Curley’s wife is portrayed as being a whore – but this is only due to the way she dresses, her provocative ways and the way she acts around men, as if she is aware of her femininity. This could suggest that she is only like this because she is bored, like it is something to do – something interesting for a change. She is constantly trying to get people to notice her. But, because of Lennie’s purity and innocence, he doesn’t see her in the way other men do – a sexual object. When Steinbeck quotes “And because she had confided in him, she moved closer to Lennie and sat beside him”, it is clear to the audience that Curley’s Wife is using her sexuality as an object to create some sort of excitement for herself.
Do you agree that Shakespeare presents Beatrice and Katherina as “offending against society’s expectations about women”? The idea that both Beatrice and Katherina offend against society’s expectations of women in the plays Much Ado About Nothing and The Taming of the Shrew is open to personal interpretation. We must take into account which society it is we are suggesting they are offending against, if we are judging it on Shakespearean society’s expectations we could, in theory, agree with the statement, due to the fact that at that time, women were largely expected to be submissive, quiet and respectful to the superior sex, males. However, it would not be correct to say that Beatrice and Katherina offend against modern day expectations of women. Further to this, it would also depend on at which point in the play we are making our judgement.
Liberation is seen to be achieved through raising women’s consciousness of subjugation. Feminists believe that women have accepted inferiority to men subconsciously, and thus need to realise this before becoming liberated. Millet argues that women are in a “power-structured relationship…whereby one group of persons is controlled by another”, thus suggesting that feminists believe that in our current society men control women. Although there is controversy between feminists as to the extent of advancing a woman’s role within society, as first-wave feminists demand that women should enjoy the same legal and political rights as men, whilst second-wave feminists have greater focus on the personal side of society and call for complete social revolution. Whilst this presents a clear divide within the doctrine, it
Nevertheless Larkin ‘got it back in the end’ which illustrates Larkin not fully conforming to her results in rejection. In the ultimate stanza Larkin criticizes his own personality ‘I was too selfish… easily bored to love’. This could suggest he is too simply mundane and egocentric for someone to love him. Alternatively it could be appear that Larkin is presenting women in a unenthusiastic light as he could also be suggesting that there can’t be one women with the right appearance and personality therefore he is selfish as he needs two women to meet his requirements. This point is reinforced in the second stanza where he describes meeting ‘beautiful twice’ which could demonstrate he met two sides of beauty one in a character and one
She explains that women are objectifying themselves and are equally to blame for the degrading image that men have of us. The article discusses how we do not have to put ourselves in this position and continue to objectify ourselves, however our culture teaches us that that is the acceptable way to live. Unless someone does something radical to change the norms of our society, men will continue to objectify women and the women will help them. This is the way of our culture. I enjoyed this reading because it really opened my eyes to how erotic our culture is, in fact.
Module 4 Answering the Opposition ITT Technical “The Latest from the Feminist Front” What was your initial reaction to Limbaugh’s claim that “feminism was established so that unattractive women could have easier access to mainstream of society?” My initial reaction was that Limbaugh was being disrespectful to women in general. Al women have a right to easier access to society whether they are attractive or unattractive. They are still women and women should be respected as much as men are respected. His statement is also very insensitive. What are two of Limbaugh’s main points?
However, women aren’t innocent in this controversy either. They have some control over the attention they receive based on how they dress and present themselves socially. I know for a fact the reason my friend dresses up and stands out it for the attention. In conclusion I agree with Sheets-Johnstone’s thoughts about women only being seen as body parts and objects. Although some perspectives on the subject claim women live in bad faith and put themselves in situations to be defined as a body part, if there was no routine of male’s looking or the notion to dominate and females attention starvation or feelings to please, there would be no need for a dominant and submissive relationship.
Not only is it fair simply because she deserved the judgement that she got, but steinbeck has fairly portrayed curley’s wife to suit the time period in which the story was set. The way Curley’s wife is treated reflects how many women were treated in those days. There was very limited respect for women, especially of her description. They were the odd one’s out and possessions of their husbands. If the story were to be set at present date, his depiction would have been seen as unfair and sexist, considering women are viewed very differently today.
Focusing on the picture with the young woman lying against the man, this picture is posed like this to make women think that they need to not only look like her, but act like her as well to get the man. As Killbourne states, "There are two identical women looking adoringly at the man in the ad, but he isn't looking at either one of them. . . Clearly the way to get beautiful women is to ignore them, perhaps mistreat them" (272).
SHAW AND LEE: Chapter 6: 1. a. Society believes the woman is supposed to have self-restraint until marriage which is not at all comparable to the man. They are free to go out and express whatever they want without any out lash. Man are sort of rewarded for their sexual transcript. When a women has a sexual transcript they are frowned upon.