...Assess the views that the family allows men to control and oppress women?(20 marks) Feminism is what culture is like for women just because they are women compared to what life is like for men. In society women get treated differently to men as men are seen as more superior, however this only happens in some cultures and these cultures are prejudice towards women. There are 4 key theories that I will talk about in this essay, they all argue different beliefs about feminism and how the family allows men to control and oppress women. Firstly, Radical feminism, they believe that a patriarchal society is the cause of conflict. They also promote lesbianism and separatism. Theorists like Rich, Brownmiller and Firestone all believe differently about Radical feminism. Rich believes in heterosexual relationships however he also thinks that they don’t satisfy the women. Brownmiller believes that women are secluded by society as they fear violence and rape. Lastly Firestone believes that women are unequal due to the factor of child birth. This shows that men are the decision makers and are the ones who have the power within the family. Patriarchy seems to divide rights, privileges and power by gender. Resulting in oppressing women and privileging men. The limitations of this theory are that it assumes all women are the same and men are evil, however this may not be the case as some women may have a more dominant role. Lesbianism is not a good family type to raise children, nuclear is...
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...from “Lesbianism and Feminism” written by the US radical feminist author Anne Koedt, a New-York city-based woman of Danish nationality, in 1971 when she was 30 years old. Anne Koedt was first an active figure in the Group NYRW: “New York Radical Women” which was an early second-wave feminism (1967-1969), along with Robin Morgan and then, in 1969, she co-founded of the Group NYRF: “New York Radical Feminists,” with Shulamith Firestone, another great figure of the dynamism of feminist ideas at that time. That group was to be one of first “consciousness-raising”; that notion would be the starting point for existing Liberalism to establish the foundations of Radicalism, and Anne Koedt would be a famous protagonist in it. At the same time, Ti-Grace Atkinson created the radical group: “The Feminists,” in 1969, after she left the liberal group “National Organization for Women (NOW),” passing from Liberalism to Reformism. A link remains, but the main contradiction is that Liberal Feminism tends towards an...
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... This oppression is believed to be maintained by the role women adopt within the capitalist’s system as the unpaid homemaker in the family. Women are conceived that this unpaid role is natural and normal, through the ideology of ‘familism’ that promotes female fulfillment as achieved through motherhood intimacy and sexual satisfaction. Marxist feminists believe that in order to end female subordination, we must overthrow capitalism as well as the ideology of familism. This would free the sexes from restrictive family roles and ensure that domestic labour was shared equally. Strengths of Marxist feminists include the fact that they have demonstrated the power of structural factors, such as capitalism and ideology in constructing an explanation for women’s subordination. However, Marxist feminists have been criticised for failing to explain women’s subordination in non-capitalist societies. Marxist feminism also places insufficient emphasis on the way in which men (including WC men) and not just capitalism, oppress and benefit from their unpaid labour. Marxist feminist Michelle Barrett (1980) argues that the role ideology plays in convincing women that unpaid domestic labour is fulfilling is important. Barrett discusses the ideology of ‘familism’ the notion that female fulfillment lies in the family. For Marxist feminists,...
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...School of criticism: Feminist criticism (1960’s-present) Tex: The Birthmark, Nathaniel Hawthorne Question 1: What does the work say about women’s creativity? The portrayal of the woman represented in The Birthmark best identifies with the portrayal of women who are taught to deny their creativity and deem it as a social indifference that makes them less than. During this short story we watch as her husband becomes repulsed by the mere sight of his wife’s birthmark. During the beginning of the story we see a side of Georgiana that embraces her indifference, she even attempts to defend her birthmark to Aylmer by explaining the beauty that others seen in her birthmark. The true diminishing to Georgiana’s embodiment of feminism is constantly...
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...Date Feminism is a movement that is targeted towards a common goal which is, achieving equal rights for women in each sector; cultural, economic, social and personal. Its main aim is to seek to establish equal opportunities for women in education and employment. A feminist advocate is in charge of supporting the rights of women and advocating for equality. The feminist movement on the other hand campaign for women rights and protect girls and women from being mistreated (Adel 56). Feminism began in the nineteenth and twentieth century when the plight of women became a great issue. Feminism then and now still promotes equality for women. Discussed below will be feminism in its various forms and in different environments. Some types of feminism have been criticized taking into account our differences in culture and beliefs, and this has led to the formulation of ethnically specific and multicultural forms of feminism (Adel 77). The Feminist theory aims to understand why women are undergoing gender inequalities in the political, job and household sectors. By providing a critique of the political and social relations, the theory tries to highlight what is going wrong in the society in general. Feminism is a movement that promotes full equality of women with men and a high valuation of women as equal human beings both theoretically and practically. "Feminism is both a way of thinking about the world and a way of acting in it" (Diana 58). Feminism in Politics ...
