...Feminism in The Doll’s House & Hedda Gabler To an average reader, at first glance, Henrik Ibsen’s plays Hedda Gabler and A Doll’s House are just an entertaining read. However a more in-depth study of the text shows that throughout A Doll’s House and Hedda Gabler Ibsen makes use of symbols, motifs and circular conclusions to demonstrate the development of two housewives throughout the late 19th century. One of the ways that Ibsen shows this is symbolism. Throughout Hedda Gabler the symbols that Ibsen presents are: the piano that Hedda plays shortly before her death, General Gabler’s two pistols, Tesman’s slippers, the portrait of General Gabler and the manuscript. The latter hangs in Tesman’s drawing room and it symbolizes the constant overlook of General Gabler. It also builds up a complex in Tesman, as the general is the man that Hedda loves and the man that he will never be. The portrait presents Hedda’s domination over Tesman as well, since it is his drawing room and yet it isn’t aunt Julle’s portrait that is hanging there it is Hedda’s fathers. General Gabler’s two pistols are amongst the most important symbols in the play. The two pistols represent, much like the portrait, the General’s power over the family even though he is deceased - this is proven, as it is the pistols that take Hedda’s life and that of her lover - which is also a case of circular conclusion, because Hedda has threatened others with her pistols before, and in Act One of the play Hedda says that at...
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...Across the world, humankind is synonymous about the fear of the big F-word: feminism. This fear generally emanates from the misconception about the true definition about the people supporting this movement. The definition of feminism has been distorted over the years, molded to fit the stereotype of a “feminist”. Feminist: A person who believes in the social, political, economic, equality of the sexes. A feminist is often associated with the stereotype of an irate, manipulating man-hater although, only the few minority actually fall into this generalization. Feminists can come in all sizes: ebony, white, Asian, female, male, European, masculine, feminine etc. Many people do not understand the significance of feminism in our world and to do...
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...Feminism has always been fighting for women’s rights since the 1700’s. Feminism has been fighting for equal rights between male and female, and people are discussing if feminism still matters today. Men are saying that feminism is only here to get rid of them and to make woman the supreme. Menism was funded by a group of young boys to mock feminism, as the young boys mean that feminism makes men look like predators and rapist. There is also a female movement going on against feminism as one of the quotes are ‘’I love men and their values’’, which as they mean that feminism is to destroy men and make women the supreme. In the short story ‘’Tearing’’ by Marcia Blumenthal tells a story about a young woman who gets raped by one of her housemates. The young woman didn’t tell the crime to the police, because she knew that the police wouldn’t believe her, as the man who raped her was a white male. She even writes that if the man wasn’t black or from another color, the police would never believe her. Feminism is against rape whether female or male who raped. Feminism is clearly about sending out the message that rape should be reported to the police no matter what, but women are still scared of reporting it as they feel that it was them who did wrong or they’re afraid that no one would believe them and it would cause them big problems, as in the short story, were the young woman would not report the rape as she knew no one would believe her. In this case, this young woman should have...
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...The ideological position of Feminism has been battling politics since the late 1960s (Weedon, 1997), with the feminist movement highlighting concerns towards “education, welfare rights, equality of opportunity, pay and conditions…” (Weedon, 1997, p. 1). Feminists believed in autonomy, were for the anti-discrimination legislations and gender-neutral laws and politics (Paterman, 2000). Specifically looking at the feminist values of Welfare, women’s identity, the fight to be seen as a full citizen and Wollstonecraft’s Dilemma (Paterman, 2000) and the decisions made around them, gives a clear insight into the ideological position of Feminism. * Feminists focus on three types of independency; safety (for both themselves and their country), citizenship (gained through property ownership and ability to sell their labour) and ability to self govern (not have the male of the house bring the money home and make the decisions) (Paterman, 2000, p. 135). However, both Britain and Australian governments prevented any of these to happen, as the patriarchal welfare state did not support women to work in paid employment, nor did it support women to have control of the money. During this period of time women were seen to live with their husbands and children as a family, where they would be supported financially and kept safe. For the women whom choose to divorce their husbands, Peterman (2000) discovered that “after divorce, United States reveals, a women’s standard of living can fall by...
