Margaret Atwood’s speech “Spotty Handed Villainesses” explores Patriarchy, feminism and “bad” women in literature. She uses wit and humour to disarm the audience and often uses anti-climatic statements to grab the audience’s attention. Margaret Atwood’s speech resonates through time with her critical study of feminism in a social context and the impact that feminism has had on literature. In the speech Atwood explores the moral dichotomy that exists in Women at the time. She shows how women can only be categorised as either an angel or a whore.
Churchill’s lead character in the play is paradoxically a female misogynist who takes on a stereotypically male business persona who climbs to the top of the corporate ladder. Churchill also offers an interesting take on female pageantry, Post-Feminism of the 1980s, the “New Wave” of Feminism, and English feminism and capitalism under Margaret Thatcher’s rule, as well as family values and the ease and ability to climb the corporate ladder with a child. Churchill has openly acknowledged that Margaret Thatcher’s rise to the position of British primeminster was an important inspiration for writing Top Girls. Churchill is deeply interested in feminism and the constant consequences of the women’s liberation movement. There was a certain irony in Margaret Thatcher’s ascent to power in the wake of feminism, since Thatcher’s policies were deeply conservative and anti-feminist.
Then the quote continues and states: “You will find them, [women] a set of harpies, absurd, treacherous, and deceitful—regardless of strong obligations, and mindful of slight injuries…” (86). The bluntness of this statement about women would not have come from a man seeking a wife during this time. The female villain of the novel, Mrs. Hammond exemplified these awful characteristics throughout the story. The author, Rebecca Rush was probably surrounded by women, during this time, willing to stop at nothing to secure their future. As the quote continues, “and when your integrity has been
In Katherine Wilson’s “Dude Looks Like a Lady,” she begins with a powerful introduction saying “this is about hair, breasts, and identity” (Wilson 21), insinuating it is going to be a gender identity piece. Reading more of the first page, you assume the thesis is about the common misconceptions of how a woman is supposed to look and how not looking that way could take away from a woman being a woman. Wilson gives the example of her hair being buzzed and people looking at her differently. Although she tries to argue the hardships of not looking like the normal female, Wilson’s argument fails to meet the rest of her story. She claims her argument is about “hair, breasts, and identity,” she is really just ranting and raving her being disrespected and her own issues of being black.
Discuss madness in relation to Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s ‘The Yellow Wallpaper’. The ‘revolting’(pg 3) paper is the eponymous metaphor of the novella. The wallpaper has layers, hidden depths and intricacies which can only be seen by close examination and only understood by the narrator by her when her obsessive interrogation of it reaches its disturbing climax. This wallpaper is an allegory which represents the complications of a woman’s position in conventional marriage behind the façade, or outer ‘pattern’(pg 3) of the sanction. Throughout the text, Gilman attempts to uncover the often disturbing truths that lurk beneath the surface of something seemingly innocent with reference to her own socio-economic philosophy; that is the economics of marriage and the nature of the mentally destructive sub-ordination of women within it.
she demonstrates the absurdity of the men of the industrial era’s repeatedly and calls attention to the erroneous and backwards thinking of the times through comedic satire. A powerful example of such satire from Howe's speech is in her introduction. she sarcastically proclaims “woman suffrage is the reform against nature” and continues to point out the ladies present in the crowd and their physical, mental and “general debility”. she sarcastically demonstrates the “debilities” of women to a point which they couldn’t possibly mark a ballot or drop it in a box and continues to lay on the sarcasm as the possibility of a woman completing such a simple and menial task is impossible because “all nature is against it. the laws of man cry out against it.
She knew that women who disguised their sexuality were likely to be promoted more readily than she, yet simultaneously she thought her sexuality was a trump card. Even as she saw how it worked against her, she valued it and sought to preserve it, and tried hard to outshine all young female incumbents. This cannot be a true picture of my mother, though it is as I saw her.” (Working Women Don’t Have Wives) Women executives are everywhere in corporate America, and they may actually be more effective managers then men. In fact, women managers consistently are rated higher than their male counterparts on 37 of 47 critical management qualities such as leadership, social skills, problem-solving and decision-making,
Critiquing Camille Paglia’s Editorial “On Date Rape” Camille Paglia is an anti feminist, controversial lesbian graduate student from Yale, and best known as “America’s foremost cultural critic.” (The Sunday Times). Amongst other things, Paglia wrote a fierce editorial titled “On Date Rape.” Paglia concludes that if a woman is raped; it is her fault because she should have seen the signs. Although Paglia is very well educated, her use of fallacies, such as appeal to fear, hasty generalization, false analogy, and false cause, truly exhibits how narrow-minded she really is. Paglia begins her editorial with appeal to fear. She states that “The minute you go out with a man, the minute you go to a bar to have a drink, there is a risk.” According to the Rape, Abuse, Incest National Network, “One out of every 6 American women will be a victim of rape, date rape, or attempted rape in her lifetime.” Also, alcohol is the leading factor in about 90% of all date rape crimes (Drexel University).
The following are bad examples of a mission statement; “AVON is the company that puts mascara on lashes and food on tables, that fights wrinkles with one hand and Breast Cancer with the other. That knows the value of a perfect lip, but still opens its mouth and speaks out against Domestic Violence and for women's financial independence. This is the company that not only brings beauty to doors, but also opens them. The company that supports 6 million Representatives in over 100 countries. This is Avon.
The feminist analysis of Roman Fever This paper takes the short story "Roman fever" as an example for the text analysis, discussing the two protagonist from a feminist point of view. Through subtle descriptions by Wharton, the story shaped the irrational female image due to jealousy in women relationships and revealed women's love life under the influence of patriarchal ideology in the western society. Moreover, this paper criticizes the hypocrisy of the upper class and calls for women's self-awakening. Key words: Edith Wharton, roman fever, feminist criticism, patriarchal consciousness, self-awakening. 1.