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...however in the end its tone is mainly victorious. This poem is not only addressed to one person it is addressed to all the public it is extremely political and somewhat controversial. This made me want to analyze the different meanings the poem may have hidden within. The poem was written by Maya Angelou in 1978. This was Angelous most famous point of her career. She had just published three autobiographies and published two other volumes of poetry. “ Still I Rise” is part of “ And I still I Rise” a volume of poetry made up of thirty-two short poems. This volume also included one of her most famous poems “ Phenomenal Woman”. The thirty-two short poems carry a similar theme throughout the volume. Maya Angelou focused a lot on her race, strength and resiliency. Maya Angelou was born on April fourth 1928 in St. Louis Missouri United States of America. She was born Marguerite Ann Johnson. Her father Bailey Johnson was a doorman and a naval dietician and her mother Vivian Baxter Johnson worked variously as a card dealer, boarding house proprietor and registered nurse. Maya Angelou and her family moved to Long Beach, California, however after he parents were divorced, her and her brother were sent to live with her grandmother. When Maya was seven one of her mother’s boyfriend raped her. Maya was forced testify against her assailant. Shortly after the trial Mayas assailant was murdered, possibly by her uncle. Maya stated, “ I thought he was killed because I spoke his name “ Maya...
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...The Television series Charmed can be interpreted as a postfeminist text in popular culture. Yvonne Tasker and Diane Negra’s book “Interrogating Post Feminism: Gender and the Politics of Popular Culture” (2007) discusses the importance of post feminism in contemporary popular culture. In this book, Tasker and Negra focus mainly on film, television and advertising. According to the article “The Myth of Postfeminism”, the United States entered a postfeminist era around 1990. (Hall, J. E. (2003) p. 878) In America Charmed was television series which ran from 1998 up until 2006. Post-feminism, also known as third wave feminism emerged after second wave feminism and was a response to what second wave feminism excluded. The shows central characters are three sisters who are witches, the show is hailed as a feminist text because of its portrayal of strong female characters, and the fact the...
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...Feminism throughout the United States of America has been quite prevalent since as long as I can remember. I started to hear more and more about this topic while going through my senior year in High School. The topic of feminism can bring about many mixed emotions in the community. In my opinion, most either love it or hate to see it. Although, some feel indifferent about this topic of interest. After having the exposure of going to an all girls catholic High School, many of my peers amongst me felt very strong on this issue. The term feminism is the advocacy for women’s rights. Feminist strive for themselves and others to want to feel equal amongst men, and to have the same equal opportunities present for females. After speaking with two friends of mine I have...
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...Still Enduring: Equity Feminism for the Next Generation Webster defines feminism as both "the theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes" and "organized activity on the behalf of women's rights and interests" (Webster 418). Equality of the sexes (in terms of rights) and the furthering of women's rights are seemingly positive aspirations; yet people tend to describe feminism using negative terms, and feminism today has acquired a bad reputation. "Radical" and "extremists" are adjectives commonly applied to feminism as a whole, when, in truth, feminists who adopt extreme positions constitute the minority. Moreover, these "gender feminists," or "militant feminists," as many call them, although they receive the most public attention because of their aggressive tactics and high visibility, alienate people in broadcasting their views. Their goal, to create a "sentimental priesthood" that will achieve collective power and retribution as oppressed "victims" of a white-male supremacy, seems unreasonable (Himmelfarb 20). In contrast, "equity feminists," or "academic feminists," embrace the basic principles of feminism. They celebrate women's achievements, work for the individual rights of all women, and, as Christina Hoff Sommers aptly says, "want for women what they want for everyone, equal protection under the law" (Himmelfarb 20). Though not all feminists agree on how to reach this goal, most argue for a reasonable, realistic, and positive method. By contrasting...
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...Chapter Five: Conclusion on the Portrayal of Feminism Within both pieces, there is evidence of feminism and basic wants for equality. However, what is most interesting is the fact that both pieces were illustrated by men. Typically, works that accurately portray powerful messages about feminism and gender equality for women are done by female artists, such as those in the 1970s, to obtain the correct perspective of a woman. This is perhaps why both We the People and Rosie the Riveter are not considered feminist art, but simply political art portraying feminism. Feminist art is done by women. Even though the pieces are done by men and cannot classify as feminist art, both Fairey’s and Rockwell’s pieces reflect feminist movements in the US during...
