The Fallen Woman

I was browsing through Gilbert and Gubar's "The Madwoman in the Attic".  Essentially it analyzes the crazy lady thrown in the upstairs attic in Charlotte Bronte's "Jane Eyre". Apparently her husband decided he didn't want her anymore, and the easiest way to get rid of her was declaring her mentally unstable. This is an interesting topic.  It can not only be a topic of concern for literary critics, but for women in general.  What sets up the dichotomy of the pure, angelic woman versus the fallen, dirty woman? Why is there no in between? I haven't read far enough into "The Madwoman in the Attic" for the authors to answer my questions, but I have a few suggestions of my own.

A woman cannot be seen as both sane and sexual.  Once a woman displays any ounce of insanity, no matter the level of her attractiveness, she becomes an unfit partner. One example the book gives is from the story "Snow White and the Seven Dwarves."  The authors compare Snow White and her wicked step-mother to reveal their levels of attractiveness against their personalities.  Snow White is the sweet and naive girl who enjoys cooking and cleaning for seven dirty, incompetent men.  She is perceived as beautiful, while her step-mother (who is the fairest in all the land, by the way) is portrayed as wicked, evil, and threatening.  True, this step-mother may have been a tad vain, but is that what makes her so undesirable? No. The reason she is threatening is because she is assertive, proactive, and makes her own decisions.  Is this considered insanity, or progress? Perhaps our society thinks of women who display traditionally masculine qualities as "insane" or "out of line". This type of woman is someone to be censored, muted, and locked away in a closet.

What is it that we as a society are teaching our children about gender roles?