My name is Brett. I am a woman.
My dad named me Brett after Lady Brett Ashley, a character in The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway, a novel that neither of us particularly enjoyed or even think much about, ever.
(I have no idea where my mom was during the naming process. I can totally see her handing me off to someone and being like "here you deal with this.")
Brett is a thoroughly modern girl. She is progressive, charming, charismatic, and beautiful--"damned good-looking," as Hemingway calls her. She is fiercely independent, brazenly sexual, and unabashedly promiscuous. She is often surrounded by a gaggle of men--straight ones, gay ones, old ones, young ones--and they all adore her. She wears pieces of men's clothing and wears her hair short and brushed back "like a boy."
In short, Brett, by name and by character, represents the "masculinization" of women in the 1920s.
By description alone, Brett sounds like the prototype of Bey before Bey was Bey. Modern women would worship Brett; she sounds like an anthropomorphic middle finger to patriarchy, doesn't she?
Well, yes and no. Ernest Hemingway was part of the OG American misogynists. A lot of early 20th century literature is a giant Boys' Club, and there are tones of misogyny everywhere. Hemingway's works in particular are "by men for men," and reading him kinds of makes me feel like I feel whenever I walk into the fight gym--my presence is tolerated, but not preferred.
Lady Brett, although she gets highest accolades from Hemingway through his protagonist, is a threat. She, being the sole female in the Boys' Club, is a major disruption. She "makes" all the men fall madly in love with her, effectively turning them against each other, and then friendzones the shit out of them. Brett invented the friend zone. And Hemingway probably felt about the friendzone how you might expect any modern fuckboy to feel about the friendzone.
Not to mention, Brett's confidence and independence are a farce. She can't go anywhere alone, and can't truly be validated unless he is surrounded by a group of adoring men. She tells Jake that she's utterly miserable, and Jake is kind of just like, ¯\_(ツ)_/¯, while also wishing he could have sex with her.
Hemingway is pretty clear in his opinion of the defeminization and sexual liberation of women in the 20s. It's dangerous. It disrupts camaraderie. It leads to nothing but unhappiness for men and women. Bullfights are for boys, get on home sugartits.
My namesake and I are alike in a lot of ways, but different in many ways. I am also adamantly independent. I am also witty and intelligent. But I prefer to be alone. When it comes to my friendships, I prefer the company of powerful, independent females over simple "chaps." I respect men and don't manipulate them for my own pleasure. I find no fulfillment in frivolous, physical relationships, but I don't judge or reprimand women who do.
Brett Ashley was a warning from Hemingway of where women's liberation might take us. Brett Lalli is more telling of where women's liberation is actually going.
Be not afraid, simple chaps.
