The way people write the curtises’ parents a lot of the time drives me nuts. The book establishes that darry takes after their mom while soda takes after their dad, but by default their mom is treated as the emotionally intelligent one with a soft touch while their dad is tough and stoic. It reeks of gender roles. And dont even get me started on the idea that mrs curtis wouldnt know about or would be upset about her boys fighting! She had dally’s respect and knew exactly what their neighborhood was like. In all likelihood, she probably got into scraps herself when she was younger, even if it wouldve been frowned on for a girl.
BIG AGREE, ANON! yes! it reeeeks of gender roles! honestly i don't even like when people draw her feminine or like, wearing dresses, but that's just personal preference. to me if she did it wear a dress was probably because she had to and didn't like it much. but yeah, she was probably a very typical loud fiesty greaser girl when she was young. seriously, you put darry's personality in a woman's body? she's logical, a little cold, with a bit of a temper. she's no-bullshit and i think she protected her kids from the worst that their neighborhood had to offer, but she's not, like. she's not like sodapop who's emotionally inteligent and doting.
on the flip side, she's not cruel. i've seen some fics that write the curtis house as dysfunctional or even abusive and im always like, where are you getting this from? i get the sense the curtis house prior to the accident was very warm and supportive - ponyboy said no one had ever hit him before, which to me says he probably wasn't even spanked for discipline which would've been very unusual at the time. (i do think darry and soda were, tho.)
anyway! yes! the curtis parents are pretty gender-non-conforming in the sense of having non-traditional personalities! and that matters! i think we can learn a lot about them by how darry and soda interact - like i wonder if mrs curtis would tell mr curtis what she wanted to tell the kids because god knows she can't say it gently enough and she does not need sodapop to cry.