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...Feminism vs. the modern woman In this essay I will discuss the impact feminism has on the modern woman. Around the early 60’s and the years before that women were home stayed mothers/women who took care of the work around the house such as cooking, cleaning etc. They wanted to do more with their life than just cook and clean, so they also wanted to have a job and make their own money. In the 60’s women began the feminism. They wanted a life for themselves. As we see in the short story, The yellow wallpaper, the woman is ‘fighting’ for her own freedom. She is dominated by her husband, but she is breaking free of it. Women had by then for many years been the weak sex and they wanted to show men that they could do so much more than just to stay home. Many women such as Betty Friedan and Germaine Greer helped founding organizations for women who wanted to come out of the hole dominating man relationships. In Little Red Cap and Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf are there two very clear examples on how the feminism has impacted the modern woman. Little Red Cap is the more traditional fairytale of those two. Little Red Cap goes to her grandmother with food from her mother, she goes through the woods and meats the wolf, and in the end grandmother and Little Red Cap got eaten, and the hero is the huntsman. It shows us that women cannot take care of themselves; they need a man to do it for them. In contrast to that fairytale there is Little Red Riding Hood and the Wolf where Little...
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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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...They explained that previous schools of thought in feminism are unable to fully acknowledge the issues faced by women of color in particular because they are unable to view them as being experienced simultaneously rather than occurring separately (Combahee, 249) because, as white women, they do not experience these intersections of identity. In Crenshaw’s article “Demarginalizing the intersection of race and sex” she outlines a particular occurrence with General Motors wherein which several black female workers were laid off and they argued against the discrimination that led to the termination of their jobs. General Motors cited that their layoff policy was based on seniority, with those who have worked for the company the longest having a greater chance of keeping their job. This explanation was...
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...“Fear of a name only increases fear of the thing itself.” Because of the negative connotation that so often goes along with feminism, a lot of people don’t identify as feminists simply because they don‘t like the term. Feminism isn’t radical, aggressive, man- hating, that’s called misandry. Feminism is the belief that everyone is equal regardless of their gender. Feminists also work on solving gender inequality, which women are usually the victim of. However, some people call themselves feminists even if they don’t know what the word means. These “feminists” tend to exhibit a pattern of misandry and to fixate on miniscule “issues.” Most of these people are women that live in first world countries and lead very comfortable lives. Some of the issues these women focus on are legalizing prostitution and eradicating cat calling. These problems are petty and incomparable to other items on a feminist agenda; but those are the ones that get the most attention....
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...offended, and angry: feminism. Feminism today is often demonized, met with opposition like “meninists”, and is associated with the ugly-armpit-hair-having-lesbian stereotype. It is often used as a punchline, a criticism for women who get a little too angry for comfort. Not only are these views of feminism wrong and insulting, they highlight exactly why feminism is needed. The resistance to feminism is largely based in a lack of understanding of what feminism truly stands for. Contrary to the opposition’s belief, the feminist movement promotes equality for women and men, and strives to erase the perspective that being feminine equates to being of a lesser value....
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...How Relevant Feminism Actually Is Salah Eddine Youssef Kadadou American University of Sharjah How Relevant Feminism Actually Is When looking at any population, the simplest way to start categorizing organisms of any species is according to sex; male or female. If you disregard the biological and physiological differences, how would you tell them apart? Amongst animals, males and females have different roles. A lioness for example does most of the work while the lion only serves as the protector in case of predators. This difference in roles is seen throughout the animal kingdom with the exception of humans. As humans, we have decided that both men and women should have the same roles in society with regards to everything, or at least this is what feminism preaches, or does it? Feminism is a tricky matter to discuss because if you do not know how this movement started, you would look at modern day feminism and instantly be put off by what you see. Webster defines feminism as: 1.: the belief that men and women should have equal rights and opportunities, 2.: organized activity in support of women's rights and interests. The original purpose or goal of feminism was to present women with the same opportunities and rights that men had and as hard as it is to believe, it still is. Therefore, if this is truly still the case, then feminism is still relevant even in modern day societies. On the one hand, feminism is still widely recognized as a movement with true intentions...
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...sister in-law to run the household. This help however, seems to be overbearing for Jane. John controls every minute in Jane’s day by creating “a schedule prescription for each hour in the day” which makes Jane upset and feeling as though she is trapped (Stetson 648). This entrapped feeling proves that John is an antifeminism character by asserting his dominance over his wife. His character relays how women were not expected to do anything for themselves. Sethe however defies this traditional antifeminism mindset and runs her house hold without the help of a man. Sethe shows women empowerment because she raises her children to the best of her ability and proves that the odds were stacked against her. For instance, the ghost in the house causes her two boys to run away adding to her hardships; no mother enjoys when their children leave, especially at the age of thirteen (Morrison 3). Sethe’s house is described as having a “lively spite” and this “spite” in the house represents how the Sethe did not lead a traditional life (Morrison 3). She has no help from a man and shows signs of an unstable mental state. Her mother-in-law provides a roof for her but Sethe is able to keep it and maintain it in spite of her adversity. Sethe also runs away by herself and only had help from a white woman showing women empowerment because it is two women helping and encouraging one another to complete what they started (Morrison 94). Being a neo slave narrative, Morrison is able to write her novel in...
