Textual Analysis – Gender Roles & Polygamy in the Novel “Sister Wife” Over the course of history women have not always been depicted as strong and powerful figures in literary text. This unfortunately happens to be a reflection of history itself. Women have struggled for arguably all of humanity to be considered as equals to their male counterparts. Although polygamy is painted to be a degrading and offensive practice for women, it still holds the same aspects in a monogamous marriage such as love, respect and a good support structure that traditional monogamous families have. As some Mormon women feel indifferent to being in a plural marriage, most feel as if it is obligatory and a part of their duty to follow their religious and spiritual beliefs as a way to successfully reach salvation.
Biff and Willy often find it very challenging to get along, and most of the time we see Linda trying to resolve their differences. Although while Linda is only trying to do good amongst her family by nurturing them with her advice, they usually do not take on board what she has said, and rather just ignore her completely. A feminist could argue that to Biff and Willy, they think that they’re putting her ‘in her place’. A place where perhaps her opinion does not matter. Linda occasionally argues her point across until she is yelling at members of the family and this may be because she is frustrated because she is never heard when she tries to give her opinion.
In the film Real Women Have Curves Latina teenager Ana Garcia struggles on trying to balance her family’s culture and her own beliefs that seem to differ very much from her family’s. This becomes a problem throughout the movie. Her family wants her to be doing something that she is not nearly interested in. The problems mainly break through with Ana’s mother whose name is Carmen. Throughout the whole film you are able to see how the culture differences between Ana and her mother Carmen affect their mother and daughter relationship even till the last moments of the film.
History 201 Professor Studebaker “Her-Story of Women’s Suffrage” Makyla Pittman Imagine living a life filled with all forms of discrimination where you have no voice in the government under which you live and in the equality of social life where you are a chief factor. It is a difficult scenario to visualize and before the 19th century that was the reality of a women’s position in this world. With limited access, a young wife and mother was expected to manage a household, train her children, keep her friends and sustain the affections of her husband. In a world filled with patriarchal constraints women were forced to fall back on their instinctive resources of common sense, wisdom, diplomacy and knowledge of human nature. Education, employment, and politics are all barriers where women were held back from the full development of their faculties.
All that chaos contributed to the male chauvinism we see in our current society. Women had to handle that change without any moral support. It is also important to remember the important role women took in both world wars. A “Jury of Her Peers”, demonstrates how hard marriage was for all women who did not enjoy their relationships. Women in those types of relationships were treated as objects instead of being valued as women of freedom which represent intelligence, compassion, love and beauty.
What does it mean to be a woman? Where does it all originate? Prior to the 18th century women had no equality they had to combat social and cultural inequalities .Soon after feminism started to take root and in today’s world women see themselves on par with men. However they still identify themselves by the role they fulfil. If you ask a woman the question “who are you?’ immediately the response would be mother, sister, wife, grandmother or they give their professional title.
Aunt Alexandra was horrified with the fact that Scout did not live up to the standards society had of women. She believed Scout should be wearing dresses, not running around wild like a boy. To further outstretch this topic of stereotypes, an article published in August 2014 by The New York Times stresses the phrase 'throw like a girl' and the hidden aspects of it. On the second page of the article, the author speaks of stereotypes of the female community. "Such restriction, constriction, and fragmentation can be observed in many everyday movements, including the way a woman walks, sits, and carries books.
Having worries, her parents take her to a therapist. But he is soon fired when he proposes that she should be put on medication. Her mom notices Phoebe’s self-destructive behavior at home, and her constantly getting into trouble at school, but she refuses to accept that there’s anything wrong with her daughter. Other than the trouble with Phoebe, her parents are also dealing with their own relationship problems. Her young sister feels jealous and left out when she watches Phoebe get all the attention from both parents.
Women have always been thought of as the less domineering sex. All through history females have fought the stereotypes of being simple housewives with no greater use then producing babies and maintaining a household. This repression, combined with the social systems of years past has lead woman to feel inferior and naturally acquire an internal dependency toward the males in their lives who are viewed as superior. Many notable characters in literature have carried out the role of this inferior spouse and are no doubt created from the hostility of oppression women have felt for hundreds of years. We see two of these characters in Delia from Zora Neale Hurston’s story “Sweat” and John’s wife in Charlotte Perkins Gillman’s story “The Yellow Wallpaper”.
The daughters in the stories thought their mothers were very pushy about some things and they did not like it. However, what they did not realize is the intention their mother had for them to be in a better, more independent situation then they were. Jing-Mei Woo was one of the daughters in chapter eight titled Two Kinds and it stated, “I hated the tests, something inside of me began to die”. (Page 141) When Jing-Mei’s mother saw other people excelling, she thought it was necessary for her daughter to do the same thing. She had been put on a pedestal in her mind as a type of prodigy.