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.
However, not everyone agrees with the heavy stereotypes laid down by the social order such as male dominance and proper courting. Marie de France is one of these people. She depicts her views of gender expectations through literature. Within the poem Guigemar, Guigemar and his lady fulfill and contradict what would be considered as gender norms within society: female inferiority, traditional courtship, and male dominance. Marie de France does this to criticize and combat the societal expectations and inherent inequalities in Norman England.
Euripides' use of extended descriptive sentences in the prologue allows him to portray two sides to Medea, a fragile woman and a strong-willed one. During the time in which she was still married to Jason, Euripides draws on the powerlessness of women in a marriage, evident when the Nurse says that 'to Jason [Medea] is all obedience - and... that's the saving thing, when a wife obediently accepts her husband's will.' To further emphasize on the male dominated society of Corinth, Medea, in the presence of King Creon, was immediately ordered to 'remove [herself]'. Despite being exiled due to fear, Medea adheres to the parental role in Creon, saying that '[he is] a father too', manipulating him into giving her one day to plot her revenge. This shows that
the laws of man cry out against it. the voice of God cries out against it- and so do I.”(284) This humorous approach of satire to pointing out society's general misconception of females is again present when Howe discusses a woman's viable options to get what they want and how to achieve there desires. She goes on to say “Women, we don't need vote in order to get our own way”(288), but rather cry ,“crying always brings them around. get what you want.”288) “Make a scene.”(288) “That is so much more dignified and refined than walking up to a ballot and dropping in a piece of paper.”(288)
Typically, a husband who can’t consummate a marriage should be abandoned without hesitation. When Bertrande is “urged by her relatives to separate from Martin, she firmly refuse[s]” (28). This decision reveals Bertrande’s “certain character traits…a concern for her reputation as a woman, a stubborn independence” (28). Bertrande cleverly calculates the advantages she possesses as a result of Martin’s incompetence. “Her refusal to have her marriage dissolved…freed her temporarily from certain wifely duties…gave her a chance to have a girlhood” (28).
Guadalupe Carmona-Padilla Mr.Highison English 4 April 30, 2015 10A Opening Statement Today the gods have so graciously and patiently gathered, as well as you have my dear audience. In order for you to better understand Antigone and her present situation, you must hear of her unfortunate past. Antigone’s father Oedipus, who was also her brother, was unable to cope with his shameful situation, which led him to self-mutilation and deeper misery. Her mother, who was both wife and mother to Oedipus, could not bear the embarrassment and saw it fit to tie her own noose. It was further prophesied that Antigone’s two brothers would die of each other’s hands in battle; upon hearing this Antigone promised her brother Polyneices
John is very much aware of his wife, the narrator’s mental insecurity. Simultaneously, he embraces a conscious ignorance of his wife, telling her that it would not benefit the situation “if I [she] had ... less opposition and more society and stimulus” (Gilman 1). The reader can assume that John is initially embarrassed and disillusioned by his wife’s illness. This is reiterated as he (“a physician of high standing”) “assures friends and relatives that there is really nothing the matter with one but temporary nervous depression” (Gilman 1). In this instance, John’s social standing as a husband and a doctor conspire against the narrator’s enunciation of her illness.
She believes that feminists and feminism attacks marriage and women who believe in marriage and simply being a good mother and wife. An example O’Beirne uses to express these attacks is an excerpt from a book call “The Future of Marriage” by Jessie Bernard. In the excerpt Bernard says that marriage simply holds women back: “Being a housewife makes women sick.” “To be happy in a relationship which imposes so many impediments on her, as traditional marriage does, women must be slightly mentally ill.” O’Beirne says that the feminist movement did nothing but confuse gender roles and weaken the family structure that was established. I personally am not quite sure which side to take so I’m sitting on the fence. I believe that feminists and their movement did do a great deal of good for our society as a whole.
Performativity links gender and racialized bodies. Gender says the man is supposed to be strong and the woman weak. Race and gender is one in the same regimes of truth are definitely rooted from these two specific category. Bell Hooks Chapter 15 1. Women of the historical culture construction were taught to believe that sexual desire was for the man and that basically no respectable woman should acquire sexual needs.
Instead of acting in a mature manner like an adult, she becomes hysterical and exaggerates, “...now here’s Mr. Bennet gone away, and I know he will fight Wickham, wherever he meets him, and then he will be killed, and what is to become of us all?” (192). The fact that she questions the fate of her family if anything should happen to her husband implies that even she is aware of her insufficient mothering. Additionally, her ability to ignore the real issues and magnify the trivial ones, as aforementioned, further glorifies her foolish character and ability to make