive mans
world. She ignores these facts and calls using men for socioeconomic
advancement anti-feminist, when she should be admitting that the act of
acquiring wealth from male suitors was a consensual act, however oblivious
a man might have been about it, rather than stealing as she makes it out to

Valvoda 4

be. She does not account for that this act of digging made women active
rather than passive, a main tier to feminist theory (Feminism 179).
Radhika Balakrishnan mentions that Feminists need to pay attention to the
ways in which capitalisms effects on women are simultaneously liberatory
and exploitive (45). Though digging could perhaps be both liberatory and
exploitive, the liberation is the more important element here since the time
period is only in the first wave of feminism and any way of breaking out of
patriarchy is arguably a good way of breaking out (Barry 303).
Lorelei was actually introduced to gold-digging in very consensual
ways, with men practically throwing money at her, and she simply never
refused them. In the novel, she mentions that she has attended Business
College, but again that is not a commonality for women of the 1920s, and it
is even less common that a career should follow that education. She was
actually hired by a man before graduating, soon realizing that he was not as
interested in her secretarial skills as he was her body; this was her first
experience in which her body was the commodity and the compensation was
her secretarial wages in an indirect manner. This relationship soon ended
and Lorelei became accustomed to a skill she had of being able to command
a room by simply entering it, she realized her body was one defining
attribute about her. Through this process of accepting her body as a
commodity that she could use with little outer physical labor, as capitalism
would typically require, rather than an object for men to just use without
compensation, Lorelei overcomes the othering that made women feel
Valvoda 5

inferior to men for centuries. Sometime after, Lorelei finds work in

Hollywood with movies and is then discovered by Gus Eisman who offers to
lavishly educate her in New York by footing all of her bills. To then connect
Loreleis work to capitalist labor, the reader may note that spending time
with Eisman, according to her, was exhausting, I mean we always seem to
have dinner at the Colony and see a show and go to the Trocadero and then
Mr. Eisman shows me to my apartment. So of course when a gentleman is
interested in educating a girl, he likes to stay and talk about the topics of the
day until quite late, so I am quite fatigued the next day and I do not really
get up until it is time to dress for dinner at the Colony. This first occurrence
of digging was the most consensual of all the acts in the novel because of
how much Eisman was willing to give Lorelei since the nature in which he
kept her in New York is clearly more his idea than hers, and he spares no
expense at educating her both with money and with his own words, there is
more than just a digging relationship between the two. When Lorelei
happens upon another rich man, Lamson, she considers for a moment
leaving Eisman, but decides not to due to the scandal it would cause, not
mentioning money or material goods as a determining factor in her decision.
During her time in New York, the reader computes that this is the
largest socioeconomic jump that Lorelei makes in the novel as she becomes
accustomed to the differences in higher class and experiences dialectical
materialism, or the way in which one uses language in relation to class
standing is a core belief of Marxist theory (Marxism 192). Since Lorelei is
Valvoda 6

starting anew in a social class where she has no experience, this may be
most easily viewed through Jacques Lacans orders of the human psyche:
imaginary, symbolic, and real. Imaginary order comes first in ones life but it
is a genderless stage since it is the earliest and individuals have not yet
come to know gender differences as they are not of concern yet. Symbolic
order follows when individuals are becoming accustomed to social language;
boys start to use dominant language and girls start to use subordinated
language. Real order comes lastly in development. This stage involves
shaping the individuals perception of the world through the learned
language and surrounding societal actions; for women, this stage means
obeying ones authoritative father by becoming submissive (Feminism
179).
After looking the part, in the dresses, jewels, and other apparel Eisman
acting as a social agent buys for her, Lorelei also feels the need to play the
part in order to be fully accepted by high society and the reader observes
this through the way she uses language. There are instances where it is
clear that she is dumbing herself down so as not to appear threatening to
men and make herself less attractive and discontinue the benefits she
receives, she is subconsciously still including subordinated language, but
also attempts to integrate the way she perceives the higher class
communication happening around her. One example of this is in an attempt
to sound sophisticated, she eradicates the word me from her speech and
replaces it with I when she says, Gerry said it made him cringe to think of a
Valvoda 7

