Despite being written during patriarchal Jacobean society, the protagonist is a female, which is was highly unusual in those days. Of course this protagonist is Lady Macbeth. Throughout the play, through Lady Macbeth's actions we are forced to believe that she is evil. In contrast, the novel John Steinbeck tells a story of dreams, hopes and loneliness. We are introduced to a majorly significant and complex character, named Curley’s wife.
In Katherine Wilson’s “Dude Looks Like a Lady,” she begins with a powerful introduction saying “this is about hair, breasts, and identity” (Wilson 21), insinuating it is going to be a gender identity piece. Reading more of the first page, you assume the thesis is about the common misconceptions of how a woman is supposed to look and how not looking that way could take away from a woman being a woman. Wilson gives the example of her hair being buzzed and people looking at her differently. Although she tries to argue the hardships of not looking like the normal female, Wilson’s argument fails to meet the rest of her story. She claims her argument is about “hair, breasts, and identity,” she is really just ranting and raving her being disrespected and her own issues of being black.
Yet we see media encouraging the notion that you must be beautiful not smart to find a significant other. Equally, we see media encouraging that to be attractive to females you must have be masculine, strong, and handsome. Feminism currently works to defeat these standards put upon males and females by society. A beautiful reference Quindlen made to the shifting feminist agenda is that of expectations. As females, we are now able to legally do everything a male can do, yet now we are expected to do it even better.
Motherhood and marriage is seen to be a key factor in the society of which The Bell Jar is set ,and is portrayed as one of the things that supresses female identity when Esther is asked to be “Mrs Buddy Willard” as if she is owned by Buddy and not her own person. Even though Top Girls is set in 1980’s England while Margret Thatcher is Prime Minister, it shows direct correlations to the ideas shown in The Bell Jar. Just as the bell jar itself portrays motherhood and marriage to be a hindrance to Careers In the form of Dodo Conway, Top Girls protagonist Marlene symbolises the other option women have in the choice between a career and a family. Marlene, unlike her sister Joyce, is shown to have given up her child for the chance to pursue a career as if having both is impossible; a lot like Jaycee is in The Bell Jar. This essay will argue that In both texts motherhood and marriage is shown to be a hindrance to both women’s careers and their female identity.
Rationale This written task will consist of a fake news article published in an online Saudi newspaper discussing new laws implemented by the king of Saudi Arabia by ironically exaggerating the lack of woman’s rights that is still present in this country. This humoristic report would be inspired by the Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel “The Handmaid’s Tale” and the fake news source “The Onion”. It would target people that do agree with right restrictions towards women: with the purpose of wittily denouncing this Kingdom’s current alarming corruption, humor is used in order to convey the message in a more subtle way than by explicit criticization. Moreover, the prevalence of fake news nowadays is everywhere in the media: whether as a mean of
“Well I think Curley’s married…a tart.” Steinbeck used the word tart, as it is an undermining term to say that a woman is promiscuous at that time. Tart also means sour so he could be saying that she is a stingy person. The phrase “I think” shows that they do not know her and that they just assume she is like that without any actual proof. That links in with how people did not think about getting to know women and that they are something by labelling them from their actions and what they look like. Steinbeck saw that this was a double standard as a man could go to a “cat house” and “get it out of his system” and no one would think any different of the man, however if a woman did that they would be labelled as a “tart”.
‘Women are the subtler sex: more varied in their attractions, more ingenious in their stratagems.’ In light of this view, discuss ways in which Webster presents women in the ‘White Devil’. Bartholomew Scholefield At first the audience is led to believe that all women in the ‘White Devil’ will epitomise the contemporary role of the subservient, Jacobean woman. From the beginning it is clear to see that men hold all the power and women are viewed as merely desirable, indeed Flamineo uses his own sister’s sexuality only in order to advance his social status in the patriarchal society of the time. This view of women as beneath men is ingrained so deeply into the psyche that even the majority of women themselves believe it, Cornelia, the mother of Flamineo and Vittoria is outraged to discover the plans her son has for her daughter but it is not the nature of the deed that Flamineo commits that angers her rather that Vittoria would break the ‘rules’ of society by causing “dishonour” to her family and her husband, she does not care about Vittoria’s happiness but her social standing and reputation. However, the idea of women being unequal to men is quickly dispelled by Webster who appears to mock the misogynistic characters of the play and indeed, very possibly the misogyny of society as a whole at the time.
There was one particular quote in the novel that seemed out of place in my opinion. The quote depicts women in a very negative way. The beginning of the quote is as followed: “Experience will teach you the real characters of the beings who chiefly compose your species” (86). The statement was made by a male character from the novel. Then the quote continues and states: “You will find them, [women] a set of harpies, absurd, treacherous, and deceitful—regardless of strong obligations, and mindful of slight injuries…” (86).
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. (Page 85&86)Relation has to have respect and mutuality in sexual intercourse. Hooks’ said we are all entitled to sexual desire and pleasure as the spirit moves us. (Page 92) Chapter 12 1. Feminist Masculinity is described as: “What is and was needed is a vision of masculinity where self-esteem and self-love of one's unique being forms the basis of identity.
For example, Antigone seems to be impervious toward Creon’s misogynistic ways; however, her sister, Ismene, is seen to be internalizing the idea that women are insignificant compared to men. We see the impact that this sexist culture has on Ismene when she tells Antigone, “We must remember that by birth we’re women, and, as such, we shouldn’t fight with men. Since those who rule are much more powerful, we must obey in this and in events which bring us even harsher agonies… Since I’m being compelled, I will obey those in control. That’s what I’m forced to do. It makes no sense to try to do too much” (77-85).