Gender Issues in Washington Irving's The Legend of Sleepy Hollow At first glance, Washington Irving's "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" appears to be an innocent tale about a Superstitious New England town threatened by a strange newcomer, Icabod Crane. However, this descriptive narrative is more than just a short story because it addresses several gender issues that deserve attention. The pervasiveness of female influence in Sleepy Hollow and the conflict between male and female narratives in this Dutch community are two pertinent gender issues that complicate Irving's work and ultimately allow the women of Sleepy Hollow to control the men and maintain order. Irving's main character, Icabod Crane, when he arrives from Connecticut, causes a stir and disrupts the female order in the Hollow. Crane is not only a representative of the lively and practical New England who threatens rural America with his many talents and his fortune of knowledge; he is also an invasive male who threatens the stability of a decidedly feminine place. Looking more closely at the stories circulating in Sleepy Hollow, one can see that Crane's expulsion stems directly from the women's cultivation of local folklore. Female-centered Sleepy Hollow, through narratives revolving around the region's emasculated and headless "ruling spirit," figuratively neutral menace male invaders like Crane to restore order and ensure the continuation of Old Dutch domesticity and tales of their old wives. although Crane threatens the women of Sleepy Hollow with his intrusiveness and vast knowledge of things beyond the Hollow, he surprisingly associates with them more and with greater ease than with the men of Sleepy Hollow. The “feminine” in Crane is… middle of paper… hurtful gender-based means of telling these stories and the lack of female voice. These gender issues make it impossible for "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" to be read as just an innocent tale. A strong female influence and the clear difference between male and female narratives in Sleepy Hollow are two important gender issues that ultimately allow women to control men and maintain order. Work cited Irving Washington. "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow." The Norton Anthology of American Literature. Ed. Nina Baym. 5th ed. vol. 1. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1998. 948-69. Works consulted Benoit, Raymond. The Legend of Sleepy Hollow by Irving. "The Explicator. Washington: Heldref Publications, 1996. "Ringe, Donald A. American Gothic: Imagination and Reason in Nineteenth-Century Fiction. Lexington KY: The University Press of Kentucky, 1982.