George "Beardie" Shaw

Socialist. Vegetarian. Nude Model.

And Feminist?

Theater critic Eric Bentley had this to say of Shaw's sex role reversals: 'Shaw once committed himself to the view that all superior women are masculine and all superior men are feminine.'

Could you see it happening in Pygmalion? Eliza, Mrs. Pearce, Mrs. Higgins? How does Higgins, or even Pickering, behave/act in front of women? Who has the power in those scenes?

Eliza Doolittle is a heroine. She goes to Higgins to "fix" her way of speaking, so that she can land a better gig--cuz selling flowers ain't paying the bills. Higgins may have been joking when he said he could make her into a duchess, but she saw an opportunity. Maybe not a duchess, but something better than a flower girl.

After she wins the bet (for she is the one who did all the work), she says, now what? She can talk like a queen, but she has no money or power to call her own.

LIZA: Oh! if I only c o u l d go back to my flower basket! I should be independent of both you and father and all the world! Why did you take my independence from me? Why did I give it up? I'm a slave now, for all my fine clothes.

HIGGINS: Not a bit. I'll adopt you as my daughter and settle money on you if you like. Or would you rather marry Pickering?

Shaw's comment here is that women don't have many choices in the matter. They can marry well (Pickering) or the father (Doolittle/or the adopted father, Higgins) can take care of them.

Liza says screw this. She doesn't want her father or her adopted father, both who treat her like dirt, to have anything to do with her. She wants to be treated well, so she chooses Freddy. This is very revolutionary. She chooses her husband, and a poor husband at that. But this husband loves her and treats her well. Imagine the reaction of a late Victorian audience. A society that is all about marrying for status and money. This would be appalling.

Not only does Shaw satirize the class system; he also satirizes gender and the expected roles of women and men.