Girls Rule: “My Sassy Girl” as an Attempt to Promote Women’s Inequality By Olga Fedorenko “My Sassy Girl” is a hilarious comedy, which invites the audience to laugh at the misadventures of Gyeon-woo, who regularly gets beaten by his mother and by bossy girlfriend. Jae-young Kwak, the director of “My Sassy Girl,” seems to question the traditional gender roles; however, from another perspective, the movie can be interpreted as reinforcing the double standard for men and women and thus endorsing gender inequality. In this essay, I will argue that Kwak promotes gender inequality by portraying it as women’s secret weapon. While looking into how gender relations are presented in “My Sassy Girl,” it is important to keep in mind the social context of South Korea. Though the feminist movement took a strong hold and the ideas of gender equality are promoted within the educational system, women still have limited opportunities for self-realization outside the family (Cho, 2002; Janelli & Yim, 2002).
In Homer’s the Iliad, characters in high esteem portray personality traits and values that can be respected as well as, condemned. In such a fragile society, such characters may make selfish decisions causing devastating and lasting effects on their whole society. These scenarios are played out when Helen of Troy is abducted by Paris and taken away on ships of the Greek. In her being abducted, she has been called by skeptics, “the face that launched a thousand ships”, meaning that her beauty and Paris’ desire for her beauty caused the disastrous war between Troy and Greece. Helen being the daughter of the gods Zeus and Leda, and wife of Menelaus, the King of Troy, has been critically depicted and examined for years by critics questioning Helen’s true character.
Briefly outline and justify your casting decisions for Creon and Antigone and then explain how you would direct the interaction between these two characters in their first scene of confrontation, in order to achieve your preferred effects for an audience. Sophocles’ play ‘Antigone’ is a traditional Greek tragedy set after a civil war. The major themes in the play are the problem of choosing between obeying divine law or the law of the state, which is the cause of the conflict between Antigone and her uncle, King Creon; and the position of women in society in relation to men. Sophocles’ aim, like any tragic play write, is to evoke a cathartic response in audience at the end of the play and pathos for our tragic hero, Creon. For the casting of Creon, I would ideally choose a strongly built, relatively tall man with a powerful and commanding voice in order to convey that he is an authoritative and important man who should be respected and obeyed, thus making Antigone’s disobedience even more shocking.
Lysistrata, by Aristophanes, was the most pro-feminist work of its time, a comedy that is essentially about women using sex as a barganing term, threatening their men that they will not have sex with them until they help restore peace and end the Peloponnesian War. Because , the audience it was performed for was familiar with the Thrives on character. In Lysistrata, context becomes important; Lysistrata was written during the time of the Peloponnesian War and therefore plays on the ironies in the connections between what was happening during the time and what happens in the play. At the time, the audience needed to know that as well as know what other Greek playwrites were doing as well. Physical humor was also used in the staging of the play - the actors portraying male characters wore phalluses that were erect due to lack of sex.
However when passion gets in-between justice to voice of reason is muted. To begin, sympathy is given to Medea when first introduced that her husband, who she has sacrificed literally everything for, has left her for another woman. Medea changed herself to fit the standards for a Greek wife that society had molded, but had no success. She could not understand why he would do this adulterous crime that breaks the logical code of general conduct in ancient Greece. This conflict raises the value of passion over justice because Medea takes whatever steps necessary to achieve what she believes is equal
Moreover, what can one woman of Athens do by herself? Lysistrata assembled women from Athens, Sparta, and many other ancient Greek cities. Although the women came late to the meeting, they were anxious to her plan because they wanted the sex they had missed from their husbands. As Kleonike complained, “My husband’s been gone for the last five months!” (Aristophanes 14). Once united, Lysistrata proposed her plan to end the war.
Characterization of Helena Kate Steneker The caracter Helena, in Shakespear’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, changes drastictally throughout the play. Or, rather seeing as it is a script and not a novel, the reader observes her reactions to other characters change. In the first segment of the play that takes place in Athens, Helena is seen as the loveless friend of the much sought-after Hermia. In love with Demitrius, Hermias intended husband, Helena is jealous of Hermia’s talent in attracting men. She even goes so far to ask Hermia to “teach [her] how [Hermia] look[s], and with what art [she] sway[s] the motion of Demetrius’ heart” (10).
Agamemnon Essay In Agamemnon, Clytaemnestra misleads her husband into hubris by switching between her persuasive masculine attitude, where she utilizes boldness and allusion to back up her claims, and her submissive female role that allows her to emphasize her faithfulness and love for Agamemnon through the use of simile and metaphor. In her speech to Agamemnon, Clytaemnestra openly uses a more feminine role talking metaphorically and with more emotion to appeal to pathos and ethos. In Greek culture and society, men not only expect women to act “faithful” and with their emotions, but also expect the women to act inferior to their husbands (603). In Clytaemnestra’s speech, she attempts to draw sympathy from Agamemnon by expressing her unwavering “love” for the man and the loss of “[their] child” as her “self-defense” (865, 876). She states how “the tears that welled [for him] like springs are dry” and that in her dreams even a gnat “piercing like a trumpet” wakes her as she sees him suffering in war (878, 884).
As a base for his play Shaw appropriates the Ancient Greek myth of Pygmalion along with aspects of Cinderella. He subverts the happy ending of the two stories to make his play ambiguous, leaving the audience to think about their behaviour within society. Through his conventions Shaw conveys an interesting view on society. 'Freedom or Death' an extract from the speech of Emmeline Pankhurst also conveys an interesting view on society as she was a leading women’s rights activist who fought for the right for women to vote. In Act 2 of the play Pygmalion, Eliza visits Professor Higgins to ask him for speech lessons.
Through a very oblique and a humorous tone, the actors on the stage help entangle the audience in creating a very sharing atmosphere. I felt that the generic message they tried to instill was raising awareness of issues affecting women such as rape, domestic violence, and sexual slavery. But the way these young ladies described these ideas was through a body part that was quite reprehensible to talk about especially for ladies. The talk about vagina may provoke a man but obviously the vagina is a place of many other things than a sexual tool for a woman. This idea of sharing stories of their vaginas basically opened up a topic that usually is silent and not discussed.