Friedan brings emotion and anger to the plight of women in her era of feminism, highlighting a political issue that remained out of the spotlight for far too long. Modern feminists can learn a lot from Friedan as a pioneer for women speaking out for what they believe despite it being unpopular. Though her work mainly discussed the feelings of white middle class women, her work led to a more comprehensive study of oppression on multiple levels, called intersectionality. Though not a politician herself, Friedan was able to take steps towards bringing on meaningful political change, a problem many women are still facing today especially in the abortion debate. Friedan and Gilman’s work have formed the touchstones for the current feminist movements and will continue to play a huge role as women work to advance their rights further in the coming years.
Sylvia Plath was a poet and author who deeply and thoughtfully engaged with the period in which she lived, which was rapidly evolving and developing. This is clear in her poems “Morning Song” and “The Applicant” as well as her novel, The Bell Jar. Plath passionately challenged many social expectations, such as the expectations placed upon females as well as pressures on men – the expectations of “the perfect life”. She also challenged consumerism. Because of the way that she engaged with and challenged the changing reality of her period, her contribution to the literary world is valued most highly.
History of Feminism through the Lens of Fashion I. Introduction: There have been three waves of feminist revolutions and with each wave came an outstanding fashion trend, which varied significantly from one extreme to the other. Fashion like so many other things associated primarily with women may be dismissed as trivial, but it shapes how we are read by others especially on the levels of gender, class, and race. As a result, the way we are read determines how we are treated, especially within the workforce- whether we are hired, promoted, respected and even how well we are paid. In other words, getting dressed everyday morning ultimately has political and economic consequences.
In this poem the beat that the author is talking about is not a happy beat as the author is using a metaphor of what people were feelings about the situation they are in at that time. Sometimes I feel mad and anxious at the same time wanting to be free. I usually feel this way when experiencing racism from someone in authority over me. The racial persecution placed on African Americans to live as second class citizens with no hope in moving forward toward advancement in society was very hard. Reading this I was able
Lastly the “spark” of World War I is the assassination of Franz Ferdinand and his wife by the Serbian Black Hand terrorists in Sarajevo on June 28, 1914. This caused Austria-Hungary to declared war on Serbia, which then lead to the domino
As a result of the fast changes in events, writers’ works of literature were changing. Writers and intellectuals believed it as their obligation to speak out against the injustices of this new and fast changing world. They addressed the social problems that ranged from brutal working conditions and poverty, to the questions of women’s rights. Even the Church came under attack during this time. Scientific advancements and different ideas challenged religious beliefs and weakened the position of the Church.
To understand the rise of the women’s movement in the 1960’s and 1970’s, one must look at the cultural ideology of the time, as well as, other influences that might have sparked unrest within the female community. In the essays, “Cold War Ideology and the Rise of Feminism” by Elaine Tyler May and “Women’s Liberation and Sixties Radicalism” by Alice Echols, both historians discuss the women’s movement/protest and how it came to be. While the women’s liberation movement meant equality and the end to sex discrimination to many women, Echols and May offer different explanations on the rise of the women’s movement, and differences on the limitations that women discovered in trying to attain their goals through the movement. These differences in perspective may be observed through the historians’ writing, placing emphasis on how long they talk about each cause of the rise of feminism. To understand the feminist movement and their goals, one must first look at the history and popular culture before the sixties and seventies.
Derek Walcott’s Codicil has some of the anger of his earlier work, but for the most part his tone in this poem is one of exhaustion. It is autobiographical rather than historical; in it, he reflects on his own writing and his frustration with the need to write in two different styles. For this reason, it is likely that writers, particularly those who write for a living, and non-writers would react differently to this poem. Walcott was working as a journalist when this poem was published in 1965. The language used in Walcott’s poetry is clearly different from the journalistic conventions he was confined to at work (“Schizophrenic, wrenched by two styles”).
THE ROUTLEDGE COMPANION TO FEMINISM AND POSTFEMINISM Feminism has had a radical impact on today’s world. But now the very future of feminism is under attack. The ideas of the feminists of the 1960s and 1970s are being questioned and redefined by a younger generation of ‘postfeminists’. The Routledge Companion to Feminism and Postfeminism is the perfect guidebook for finding one’s way around what has become an increasingly complex subject. Over a dozen in-depth background chapters, written by leading authorities on the subject, provide a broad-ranging and up-to-date overview.
From studying the unique poetry of Plath, I found it intense, deeply personal and somewhat disturbing as she wrote about the horrors of depression with ruthless honesty. Her poetry is personal in that she talks about a taboo subject that wasn't acknowledged during her lifetime and in a way it made her poems brilliantly intense.This can be seen most clearly in ‘Child’, ‘Elm’, ‘Poppies in July’ and also ‘Mirror’. ‘Elm’s’ tone is insanely intense, dark and plain miserable and this makes the reader feel immensely disturbed. It is clear from reading Plath’s work that she was in a dark hole, willing to escape. ‘Elm’ finished with the disturbing line “That kill, that kill, that kill”We can see through her callous honesty and the unsettling atmosphere that she is tormented when she says “Till your head is a stone, your pillow a little turf”.