In the times John Steinbeck lived in women were not held in high regard but they were just present to serve men. However, they still tried to yearn for a better future by exploiting men. The character Curley's wife in the novel is a victim of society and her dream. She is married to Curley who neglects her and so because of her loneliness she is always seeking attention. She wears too much makeup and dresses like a "whore"
In the beginning Marjane seems to just follow the beliefs of her parents while being more aware of her surroundings than the average child her age. During her adolescent and adult years, Marjane seems to be very anti establishment due to the tyrannous regime in power. Even though she moves to Europe, she still remains headstrong and vigilantly goes against the status quos of women with her open mindedness and independence. These qualities help her target the
It’s not just that she was a women that impressed me but her outward denial to conform to a world that oppressed her and women all across Europe based on sex. Not many people have the courage to stand up for their beliefs but she did so, knowing that support for her cause was scarce to none. She defended a women’s place in society, as well as flourishing in the literary realm and exercising her ability to converse, challenge, and reason in the art of rhetoric. Through these reasons and preservations, Christine De Pizan merits more than a three quarter page in a history of rhetoric
Curley’s wife is portrayed as being a whore – but this is only due to the way she dresses, her provocative ways and the way she acts around men, as if she is aware of her femininity. This could suggest that she is only like this because she is bored, like it is something to do – something interesting for a change. She is constantly trying to get people to notice her. But, because of Lennie’s purity and innocence, he doesn’t see her in the way other men do – a sexual object. When Steinbeck quotes “And because she had confided in him, she moved closer to Lennie and sat beside him”, it is clear to the audience that Curley’s Wife is using her sexuality as an object to create some sort of excitement for herself.
It would have been simply unreasonable to deny women the right to vote, especially now that women had more of a presence in society. However, some historians argue that the war was not actually as important as previously assumed because the women that were enfranchised were not the women who had been working for the war effort. Rex Pope, when discussing changing attitudes towards women says “Attitudes to
This was a label attached by men saying that women were getting out of control because times were changing where women were allowed to have opinions. They did this to try and control women. Symptoms of the said ‘illness’ were nervousness, faintness, insomnia, shortness of breath, loss of appetite for food or sex and more. In today’s society none of these add up to a certain illness, hysteria was just a way to keep women in line when men didn’t want to hear what they had to say. It was very sexist and feminists such as Elaine Showalter believed it was nonsense and is very against it.
This enforces the idea that unlike Lennie, she is a complex character in the novel. Steinbeck mentioned that Curley’s wife’s voice had a “nasal, brittle quality” which is a clear sign of her flirtatious behaviour. Although her intentions were flirty, the fact that it was described as ‘nasal’ by the author made it obvious that it was unpleasant to the ears. The reaction from George made it clear to the reader that she was an attractive woman, however he was being apprehensive as he “looked away from her and then back”. This contrasts with Lennies reaction as his “eyes moved down over her body” blatantly checking her out.
Men’s magazines write articles on how to seduce a girl into sleeping with them. Haven’t we as a society moved past the sexist ideals of the past? Judging from the way media portrays women, it seems as if things are only getting worse! (Next slide) One of the most common ways television depicts teenage girls as ditzy, body obsessed, ‘pretty’ princesses with a credit card. The girl’s interests are usually limited to make-up, hair, boys and shopping.
Larkin describes one of the girls to be ‘a bosomy English rose’ and the other ‘in specs’, who we feel is less attractive. Larkin objectifies one of the women and pictures her as a sexual object due to her looks, the other women he ‘could talk to’ suggesting this time Larkin is manipulating her personality. In the second stanza Larkin mentions ‘a ten guinea ring’, one could argue this could be a sign of marriage but not actually conforming to her, however this is ambiguous, as we do no know what girl hold this ring. What I find most significant about the ring is the fact Larkin goes against his views on consumerism to try and seduce a women. Nevertheless Larkin ‘got it back in the end’ which illustrates Larkin not fully conforming to her results in rejection.
The role of women in colonial and post colonial Latin America seems to be debatable depending on whose account you are reading. European men valued propriety and modesty in their wives, but still enjoyed the sensuality of their mistresses or other sexual partners. This image also helped men divide women and their offspring by race by associating the ability to live up to this expectation with background. This idea that was pushed upon women directly created a situation that fostered feminist ideals simply because of the way in which it contradicted itself. The environment around the late 1800s and early 1900s was a changing one in which the countries of Latin America were trying to solidify themselves as independent countries without the ‘support’ of imperialist Europeans.