Self-love and racism play a very important role in Zora Neale Hurston's “Their Eyes Were Watching God.” The theme of love with her Granny was force upon Janie and finding love within her was described as a pear tree and the horizon. Janie spent her days looking for passionate love in three different marriages. With the character of Mrs. Turner, she shows how everyone is racist in the world, and she is black herself but don’t want to realize it because she’s biracial. Hurston’s theme of “Their Eyes Were Watching God” was based on the Harlem Renaissance and was shown dramatically throughout of the book. First, the theme of love with her Granny was force upon Janie and finding love within her was described as a pear tree and the horizon.
Fleming uses Robinson’s story to deconstruct claims by male Black Power advocates that women in the movement were just doing a “man’s job”. Ruby Doris Smith-Robinson’s position as executive secretary in the Atlanta branch of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee was a mirror image of the backbone that women played in the Black Power message. Robinson shows this through her assertiveness, her ability to challenge male authority and selflessness in action. Women were involved in many aspects of the Civil Rights movement. Certain activists groups included the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) and National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).
A Woman or a Stereotype? : William Faulkner’s “A Rose for Emily” Is it possible women have taken their long fought battle for equality in positional roles in society for granted? Women have always struggled to defy men’s irrational concept of women as a figure of beauty and family. William Faulkner expertly highlights the gender roles of women in the society of “the old south”. The narrator’s identity in “A Rose for Emily” plays an active role in revealing William Faulkner’s treatment of gender roles as a display of the societal roles of women and the conventional standard of beauty.
He wanted that job to prove his manhood, (which he only wanted to do because of his inferior position outside of the community). When he doesn’t get the job, he simply turns to marrying Nel in order to do so, as Mayberry writes. Mayberry discusses different theories as to why Jude and other black males resort to the black females to come to be strong, and one that stands out is the fact that they are the easiest for them to dominate. Mayberry argues that Jude hasn’t acquired the true masculine and feminine characteristics of himself, which renders him not mature. He is too focused on gaining his “manhood “or proving himself to both the community and others, which is an inherent need for someone who is low on the hierarchy of people.
Throughout The Odyssey, written by Homer, the treatment of women plays a key role in the overall outcome of the story and is a central issue presented in this poem. In many scenarios it is evident that men are treated with superiority to women. During the era that this story was written, men played the dominant role. Society was organized, directed, and controlled by men, and it was accepted that women occupied a subservient and inferior position. Questia states, “Despite their vital role in Ancient Greek and Roman society, women were not considered full citizens and in most instances required a guardian – their fathers, and later husbands – to represent them” (“Women in Ancient Greece and Rome”).
Maya Angelou’s book ‘I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings’ also deals with the problems of being female. How each woman deals with the stigma of being female is a deeply personal journey. Atwood’s Offred and Churchill’s Marline each have their own individual ways of coping. Maya Angelou has to deal with not only the fact that she’s female and the problems that causes but also the stigma of being black in a radically racist community. Because all three characters want to fit into their communities they are forced to hid their true identities and become either what society needs them to be, in Offred’s case ‘QUOTE’ And in Marlines case she’s changed because society demands that she has to be tough, rough and ruthless to reach the top.
There was a time in history when “Black men were encouraged to marry white women in order to enrich the slavemaster’s plantation with more human labor” (Black Women’s Liberation). The black men back then could choose anyone they wanted for a mate while “Black women had little choice in selection for her mate” (Black women’s Liberation). Now, things are different. Black women do have a selection and they tend to emasculate the men of their choice. There is a new movement for black women and “Women in the women’s liberation movement assert that they are tired of being slaves to their husbands.
For example, in the U.S. society males are traditionally expected to demonstrate aggressiveness and toughness, whereas females are expected to be passive and nurturing. There are a lot of dimensions to gender-role socialization, sexism for instance. Sexism is the subordination of one sex, usually the female, based on the assumed superiority of the other sex. Sexism directed at women has three components: (1) negative attitudes toward women; (2) stereo typical beliefs that reinforce, complement, or justify the prejudice; and (3) discrimination- acts that exclude, distance, or keep women separate. Women are more often target of sexism; men can be victims of sexist assumptions.
Women are under a constant pressure to adhere to roles that are specific to their gender and so are men. The woman by norm is relegated to the private domain and is allocated the affective role, while the man has full access to the public domain for he plays the role of the bread-winner. Devdutt Pattanaik, in his book, ‘The Pregnant King’, strives to show how gender plays an important part in defining roles and relationships, while at the same time also accounting for the interesting change in gender roles of men and women, which appears extremely contemporary and unthinkable at the time and context in which the story is set. Based at the time of the Mahabharata, Pattanaik’s ‘The Pregnant King’ brings forth a wide new range of ideas that are exceedingly modern in nature. These ideas question the societal norms that privilege the men and not the women, the norms that prevent both men and women from adopting occupations and indulging in activities that majorly interests them.
During the colonial period South East Asia was very much a male dominated society. This issue was not so prevalent in pre-colonial times but as the twentieth century approached, social norms and laws became increasingly preferential towards men. For example the role of a male as the head of the household was enforced and many customary laws that had previously given women autonomy were 'reformed'. It became customary for females to be meek and, as the Victorian maxim goes, “be seen but not heard”. Women were also encouraged to increasingly rely on their husbands.