In Nina Power’s text, ‘One- Dimensional Woman’ the author also argues that you don’t need superficial things to feel good about yourself, or to even look like perfectly thin stick figure to be a feminist. Women these days like to have the idea of living the ‘rich and famous’, if not they try to invest in material things. They want the ideal lifestyle or better yet, being more successful than someone else. Today’s society is filled with
They don’t like to be held back.”(5-7) this is the way the speaker describes her hips. Lucille Clifton is straight forward and wants you to feel the freedom and advantages of having healthy hips by using imagery. Lucille Clifton brings us through her poem with a bow of confidence; “Homage” means a form of paying respect to someone or something. “They go where they want to go, and they do what they want to do.” (9-10) Demonstrating a strong, brassy, confident women, a women who is comfortable in her skin, who sends a “feel good” message through a powerful delivery of her self-worth. “They need space to move around in; they don’t fit into little petty places” (2-4) you can gather from these lines that her hips are large, that she is not a size 2 and that she needs space.
“Thats right, It’s none of their business, that stuff” (178, Medicine River). Bertha is independent and assertive, and makes a point to others about her non-traditional beliefs that physical attributes do not define a person, or deem men as “attractive”. This may not seem very independent to the reader, but in the story, Bertha appears independent from other characters because of her non-traditional beliefs. Like Bertha, Will’s mother, Rose is independent and very self-reliant, as she had raised two boys on her own in a time where women tend to be deemed only to be housewives and caretakers. She had been receiving letters from her ex-husband saying "How are you and the boys?
She is one of the most beautiful women that Joe has ever met, and he recognizes that. But instead of the love that Janie wants, he treats her like as a possession, a thing that he can show off and parade about. Nobody ever asks Janie what she wants. They all assume they know what’s best for her, and what she wants is what they want. So, Janie is always yearning for something.
"She simply had no need for heterosexual relationships, she was married to her art." (Woodress). In her book, Willa Cather : The Emerging Voice, Sharon O'Brien discusses Cather's sexuality. She dwells mainly on Cather's relationship with her best friend Louise Pound and says, "That Willa Cather was a lesbian should not be an unexamined assumption, h owever, but a conclusion reached after considering questions of definition, evidence and interpretation." Yet, after her affair with Pound ended, Cather found "more enduring and supportive relationships," (O'Brien) with Isabelle McClung and later with Edith Lewis, yet she never declared publicly that she was in fact a lesbian.
Leon B. Bacon, a niece of Susan B. Anthony, stated later in life that “because of Aunt Susan's love for women and perseverance in her cause, I have today the enjoyment of a great many more rights and privileges than my mother had.” When Aunt Susan herself was young, there were no such things as woman's rights; all the rights were masculine. Women were ruled by a government and a law in which she had no voice. If she felt herself wronged in any way she had no way of making the fact known before the law. It was an unheard of thing for a woman to speak in public. None of the colleges or universities admitted women students.
Martha Ballard is able to go beyond what I would have expected a woman from the late 18th century, could do. She is as a free spirit yet still completes her obligations as a wife. She is not made to stay at home and care for her children and husband, and although she does that job with great pride, Martha can be described as a woman with many professions, “…a midwife, nurse, physician, mortician, pharmacist and attentive wife [and mother]…” (Pg. 40). But how typical was this in her era?
Often perceived as being submissive and without a voice, Desdemona has proved that she is in fact no victim to her husband, but more assertive in his presence. When Desdemona defends her marriage to Othello, it may not seem strange to anyone reading the play today, unless the role of women during the Renaissance period is taken into account. Because Desdemona is significantly younger than Othello, she is automatically stereotyped as being naïve, gullible, and sexually driven, all characteristics of a passive nature. However, Desdemona is arguably one of the most sane and loyal characters in Othello, and is less subservient than most of the women in that time period. The role of women in the Renaissance was not that of assertiveness, and certainly not that of equality, when it came to men.
Get along now, take your schoolbooks and go. There’s nothing wrong with me.” (1388) When Granny Weatherall makes remakes such as that one; I can only assume that she is in denial of her state of mind and her health. Granny Weatherall was old but she was also very independent, and felt like she was able to care for herself. She didn’t want others such as Doctor Harry telling her that she was unable to care for herself or that she could no longer be independent. She was a very strong willed woman and wanted it to stay that way.
Pizan so obviously from the start of her writing, introduces how women should behave (from the perspective of a princess), so that her actions shall be beneficial to her and her husband. By talking about the finances, which is radical, Pizan degrades women in all other aspects. Degrading is used in the sense that she does not promote equality in any other way other than the financial aspect. These women could be considered early feminists if they looked for equality in other things as well not just a specific