In this article we are presented with two images, one depicts a young Balinese girl dressed up in all traditional styles of dress performing the local folklore dance as per tradition. While the other picture is of the US pageant start Eden Wood dressed up in a swimsuit with full hair and make up. Harmer presents her contention well; she explains that people shouldn’t be getting all up in arms about child beauty pageants because in reality everyone exploits their children at one time or another in their own way. Her contention is also introduced in the title of the article with the words “SO WHAT!” which sends the message that people really shouldn’t care as much as they are now. In Harmers opening sentence she makes reference to a personal experience that she had while she was holidaying at a hotel in Bali, she says she watched young Balinese girls with their “torsos wrapped in golden fabric, hair elaborately styled, nails painted, eyes fully made up and lips stained ruby red” while they performed alongside their big sisters and mothers, dancing with sheer talent.
Barbie Doll clearly displays a strong sense of feminism. It specifically attacks the modern day pressures that women are faced with as far as appearance goes. The author seems to have the opinion that women are pushed to make themselves perfect in the eyes of society. I think this is why this poem has a very negative and almost angry tone to it. Barbie Doll has a few main themes that can be easily recognized; the main ones that Piercy addresses are the pressures of being a female and the desperate attempts to please others.
In the article, “Controlling your reality” Paige Pfleger states “Reality television can also preserve old fashioned notions about sexual stereotyping. Women are encouraged to fulfill roles as “the slut” and are simultaneously devalued by doing so” sadly these are the types of stereotypes young girls and women grow up with (3). Little girls are told to act a certain way only for society to reject and humiliate them for it. In The Hunger Games Collins makes a point by sexually objectifying Glimmer, a career tribute, because she looks like the stereotype of sexy. In the novel Collins writes, “The girl tribute from District 1, looking provocative in a see-through gold gown…With that flowing blonde hair, emerald green eyes, her body tall and lush… she’s sexy all the way”(125).Collins makes it clear that society has a very specific image of what sexy should look like.
These often have an adult, sexy over-tone some argue is ‘creepy’ causing a ‘general discomfort’ in the viewing public. (Faulkner, 2011) Participation in such competitions clearly constructs a stereotypical form of femininity; the perception that external beauty and sexualized behaviour is the key to success. In defense mothers have argued these competitions enhance the mother-daughter bond; participation is something they do together. (Hill,
Stuart S. Dietz 16, September 2015 C00095927 ENG 102-312 Unit 1 Critical Past Construction of Self and Personality Essay and Power Point “The Struggles we face with Gender, Race and Socio-Status” Gender seems to be more of a struggle for girls than it does boys. As Gender is portrayed in {Heather Havrilsky’s – Some Girls are Better than Others} quoting “As a girl you ae a delicate vase, waiting to be broken. You are a sweet smelling flower, waiting for life’s hobnailed boots to trample you” This gives me the interpretation that all girls need to grow up to be loved and cherished for who they are whether they be perfect or not and that they should always feel that love an acceptance somehow rather than being accepted or ridiculed based on their popularity or looks. I for one admire girls for the fact of all the struggles they must go through in life, not only do they have to deal with life in general they also have to understand the concept of feeling beautiful and having a good self-esteem. They have to deal with sexuality and advances from men based on their gender.
At this point she has sunken to Stanley’s level and it is clear that she develops her morals in accordance to his. “Mean Girls” addresses the issue of a constant hunger for popularity and status. However the trends we see in “Mean Girls” certainly apply not only to high school students, but to our society. Our protagonist builds an identity that fits into the narrow mould of how a girl “should” behave. She alters her fashion sense, her style, and slowly loses herself in a world of fakery.
She state that her action that night was ‘the worst dating faux pas’ meaning that what she had done was against the idea of a typical male-in-control relationship. Mulvey then establishes her main contention that there are many young and successful women out there who would ‘soften their image’ and conceal their accomplishments to get the perfect husband and increase their chances of marriage. In this article the writer uses a rhetorical question as a way to draw readers towards her contention that women should step up to be in control of
Discuss the presentation of society and its influence on Emma Woodhouse and Sebastian Flyte In this essay I will discuss how the authors show the different effects society can have through their characterisation of Sebastian Flyte and Emma Woodhouse. In “Emma”, a novel by Jane Austen about a young woman obsessed with making matches between others, but failing to recognise her own feelings, leading to many disastrous consequences, being brought up in a high society has a profound effect on Emma prompting her to think of herself as being far more “superior” than everyone. Conversely in “Brideshead Revisited”, a novel by Evelyn Waugh relating how a WWII soldier looks back on his acquaintance with the Flyte family, and especially his intimacy with the eccentric Sebastian Flyte and his sister, Julia, the society Sebastian has been brought up in makes it very difficult for him to make the transition into adulthood from youth. An example of where society can have a bad influence on a person, is where Emma, having been allowed too much her own way all her life, I allowed to influence Harriet’s life too much. At the beginning of the novel Jane Austen states that “the real evils indeed of Emma’s situation were the power of having rather too much her own way”, which is cleverly disguised as an ordinary introduction, but its importance can’t be recognised until a second read of the novel, where it can be seen how the word “evils” could apply to Emma.
Hard Life for Women in the 21st Century According to the article “‘Bossy’, the Other B-word” by Sheryl Sandberg and Anna Maria Chavez, confident girls with leadership skills are often called bossy and struggled most of the time. It is a man’s nature to be leader, confident and opinionated, but when a girl shows the same qualities she is called bossy or other inappropriate words. Sandberg and Chavez write that girls are labeled as “aggressive”, “overly ambitious” or “too ambitious”. They talk about how the stereotypes about genders are affecting both, the little girls and powerful women. They talked how hard it is to be ambitious woman, who knows what she wants and all the negativities about being powerful woman.
Jamaica Kincaid’s “Girl” represents a stereotypical women’s role and so called “life” in the nineteenth century. The sample text involves a mother ranting to her daughter about what her responsibilities in life are and what it takes to be a proper woman instead of a “slut”. This literary work is a great example when perceiving the nineteenth century woman by establishing a set image and role that each women should follow in order to be accepted in society. The feminist criticism allows one to analyze the text to co-inside with this theory because it “seeks to restify sexist discrimination and inequalities.”(25) We can see that this female writer incorporated personal experience and historical context when writing this literary piece. There are distinct economic, political and professional realities displayed in the text.