sweet girl like I having a friendship with Mr. Eisman. So it really made me feel
quite depressed. I mean Gerry likes to talk quite a lot and I always think a lot
of talk is depressing and worries your brains with things you never even think
of when you are busy, (Loos). Here one notes that she strays from
intellectual thought because it worries her brains and that is a huge cue to
subordinated language. Another clue that might hint at this transition she is
experiencing, is the fact that she is always able to spell champagne correctly
but stumbles on many other common words and concepts such as, So we
had another bottle of champagne and she became very [intreeged] about
Christian science because she said that she really thought it was a better
religion than [Prespyterians], (Loos). Here both women are unable to
identify that they are talking about the same religious sect, perhaps due to
the champagne, however Lorelei in an attempt to sound of higher class adds
science to the term and it becomes something the other woman is
intreeged about. So though the subordinate language combined with a
more Latinate lexicon is a difficult combination to master, it appears Loos did
it through Lorelei in a very comedic way and so that our heroine may
continue in her social mobility movement of gold-digging.
So far most of Loreleis acts seem innocent enough to the reader, most
can be brushed off as a portrayal of an ignoramus, but one very meditated
act stands out and that is her greed for the tiara. Such jewelry was typically
reserved for royalty, and in London the group encounters aristocrats selling
their family jewels, so naturally she wants the crown because of its
Valvoda 8

exclusivity. The cost is not relative in the matter and does not so much
attract her as it does deter her, or make her determined to have a man buy it
for her. The fact that she is attracted to the exclusivity over the tiaras worth
is how the reader knows that she is digging for social change and not directly
for gold. The way she approaches this is to cozy up to the wealthiest looking
man in her presence, Piggie, and convince him that it would bring her the
same happiness she brings him. She devises a scheme involving first
obtaining her own orchids to make Piggie comfortable spending money on
her through giving him the idea that he should be purchasing orchids for her:
So this morning Harry, the boy friend of ours who is the bell hop,
waked me up at ten oclock because he had a box of one dozen
orchids from Piggie. So by the time Piggie pays for a few dozen
orchids, the diamond tiara will really seem like quite a bargain.
Because I always think that spending money is only just a habit
and if you get a gentleman started on buying one dozen orchids
at a time he really gets very good habits (Loos).
Though this is clearly an act of gold-digging, Lorelei is simply playing at
Piggies emotions, she is also unknowingly playing at his capitalist reactions
to evoking love emotions to acquire the tiara. Murstein comments on love in
contemporary America when saying, At the center of arguments is the
perception of love as a drive or state of tension which, with a minimum of
satisfaction, keeps the individual in a hyperactive state. He is not nourished
by tangible reward, but by hope and expectations of bliss, (384). Therefore
Valvoda 9

one can conclude that Piggie is being nourished by hope and expectations
after presuming the future may hold a kiss for the pair if he keeps Loreleis
attention by purchasing her orchids and a tiara. Cheating is another factor
that entices Piggie, he has been married for many years and the romantic
love element has faded to static, so he seeks excitement and by finding that
in Lorelei, he compensates her with gifts (Murstein 385). Lorelei is not to
blame for Piggies capitalist need to acquire romantic love and feel as though
he has won a prize, being an ignoramus, she is just simply able to achieve
her tiara goals by flaunting her beauty and watching Piggie respond. This act
takes hardly any effort on Loreleis end other than maintaining her
appearance, but for Piggie, it will lighten his wallet quite a bit, though for a
good cause.
Loos novel, commenting on a new cultural trend, was probably a bit of
a subtle guide for some women that also wished to advance their social
standing through use of their body as a commodity in a capitalist patriarchy.
Many women could both laugh at and learn from her humorous work in order
to break that patriarchal mold and embrace the first wave or flapper culture.
Gold-digging in the modern day is far less necessary and as acceptable as
Lorelei makes it look in 1925, and one would then have to agree with
Robertson that it is ridiculously greedy; however, in Gentlemen Prefer
Blondes, it is a totally acceptable act of social agency to better ones
socioeconomic status.

Valvoda 10

Works Cited
Balakrishnan, Radhika. "Capitalism and Sexuality: Free to Choose?" Good
Sex: Feminist Perspectives from the World's Religions. Ed. Patricia
Beattie. Jung, Mary E. Hunt, and Radhika Balakrishnan. New Brunswick:
Rutgers UP, 2001. 44-57. Print.
Barry, Kathleen. The Prostitution of Sexuality. New York: New York UP, 1995.
Print.
Bressler, Charles E. "Feminism." Literary Criticism: An Introduction to Theory
and Practice. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2007. 16790. Print.
Bressler, Charles E. "Marxism." Literary Criticism: An Introduction to Theory
and Practice. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2007. 191211. Print.
"gold-digger, n." OED Online. Oxford University Press, September 2014.
Web. 20 November 2014.
Loos, Anita. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes. Liveright, 2012. Kindle AZW file.
Murstein, Bernard I. Love, Sex, and Marriage through the Ages. New York:
Springer, 1974. Print.

Valvoda 11

Robertson, Pamela. "Feminist Camp in Gold Diggers of 1933." Hollywood

Musicals, the Film Reader. Ed. Steven Cohan. London: Routledge, 2002.
129-42. Print.

Valvoda 12