How is "Big Blonde" a feminist story?

“Big Blonde” centers on Hazel Morse, a “large fair woman” in her mid-thirties. She previously worked as a model in a wholesale clothes store and likes being popular. While working at the clothes store, she met and married her husband, Herbie Morse. After marriage, the couple moves into a flat, and Hazel abandons her old friends, preferring to spend all her time with her husband. However, after some time, Herbie begins to resent the idea of...

“Big Blonde” centers on Hazel Morse, a “large fair woman” in her mid-thirties. She previously worked as a model in a wholesale clothes store and likes being popular. While working at the clothes store, she met and married her husband, Herbie Morse. After marriage, the couple moves into a flat, and Hazel abandons her old friends, preferring to spend all her time with her husband. However, after some time, Herbie begins to resent the idea of spending all his free time in the house. He chooses to go out in the evenings for drinking sprees, something that Hazel does not want to do anymore. The couple’s marriage suffers as they seek conflicting goals with no compromise in sight. Hazel then takes to drinking, with the encouragement of her husband and a new friend, Mrs. Martin, who has moved into her flat. Through Mrs. Martin, Hazel meets a new circle of male friends, one of whom is particularly good to her. As her marriage problems get worse, she becomes closer to this man, who is called Ed. When Herbie finally leaves her, she gets involved with Ed, who takes care of her, “giving her frequent gifts and a regular allowance.” Ed even relocates her to a new flat and a new club called Jimmy’s Place.

The clientele at Jimmy’s Place mainly consists of women who like to use, for titles, their names together with their husbands’ surnames so as to present “a solidity of marriage and the glamour of freedom,” even though a very small number of these women are actually divorced. Most of them are also kept women.

Hazel settles for a series of relationships. After Ed comes Charley, then Sydney and many others. She also has frequent bouts of depression and insomnia, for which Mrs. Miller, from Jimmy’s Place, advises her to take veronal. Towards the end of the story, she overdoses on veronal and almost dies, following a bout of depression and suicidal thoughts.

The story is a feminist story because it tries to explain the role of women in the American society of the 1920s (the story was published in 1929). Through Hazel, the writer talks about a certain type of woman who is unable to keep her marriage, perhaps due to her socialization—she likes popularity and is a party girl, a people-pleaser, and a “good sport.” By being a “good sport,” she is forced to subordinate her interests to those of her spouse or male friend. This is why Hazel’s partners are always turned off by her low spirits. They expect her to always be gay and a “good sport.” They do not understand that she is only human and does have her low moments. Indeed, there’s a price to be paid for being a “good sport.” Also, this kind of woman lives off her partners. Therefore, she appears not to have a voice in the relationship. She is treated like a commodity, as she is expected to behave in a certain standardized manner—always happy and in high spirits. This expectation is what leads Hazel to develop suicidal thoughts. Also, the story looks at the effect of sexual liberation on women of the time.