Gilligan's Island

Gilligan and Identity Politics

38 Gilligan’s Island Gilligan and Identity Politics In terms of current understandings of identity politics, Gilligan’s Island is least defensible. Its depiction of racial difference is reprehensible : the natives are at once blood thirsty, cannibalistic savages and remarkably incompetent. There is no ethnic diversity among the castaways, even in comparison to a nineteenthcentury sea-faring text such as Moby-Dick. In terms of social class, the show is facile, demonstrating that even the fabulously wealthy Howells and the working-class Gilligan can come to care about each other intimately. In the episode “The Sweepstakes ,” Mr. Howell is at first angry at Gilligan’s egalitarianism. When Gilligan thinks he has won the lottery, he buys his five friends $50,000 entrance fees into the Howells’ formerly exclusive island country club. However, Mr. Howell proves to be more kind than his gruff exterior would at first indicate: even though he knows Gilligan’s ticket is two years old, and thus worthless, he still lets all of the castaways participate in country club life. Finally, while the show attends to gender differences, much of its comedy is built on conventional gender roles: Ginger gets her way through seduction, while Mary Ann is stuck doing the cleaning and the cooking. In one episode, however, “St. Gilligan and the Dragon,” an inkling of gender-based critique finds a voice. Shortly after the publication of Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique (1963), many television sitcoms began grappling with a populist onset of feminism. Most spectacularly, Bewitched (ABC, 1964–72) represented the conflict between women as domestic beings and actors in the public space on a weekly basis. Other shows, such as The Beverly Hillbillies (CBS, 1964–72) and Gilligan’s Island , saved such concerns for one or two episodes. In a much later episode arc of The Beverly Hillbillies, in 1971, Elly May and Granny stage a feminist protest in Jed’s home. Much earlier on Gilligan’s Island, the women also go on 01 Metz text.indd 38 1/20/12 12:00 PM 39 What Great Books Would You Bring? strike. In the teaser sequence to “St. Gilligan and the Dragon,” the women demand more privacy, refusing to do any more cooking or laundry until the men acknowledge their concerns. “We think that women should have the same rights as men,” declares Ginger. The Professor tries to explain rationally: “Historically , it is the men who make the decisions.” Not taking the women seriously, the men laugh at Ginger, Mary Ann, and Mrs. Howell as they leave the encampment to form a women’s cooperative on the other side of the island. The episode quickly devolves into a “battle of the sexes” reworking of the “Job Switching” episode of I Love Lucy (season 2, episode 39, September 15, 1952). After the men realize that they are incompetent cooks, they seek out the women for reconciliation . When the women see a giant caterpillar in the jungle, they think it is the men trying to play a trick on them. However, they become genuinely frightened when they see that the men have come to apologize. Gilligan beats down the monster with a stick before the Professor can explain that it is a lost weather balloon and that they could repair it to engineer a rescue. By the time the Professor gets to Gilligan, he has completely destroyed the balloon’s fragile fabric. In short, at best, Gilligan’s Island grappled with identity politics in a simplistic way common to 1950s sitcoms such as I Love Lucy. Such would not be the case with the show’s engagement with the Western literary tradition. What Great Books Would You Bring to a Desert Island? As constructed by Sherwood Schwartz, Gilligan’s Island repeatedly announces itself as existing within, not as opposed to, the literary tradition. Gilligan’s Island continues the tradition of envisioning a functioning island utopia resistant to the corrupt 01 Metz text.indd 39 1/20/12 12:00 PM ...