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...Feminism is the fight for equal rights of both genders. Feminists try to gain the rights that women have been deprived of, but men have always seemed to have. Much of the world portrayed women as dispensable house wives before the turn of the 20th century. It wasn’t until the idea of a global war that women started to gain importance and value throughout society. Women worked in the factories and other various jobs during the war. They enjoyed the independence they experienced from receiving their own paycheck. Preceding the war, women began to riot and march as groups that stood for equal rights of both genders. These women impacted today’s society and the rights of women with their perseverance for change. They liberated and gained civil rights for women that lead to equal rights in many countries throughout Western Europe. Women changed the social, economic, and political factors of the world with their movements, which in turn, entirely changed the way they were perceived and valued. Socially, women suffered in the pre-war era. Women worked in their homes for most of their lives. They had no control over matters like reproduction or daycare because no methods were presented to them. Birth control was non-existent and day care wasn’t needed because women were expected to be at home during the day. Women had no control over their own body; they were forced to have children they didn’t want because of conflict with their spouse and were also forced into having illegal abortions...
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...which oppressed women a) the family socialised girls to accept subservient roles within the family, whilst socialising boys to believe they were superior – this happens through children witnessing then recreating the parental relationship; and b) it socialised women into accepting the “housewife” role as the only acceptable role for a women. Essentially, feminists viewed the function of the family as a breeding ground where patriarchal values were learned by an individual, which in turn created a patriarchal society. I will use different types of Feminism to explain their understanding of the family . The first type is Liberal Feminists. They believe in a “March of Progress” view of the family. This means that they believe that the family is gradually changing for the better over time by becoming more democratic and more equal. They also argue that men and females share democratic labour ( i.e childcare, cleaning the house). Liberal Feminist believe this happened thanks to new law reforms such as the Divorce Act 1969 and Equal Pay Act 1972. Jennifer Somerville believes that women are still disadvantaged in families . She criticises radical and marxist feminists for failing to accept that progress has been made in some ways. However Marxist Feminist criticise against this by saying that women still do the majority of housework and childcare. Radical Feminist instead argue that Women are still likely to be the victims of domestic violence. The second type is Marxist...
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...Feminism or Igbo Culture? Feminism is a body of social theory and political movement primarily based and motivated by the experiences of women. Feminist theory tries to understand the nature of gender inequality and focuses on gender politics and relations. Subjects explored in feminism range from discrimination to stereotyping and many more. As the history of feminism has been studied, feminist movements began in the late 1800’s. Feminist ideas were not only observed in the work place or social life, but also in readings. In Things Fall Apart, there is clearly a feminist point of view. There are certain behaviors that women do not attain, they serve a specific role in the community, have arranged roles in the family, and are limited by the extended family. Although women are “Mother Supreme”, they were looked upon differently by the Igbo because of their feminist views. The opening sentence in Things Fall Apart begins with the description of an alpha male. It is hard not to have a feminist view when a role of masculinity is observed as early as the first sentence. Okonkwo is a self-made, well-respected member of the clan. He has become a wealthy farmer through his own hard work. Behaviors and attitudes that he considers masculine are to have a patriarch mindset, not show love and affection, have a great sense of personal pride, work hard, provide for your family, and being brave. Okonkwo believes that any slight show of weakness is feminine. For example...
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...Feminism is the belief that women should be treated as both potentially intellectual and socially equal to men. It embraces the thought that all people are entitled to freedom and liberty within reason; including equal civil rights and the discrimination that should not be made based on gender, sexual orientation, skin color, ethnicity, religion, or culture. Feminist movements have campaigned and continue to campaign for women's rights, including the right to vote, to hold public office, to work, to earn fair wages, to own property, education, and to have equal rights within marriage. Feminists have also worked to promote bodily independence, integrity, to protect women from rape, sexual harassment, and domestic violence. Feminism underlies five major concepts. First, we have patriarchy which is the authority of men in society and the oppression of women for men’s gain. Second, discrimination that leads to the unequal treatment that women receive. Third, we have gender stereotypes which are negative misconceptions about women. Forth, economic dependency; where women are forced to quit their job in order to take care of their household responsibilities. Fifth, emotional work; where women are predicted to do the majority of emotional care of their family. As feminism started to rise, it encountered three waves. The first wave of feminism took place in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, where it emerged out of an environment of urban industrialism and...
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