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.
Performativity links gender and racialized bodies. Gender says the man is supposed to be strong and the woman weak. Race and gender is one in the same regimes of truth are definitely rooted from these two specific category. Bell Hooks Chapter 15 1. Women of the historical culture construction were taught to believe that sexual desire was for the man and that basically no respectable woman should acquire sexual needs.
What problem does Somine de Beauvoir think is preventing genuine love between men and women? Is she right? “Humanity is male and a man defines female not in her self but as relative to him; she is not regarded as an autonomous being(De Beauvoir 1983, p. 16).This statement itself presents the nature of male and female inequalities which in de Beauvoir’s view determines the genuine love they experience for one another. De Beauvoir suggests that because of the influence of gender stereotypes, men and women have historically had very different attitudes toward love. She continues to argue that as a result such difference presents inequality and has made genuine love between man and women doubtful.
Sex categories suppose sex but are not necessarily determined by it. Doing gender in this sense is acting in a manner which promotes assignment to one of the sex categories, under the supervision of others. Doing gender is a socially required practice, and therefore we cannot "not do gender", our assigned sex category is imposed on us and is perceived as essential, we can comply with is or rebel against it, but in either case we are always, “Dude you’re a Fag” (Pascoe) * This article argues that American adolescent boys become masculine through the continual rejection of a fag' identity. * Pascoe analyzes masculinity as not only a gendered process but also a sexual one * She demonstrates how the "specter of the fag" becomes a disciplinary mechanism for regulating heterosexual as well as homosexual boys and how the "fag discourse" is as much tied to gender as it is to sexuality. * The social construct of “fag,” which exists primarily as an image of failed masculinity, meaning that person is not a
Contrary to its putatively gender-normalizing conclusion, Eliza Haywood’s Fantomina generates a narrative of sexual subversion and female authority. The repetitive occurrence of female protagonists inverting gender hegemonies from the prostitute to Fantomina’s mother to the convent, produces a ‘gynocratic’, or woman-centered novel. When juxtaposed alongside the nameless, beguiled admirers and the named, yet four-flushed BeauPlaisir, the narrative constructs a hierarchy of female over male, contradicting the possibility of its reinstating archetypal gender roles through its questionable inclusion of assault. While acknowledging seemingly anti-feminist sections, this essay will articulate how Haywood’s text empowers its atypical heroine through Haywood’s syntax and plot, her covert theme of naming and the conclusion itself. Despite her antithetical ideologies, Haywood remains centuries ahead while incorporating the very themes of contemporary pop culture: Woman Power.
Modern context in where social movement and increasing gender and equality threaten the traditional male dominance may be directed on those woman who challenge the power of a man and the status (e.g. career women), as well as towards women who are alleged as using their sexual appeal to gain power over men. However, sexual reproduction and the dependency and intimacy that man have on women and the domestic fulfillment of women. These roles create a dependency and intimacy between the two counterbalances the sexist hostility with a subjectively benevolent view of women. As per the 22-item ambivalent sexism Inventory (ASI; Glick & Fiske, 1996) initiated and validated in six
Her personality deteroritates from her looks and it is easy to judge her on her actions without knowledge of her motives. However, later in the narrative, Angela’s seemingly well-hidden flaws start to seep through. It becomes apparent that her identity is linked to her appearance when she tries to force others to believe that she is hot and popular, when in reality, she is sad and miserable inside. Like Carolyn, she values physical appearance over inner beauty. Although my values conflict with Angela’s values, I still sympathy with her as I know how much pressure
Jane Austen however takes this conception and gently blends both of the qualities into one female character as if to show women of her time that they can be more and have control in a society, which greatly restraints them, by first obtaining control over themselves. Thus she instead creates the opposition of two young women – the overspiritted Marianne and the self controlled Elinor. To make matters clear we should, however, say that “Austen does... not condone an exclusion of sensibility entirely; rather, in Elinor’s character Austen is arguing that women, and even men, can still allow themselves to feel without finding their “understandings neglected.”“ (Melz, 23). Indeed it would be a bit too easy to label either one of the heroines as a representative of only one of these characteristics. Elinor‘s seeming lack of feelings is actually a screen for a complexed but contained nature and the hurricane of emotions that Marianne expresses is taimed through sense in the end of the novel.
Shakespeare subverts gender roles like this throughout the play, such as when Lady Macbeth decides her husband is unable to commit the atrocities to sit on the throne and taunts him, insinuating things about his manhood and claiming he has "th' milk of human kindness" (Act 1, 5.15) implying that he isn't strong enough to kill King Duncan. There is also a moment during a soliloquy where she wishes she could unsex herself so she could do the job without an inkling of guilt. (Act 1.5.38-41). This goading, as Lady Macbeth is aware, became a powerful tool in emasculinating her husband and forcing his hand to prove that he is in fact up to the task. This is the first time we see where the power lies, and this dynamic proves that it resides with Lady Macbeth; she's the one that's controlling things, despite the times.
Simone was referring to how females of the female sex assume the feminine gender-gender meaning the restrictive, socially prescribed attitudes and behaviors that we associate with femininity. Not the same but similar….. 1. Feminist and gender criticism are not exactly the same, but also are not opposites. They exist along a line of attitudes towards sex and sexism, sexuality and gender, language and the literary canon. Distinctions of Difference…… 2.