Gertrude Stein: Hero or Not?

     Who was Gertrude Stein? Everybody's heard of her or if not, she is the most famous lesbian in the world. Gertrude Stein and Alice Toklas are the most famous lesbian couple ever. Everyone knows Gertrude was a writer; she wrote "a rose is a rose is a rose". But has anyone ever read anything else she ever wrote?

     Not only was Gertrude a writer, but she was also very much into art. The apartment of Gertrude Stein and Alice Tokas was actually the most famous artistic and literary hangout in Europe! Gertrude was THE arbiter or artistic taste who could make or break an artists's reputation with an offhand remark. Genius artists lie Pablo Picasso and Hemmingway would come to talk with Gertrude while their wives sat with Alice. Picasso was actually so inspired by Gertrude that he painted one of his paintings with her as his model.

     Gertrude Stein was a model secular Jewish woman of her time. She practiced no religion, but seemed to have no hngups about who she was or what her background was. And to think that Stein almost became a medical doctory, but dropped out to join her brother in Paris. She learned to appreciate modern art before it was trendy, collected paintings, made artist and writer friends, and influenced Hemmingway! Her writing was never nderstood or successful until she wrote "The Autobiography of Alice B. Toklas". Now this book made her famous. It's not Alice B. biography at all, it's Stein's which she wrote using the voice of Alice Toklas as the narrator. The book was wildly popular in the U.S and Gertrude and Alice Toklas went on to make tons of speeches on a tour of the U.S. Gertrude was a "celebrity of such proportions that her eminence on the American scene was for a time shared only by gangsters, baseball players and movie stars." (quoted by biographer John Malcom Brinnin).

     With her short cropped hair, Gertrude definitely challenged the gender stereotypes of her time, and Alice, with a bit of hair on her lip, raised a few eyebrows herself. Once, after they've visited Gertrude's 3-year old nephew, he said, "I liked the man alright, but why did the woman have a moustache?"

     Back when nobody would ever dare talk about such things in public, Gertrude and Alice were OUT.. they were out there on the public stage before the whole world as a couple. She didn't care what everybody else thought of her. Now that's some guts! 

     Although her famous autobiography was written in a breezy style, much of her work is beyond intelligible. Even her publisher couldn't understand what Gertrude is talking about. It's true, a lot of her work is difficult. But, she wrote a beautiful, understandable poem about Alice B. Toklas. 

     Gertrude has written many books in her lifetime. She was also a great fan of art that even Picasso and Hemmingway were interested in her! She didn't care about what other people thought and is great person for everybody else to look up to. Well, isn't that what a hero is? Someone for people to look up to? Therefore, Gertrude Stein is exactly that, a hero.

  
Sources:

"Gertrude Stein". Wiki. 4/25. <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gertrude_Stein>
"Gertrude Stein." Wikiquote. 4/25. <http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Gertrude_Stein>
"Gertrude Stein." GayHeroes. 4/25. <http://www.gayheroes.com/gertrude.htm>
"Hero or Anti Hero." Blogspot. 4/25. <http://hero-or-antihero.blogspot.com/2011/02/gertrude-stein-                              
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