Does The Superwoman Myth Put Women Down?

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Does the Superwoman Myth Put Women Down? A Response to Sylvia Rabiner The article ‘How the Superwoman Myth Puts Women Down’ was originally published in The Village Voice in the mid-1970s. In this article, the author Sylvia Rabiner strongly criticized the superwoman ideal propagated by the mass media. She identified the superwoman as an incredible woman who possesses all laudable qualities to be perfect workers, perfect mothers and perfect housekeepers. This ideal sets impossible goals for average women and engenders a great deal of discontentment within them. Rabiner discusses the cultural values forced on her as a woman. She writes about the superwoman that out society expects women to be that have brains, brawn, children, husband, career, fame, respect and money. Rabiner discusses the difference in the perception of the perfect woman in the old days and the perfect woman of today. The expectations in society have become greater and the criteria to judge the success of the women have become more stringent since the old days. The ideal thrust upon women insists on having it all and the desire to achieve it causes havoc to the women who end up feeling overwhelmed by an insurmountable burden. Rabiner describes the strains and struggles of her personal life to strengthen her stance. She points out that it is utterly ironic that feminism originally initiated to brace the position of women in society, has been made to backfire in this way, by making most of them feel inadequate and dissatisfied. Rabiner also explains how the media uses the superwoman image to intimidate the average women and leave then entangled in the web of inferiority. The superwoman image ignores the reality of an average woman and elevates the elite of upper-class women. Rabiner presents her argument effectively using a coherent progression of ideas, simple vocabulary, appropriate literary
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