And what is a greater crime than making women hate themselves for reasons that they cannot change? The “anti-narcissism” that men have made consists of women not liking anything about them and wishing that they were the opposite sex just to get more respect. They don’t have any self-respect for themselves because of the nonsense that the “dominant” males have fed them their whole lives. This makes everything hostile for women and while men are busy controlling what the rules are and what can be published, women are struggling with this internal conflict that they’ll never get far in life because of their sex. Cixous boldly declares that women have been “kept in the dark.” What is this darkness you may ask?
The condescending tone that Kate uses on these wives is a basically a scolding for their disobedience and also a lesson on why wives should submit to their husbands so humbly. Also in the
Pope's gender ideologies deflate the power, intelligence and beauty of women while supporting man's violence and belittling of women. The symbolism of the lock of hair can be viewed with two different types of gender criticism, one that defies the patriarchy and one that feeds into the power of the patriarch. In Ellen Pollak's essay, "Rereading The Rape of the Lock: Pope and the Paradox of Female Power," Pollak maintains that the lock of hair is a phallic symbol and therefore it is cut off to reduce Belinda to femininity. The symbolic loss of the Belle's much-coveted virginity is realized in the form of a castration or literal cutting off of that body part of her associated most strongly with those 'masculine' attributes of the coquette - her power, skill, and pride (Singh 472). Julie Kristeva, author of "Women's Time" while not accepting Pollak's theory of castration believes that castration is unique only to men: "castration results in the creation of a sense of separation which is symbolized by the penis"(Singh 472).
For example, there are many cases in the first several stories of Arabian Nights when women are disloyal and evil, but there are also stories about the wrong of men. This is because Shahrazad wanted to balance human wrong and she attempts to expose the wrongs of both sexes equally. According to feminism, the women's and men's rights are equal. So, she tried to explain that women can also make mistakes as men and it is not right that they take into account only women's mistakes (Smith, 1).
Viewed as an early precursor of feminist thought, some scholars argue that the majority of her Prologue can be seem as anti-feminist rhetoric (Trudeau). As an example, Alisoun first seen as behaving like a man, gaining power over her men by using her body and beauty to get the things she most desired. Alisoun behavior somewhat foreshadows her Tale. Though Alisoun, I agree that she seems to see herself as a feminist, one critic believes that its quite unlikely that any man of that time saw
Through a modern perception on the playwright’s female characters, women can be seen as worthless, sexually corrupt indiviudals. Ophelia, often through the words of the men around her, can be partiicuarly perceived in this way. This is evident, with her father, Polonius when he says to Claudius, “At such a time, I loose my daughter to him; Be you and I behind an arras then; Mark the encounter…” (2.2.176-178) Polonius’ language here suggests that Ophelia is more of an animal than his daughter, and he as her father shows her little respect. This reading of Ophelia is also apparent through Hamlet’s language, describing her in unpleasant context or as a “dead dog”(2.2.81). He treats her with little regard and believes that she is a “breeder of maggot” This is also evident when Hamlet says to her, “ I say we will have no more marriages.
In doing so, she focuses only on the benefits of one being monogamous and presents only, what is in her opinion, the social problems typical of polygamists. Her obvious negative opinions of promiscuity are evident when she says “Promiscuous people are not happy.” (Bell, 2004, line 62) and “They are never satisfied with what they have, but continue to strive toward something that is always out of reach.”
Superiority and overconfidence always seem to be closely associated with dominance and gender; and is amongst the dominant perspectives expressed by Shakespeare in the play, “Richard the Third”. The conflicting viewpoints of both sexes over superiority, is developed in Richard the third in the male point of view whereby Shakespeare reveals us to a male dominated world. “Why, I can smile...And murder while I smile!” It can be interpreted from the play that the: manipulative, malicious, power-hungry, Richard the third, did not have much regards for the life of women. Richard finds women inferior to men, has no respect for their emotions, and views them as tools. As far as the two major female characters of the play are concerned, Richard's attitude towards women becomes quite evident, and furthermore reflects his attitude towards life in a whole.
This approach held the men, and not only women, are subjected to social pressure and repression, with Pleck holding that the perception which anchors identity in gender role prevents individuals who breach their traditionally allocated gender role to challenge this role, or otherwise they are doomed to feel inapt. R.W. Connell criticizes gender role theory as suffering from logical vagueness and as problematic in terms of its application as a framework for social analysis. This is because gender role theory uses the same terms
The essence of her work is in the way she is criticizing modern society by omitting or adding small details from the original works. The most discussed critique is that of the ‘male gaze’. Although Sherman does not consider her work feminist, several photographs call attention to the stereotyping of women in art and society. A clear example of this is her portrayal of Madonna and Christ child, where Sherman removes all divine emblems and minimizes the role of the woman as a nursing mother. Hence, she creates a more seductive image of the woman and she simultaneously mocks the symbolic gesture of Virgo lactans.