Throughout The Odyssey, written by Homer, the treatment of women plays a key role in the overall outcome of the story and is a central issue presented in this poem. In many scenarios it is evident that men are treated with superiority to women. During the era that this story was written, men played the dominant role. Society was organized, directed, and controlled by men, and it was accepted that women occupied a subservient and inferior position. Questia states, “Despite their vital role in Ancient Greek and Roman society, women were not considered full citizens and in most instances required a guardian – their fathers, and later husbands – to represent them” (“Women in Ancient Greece and Rome”).
(Page 282 lines 127-130). She has been married multiple times which back in the medieval times and even now a day that is unacceptable. She is also looking for her sixth husband. Back in the old days being sexual active came only after one is married and not supposed to be for pleasure but to reproduce (Lines 69-75). She then compares herself to those who live by society the "right" way, those are perfect people and she is not perfect so she does as she pleases (Lines 105-120).
All that chaos contributed to the male chauvinism we see in our current society. Women had to handle that change without any moral support. It is also important to remember the important role women took in both world wars. A “Jury of Her Peers”, demonstrates how hard marriage was for all women who did not enjoy their relationships. Women in those types of relationships were treated as objects instead of being valued as women of freedom which represent intelligence, compassion, love and beauty.
When most women relied on male relatives or husbands to survive, her earlier experiences in life led her to a different outlook on how she wanted to live her life (Allen par 1). She supported herself by developing her intellect and living by her beliefs. By a young age, she was determined to change the views of marriage for women (Frazer par 2). As a child, her views of marriage were shaped by her own unhappy family life. Her unsuccessful and violent father moved the family many times, and her older brother was favored by her grandfathers’ will.
These examples just shows how confusing it is in identifying sexual harassment today. How would you answer Limbaugh’s points if you were arguing for the opposition to each of the two points you have selected? For the first point, I would argue that women should not have so much power over men because men were created as the head and as such women should respect their authority. For the second point, I would say that sexual harassment should be limited to only sexual behaviors that are forced unto women and not be based on a man trying to win a woman over by his advances. Sexual harrassment refers to sexual actions.
A Reflective Response to Marriage: Then and Now Stephanie Coontz Thiana Richards HUMA 024-7G Kerry Potts Wednesday, November 14, 2012 George Bernard Shaw described marriage as an institution that brings two people together "under the influence of the most violent, most insane, most delusive, and most transient of passions. They are required to swear that they will remain in that excited, abnormal, and exhausting conditions continuously until death do them part. Shaw was making fun of the idea that people should get married because they were in love, but little did he know that in the years to come that would actually happen. In the history of marriage, marrying for love was very rare and was considered a serious threat to social order. Marriage was more about picking the right in-laws than picking the right partner to love and live with.
“What Marriage is For,” by Maggie Gallagher is in essence the conservative view and Natural Law Theory of Gay Marriage. She states dozens of times that the fundamental purpose of marriage is for a man and woman to procreate, and that a child can only be happy if brought up by his/her biological parents. Otherwise, the child would grow up in an unstable household and develop mental instability. Divorce is on the rise and motherless children are being brought up in an unhealthy environments, so, why make matters worse by permitting gay marriage? “Marriage is the fundamental, cross-cultural institution for bridging the male-female divide so that children have loving, committed mothers and fathers.” She explains that this is absolutely necessary for a child to be happy, and grow up in a normal environment.
The Freak is a ‘‘bad girl’’ who gains male attention through an overt sexual persona. She appears sexually liberated, empowered, and seeks sex solely for physical satisfaction, not for a relationship. A debate rages over weather the Freak reflects a true persona of sexual empowerment, or if she is simply reinforcing and falling victim to male desires about female sexuality. In contrast, women who choose not engage in sexual acts with men and enter relationships exclusively with women are referred to as Dykes. Within this frame, heterosexuality is viewed as the natural emotional and sexual inclination for women, and those who go against this are seen as deviant, pathological or as emotionally and sensually deprived (Lorde 1984; Pharr and Raymond 1997).
When the Knight finally does find out what it is that women want, he is told that it’s power over the husbands, that’s a pretty feminist statement for a time when women were still considered property. But as feminist as that may seem, is the Wife of Bath really a depiction of early feminism, or a crazy lady? While some might see the Wife as a feminist, she really is just an over-controlling woman, in her 6 times being married, reprimanding her husband
Let Women Vote by Marlene Targ Brill This book is young adult literature is written down to the readers so the understanding of civil right can be more clearly, the book tell some stories of how the women right had been an impact in America society better said the fight for the nineteen amendment. The main focus of this book is to understand the story in how society discriminate women during several eras. The narrator explain the time frame in a different matter, he begin with the story of Carrie Chapman in what she did to fight for the women rights and what she saw, followed the chapters with more important personalities involved in this suffrage. Each chapter covers a different period, but they all share the same organization of describing the social, cultural, political, philosophical and scholarly aspects of the period in respective subsections. This made it easier to later refer to previous chapters and compare different periods in order to learn the comprehensive history of Woman suffrage Amendment into the United States Constitution.