"You do a girl tolerable poor, but you might fool men, maybe. Bless you, child, when you set out to thread a needle, don't hold the thread still and fetch the needle up to it; hold the needle still and poke the thread at it- that's the way a woman most always does; but a man always does 'tother way. And when you throw at a rat or anything, hitch yourself up a tip-toe, and fetch your hand up over your head as awkard as you can, and miss your rat about six or seven foot. Throw stiff-armed from the shoulder, like there was a pivot there for it to turn on- like a girl; not from the wrist and elbow, with your arm out to one side like a boy. And mind you, when a girl tries to catch anything in her lap, she throws her knees apart; she don't clap them together, the way you did when you catched the lump of lead. Why, I spotted you for a boy when you was threading the needle; and I contrived the other things just to make certain.” (Page 53, Twain)
In this quote, Huckleberry Finn is receiving a lesson on how to act more like the stereotypical girl after he tried to trick a woman by cross-dressing in order to disguise himself while he was in town. Twain’s depiction of stereotypical feminine mannerisms as presented through his character Mrs. Judith Loftus, in addition to the implementation of a humorous tone throughout the excerpt, was used to convey the internalization of misogyny and the general attitude towards gender roles in 1850’s society.
The frequent integration of the words “like a girl” and “like a boy” throughout the excerpt immediately set a gap between the two genders by promoting the idea that they are each inherently different and uninterchangable. Subsequently, this attitude upholds an inherently traditional and heteronormative point of view, which was custom during the time period in which this book was set. This fact is particularly evident in the line, “I spotted you for a boy when you was threading the needle”, which illustrates how women are expected to be better at sewing and other home-oriented chores, while the men were better at athletic tasks, such as when Huck threw at the rat. In fact, this is further supported when she explained to Huck how to throw “like a girl”, she uses words such as “awkward” and “stiff”, which further suggests that women were not intended to do any of the physical work that the men did.
When reading this excerpt, some readers may interpret Twain’s decision to use a humorous tone as a mockery of the physical incapabilities of women. However, after careful examination of the text, it would be more reasonable to assume that he was making a statement about the sheer ridiculousness of the heteronormativity and misogyny that existed in 1850s society. This can be related back to the first part of the excerpt, which reads "You do a girl tolerable poor, but you might fool men, maybe." Through this line, we are able to assume that women are better at picking up on what is considered feminine and masculine, whereas men are less equipped to notice. This proves that these gender-specific mannerisms are more of an act put on to fit in with what is the norm of society, and is actually a concept of nurture rather than the nature of the being. This idea can be furthered by the very fact that Mrs. Loftus is literally teaching Huck how to act feminine, by telling him about a few of the stereotypical things, such as how to throw, catch, and thread a needle "like a girl" that differentiates feminine and masculine mannerisms, which he never even thought about before the lesson.
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