These concerns directly impact human rights, the law and everyday life for those affected particularly the young and ethnic minority groups since these are the groups disproportionately represented moreover allegations still exist that despite the Steven Lawrence case of 1993, institutional racism still exists. With stop and search the police deliberately force allegations upon and use the law indiscriminately where certain suspects are accused and the criticisms constantly and inherently labelled at the police are fully justified. What’s more the subsequent police conduct once searched is believed to be unpleasant and discriminatory; additionally the manner of searches can be humiliating and embarrassing for those involved. Overall stop and search is an ineffective method of investigating and disrupting crime for numerous and long standing reasons. One, is that the rate of arrests is extremely poor in co-ordination to the ratio of stops; the stop/search to arrest rate declined from 17per cent in 1986 to just 10 per cent between 1996 to 98, (McConville & Wilson, 2002, pg559).
The development of feminism over time has seen many different feminist perspectives emerge such as liberal feminism, conservative feminism, radical feminism, socialist feminism, black feminism and lesbian feminism. The evolution of feminism is commonly divided into three ‘waves’. First wave feminism encompasses the origins of feminism, the fight for suffrage and the empowerment of women. Second wave feminism begins in the 1960’s when feminists fought for equal rights on issues such as workplace discrimination and domestic relationships, challenging the male influenced perceptions of femininity. These ideas were then challenged in the 1990’s with third wave feminism and postfeminism, both of which are concerned with the mass media’s influence on our understanding of gender.
Jill Tweedy 1932- 1993 was also an influential feminist writer. Wollstonecraft’s polemic, ‘A Vindication of the Rights of Women’ and Tweedy’s ‘In the Name of Love’. Both these extracts show how these female writers can write from both genders; female and male. They can bring across different views and thoughts throughout their extracts. A Vindication of the Rights of Women’ is an early example of a feminist outlook; Wollstonecraft aims to define, establish and defend equal political, economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for women.
HISTORY AND THEORY OF FEMINISM The term feminism can be used to describe a political, cultural or economic movement aimed at establishing equal rights and legal protection for women. Feminism involves political and sociological theories and philosophies concerned with issues of gender difference, as well as a movement that advocates gender equality for women and campaigns for women's rights and interests. Although the terms "feminism" and "feminist" did not gain widespread use until the 1970s, they were already being used in the public parlance much earlier; for instance, Katherine Hepburn speaks of the "feminist movement" in the 1942 film Woman of the Year. According to Maggie Humm and Rebecca Walker, the history of feminism can be divided into three waves. The first feminist wave was in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the second was in the 1960s and 1970s, and the third extends from the 1990s to the present.
I argue that it can help us to understand why we regard some things as disgusting and repulsive. This analysis can be a useful tool for feminist theories of gender, sexuality, and embodiment. Representations of the monstrous-feminine, as conceptualized by Barbara Creed, illustrate the ways in which femininity is feared and abjected in contemporary society. As Jayne Ussher notes, this positioning of women’s bodies as abject has important implications for women’s lived experience (7). Thus, it is useful and necessary for feminists to understand the concepts of abjection and the monstrous-feminine, as well as how they intersect and relate to one another.
The feminist movement has impacted many areas in society such as reproductive rights, gender-natural language, and family relationships. Not all people believe that the feminist movement has resulted positively. For example, the feminist movement has been blamed for the destruction of the natural two-parent structure as it “erases differences between men and women” (Williams & Cooperman, 2004, n.p.). One author, Christina Hoff Sommers, explains in her book, The War Against Boys: How Misguided Feminism Is Harming Our Young Men, which states that the gender war is a myth concerning girls as shortchanged and boys are responsible for their own inept problems (DeFrancisco & Palczewski, 2007, p. 186). Much opposition can be seen in viewpoints such
The Phenomenology of the American Woman: Past and Present Howard L. Bethany Liberty University HSER 509, B05 Multicultural Issues in Human Services July 10, 2011 Abstract The purpose of this paper is to explore and to educate others on how sex and the female gender role have perpetrated oppression on the American woman. This paper crosses racial and ethnicity lines as it relates the true phenomenology of women through the conception and the growing pains of a young nation. An examination of Scriptural passages unfolds so that one can establish knowledge of how their ancestors translated the verses pertaining to women. It will also provide the reader a chance to analyze their perception of the Scriptures as they scrutinize their worldview on the woman’s place in society. Most of all it dramatizes the oppression that has continued throughout the history of the woman.
For many, his material is judged as what some feminists would define as a “form of violence against women”, whose representations “eroticize male domination”, (Robin Ann Sheets, “Pornography, Fairytales and Feminism” 635), but for many readers of Sade’s work, once they see through the ‘smut’ and the erotica, there is often found by the reader an underlying message which is sometimes seen as radical, or one which was not elaborated further until many years later. These messages within his literature raise the question as to whether or not Sade was a “moral pornographer”, (Angela Carter, The Sadeian Woman 19). In her book, Angela Carter defines a moral pornographer as one who “uses pornographic material as part of the acceptance of the logic of a world of absolute sexual licence for all genders, and projects a model of the way such a world might work”, (19). When one reads Philosophy in the Boudoir, and applies this definition it can be seen that Sade as a moral pornographer campaigns for “absolute sexual licence” for all genders and it is in the illuminating of this campaign that Sade further argues for the interrelationship between sexual and political freedom. In turn this argument is seen to validate Sade’s call for a Utopian type republic where all men and women are free both sexually and socially.
Mulvey categorizes Sherman’s usage of femininity in her artwork as an appearance in which the insistent sexualization of woman is integrated into a style of respectability. One of Sherman’s works that Mulvey writes about, that I found very interesting and displayed this style of femininity and emotion was her series Untitled Film Stills. It was in this series that Mulvey states how Sherman developed her photographs in black and white to portray the 1950’s neo-realism ideas. What was interesting about this series by Sherman, was that she used herself as the model for all of her photographs, while also coming up with the wardrobe, setting, and props for her photograph. This is something that is both fascinating and impressive, about Sherman’s work that Mulvey really focuses on.
One of the main reasons feminism has lost supporters is that business have worked to over-power the image that represents feminists. Feminists are portrayed as bra burning, hairy-legged, man- hating, and lesbians. This image of a theory as caused women to back down from the fight, and that’s exactly what organizations against the theory want. Many women are against being feminist, they find the word unappealing. The stereotype attached to feminism isn't considered beautiful by our cultural standards and as a result, this stance becomes unappealing to women because the worst thing you can call a woman in our culture is ugly.