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...History Pg.7 5. Indian Feminism Pg.9 6. Where feminism goes wrong Pg.14 7. Bibliography Pg.20 ABSTRACT Women have always been an integral part of society. However, more often than not their contribution in the human society has been ignored. This gave rise to the need of empowering women and hence the feminist movement. This research project aims to comprehend and analyze the very essence of Feminism in terms of the 3rd wave and in Indian context. It also analyses the myths associated with feminism and the flaws which lead to the ambiguity in the whole concept of feminism. Further, the paper discusses as to whether the term “feminism” can be brought under one general definition or there is much more to it. INTRODUCTION DEFINITION "A woman should be barefoot, pregnant and chained to a stove," stated Ben Glantz, a high school senior. Drew Pershing, another senior, also shared a joke, "What does a woman do after she leaves a battered shelter? The dishes...if she knows what's good for her!" Daily jokes and comments such as these, no matter how harmless, are detrimental to the status of women and a dangerous undermining of their accomplishments. Shared by both genders, sexually discriminative comments are widely accepted in society as normal and harmless. "I didn't mean anything by that; I was just kidding," whimpered Ben Glantz after receiving several cold stares from young women who overheard his bashing, sexist comment. The word ‘Feminism’ seems to refer to an...
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...Whether or not to teach feminism at school is a very controversial issue at the present time. According to the report by Dr Jessica Ringrose(2008), she has been made the rounds and instituted on Education in UK recently, suggesting that feminism should be taught in schools to arise the increased sexualization of girls in the media and to give girls role models outside of celebrities like Paris Hilton and Britney Spears. Ringrose(2008) suggests teaching girls about historic feminist leaders, like suffragists, to balance out all the myth that they’re assimilating through pop culture. By teaching feminism to younger girls, it is better for off showing girls what sort of feminist action is happening right now. In order to empower young women, the schools need to teach them about women’s accomplishments through history, and need to explore teaching methods that inspire girls to speak out and make a difference. If feminism is to mean anything to women in this generation, this is an emphasis that must shift. When it comes to feminism, the universal might associate it with necessarily militant and anti-male. Feminism is a social movement that seeks equal rights for women. It is a coalition of women in bringing issues of coequality, sexual oppression, and sex discrimination into the community. It is all about women and men acting, speaking and writing on women's issues and rights and identifying social injustice in the status quo. The term "feminism" first appeared in UK in the...
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...A feminist is a person who supports feminism. Feminism is a concept that is aimed to providing equal right to women. A research was done on 667 women on 1992 March on Washington for Reproductive Rights. These women were broken down into three specific groups. The purpose of this research was to find out who were the weak, strong, and who weren’t feminist at all. Also to demonstrate that women would do almost anything to prove that they should be or are equal to men. Women were examined based on associations with the “feminist label, feminist attitudes, gender consciousness, and activism”. According to the text it was believed that each generations developed different characteristics. Over generations women have bravely fought to be treated equally as men. In today world it shows how accomplished and successful these women have been. “Generation Xers were more generally politically active than Baby Boomers when activism was corrected for age”. I agree with these statement made in the article. Age does matter in this situation over time each generation become less and less politically active as the human race evolves. “Feminist self-labeling was more important in explaining women's relationship to feminism than was generation, implying that exposure to a shared ideology can unite members of a group across” was another important fact in this article. “Education about feminism and provision of a feminist lens might strengthen the commitment of some of these weak feminists”...
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...Feminism in a Shell Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaids Tale along with Mamoru Oshii’s Ghost in the Shell both share feminist views. Together Atwood’s novel and Oshii’s film are part of the science fiction genre, which is set into the future. Both the novel and film share feminist views although the second wave of feminism in the novel The Handmaids Tale portrays a world where females with no rights and have been taken over for breeding, in contrast to the third wave of feminism in the film Ghost in a Shell where heteronormativity is separated by the blurring of boundaries between both males and females. Atwood’s award winning novel demonstrates the second wave of feminism through the power structure of Gilead where women had roles. Consequentially,...
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...Feminism in Judaism Today Jews still face challenging struggles with reconciling tradition with modern times in the 19th century. One of the struggles would be the religious feminism in Israel. In January 1996 a group of seven women were brought together because of their distress of the rights of women, the degrading treatment of women (Heicklen, 2012). They brought their concerns about being educated and politically involved with their community but yet they were not accepted or acknowledged because in Jewish laws women have not been accepted in the Jewish society. They are in the twentieth century and still they are struggling. The changes have been taking into consideration more in the western world than in Israel. There have been many woman activists that are speaking out and trying to pass equality amongst men and woman. For example, according to About.com (2013), Shira Hadasha was founded in 2001 by a group of Jerusalem residents who wanted to include women in leadership within traditional Jewish prayer and law. Shira Hadasha is a Jewish community that includes the law, prayer, and feminism to include the role of women in the synagogue. Shira Hadasha is being spread worldwide throughout Australia, Canada, Israel, and the United States. Its congregation allows women to join in certain prayers and it also allows women to join Kabbalat Shabbat on Friday nights, Pesukei Dezimra, removing and replacing the Torah in the Ark, and Torah reading on Saturday mornings. During...
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