...religion as a patriarchal institution that reflects and perpetuates this inequality. There is much evidence of this female subordination in religion; They are male dominated and in Orthodox Catholicism and Judaism women are forbidden to become priests. Also Christianity teaches that men made in ‘the image and glory of God’ and women made ‘for the glory of man. This is supported by the Old Testament which states ‘...for the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church.’ There are many female characters in the biblical texts and some are portrayed as acting charitably or bravely, however the primary roles are reserved for males and most female roles are either evil (Eve) or subordinate (Mary). Similarly in the Quran, the sacred text of Islam contends that ‘men are in charge of women’. Even Christianity and Buddhism are dominated by a patriarchal power structure in which the feminine is mainly associated with the secular, powerless, profane and imperfect. Even women’s bodies and sexuality are felt to be dangerous by many religious. Because women menstruate and give birth, they are considered to have the capacity to ‘pollute’ religious rituals. The presence of women is seen to distract men from their important roles involving worship. Even though there is evidence to suggest that religious institutions have patriarchal values, it should not be assumed that all religions are equally oppressive to women. Gender-neutral language has been introduced in many hymns...
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...her newborn baby by jumping into the family well in China. As the she begins to menstruate, Kingston’s mother warns her of the consequences if she follows her aunt and commits adultery. The author aunt could have been rape or as the author even hinted, incest. This is the first chapter from Kingston’s book Memoirs of a Woman Warrior. It reminds me of those Chinese paintings of landscape, nature, trees, flowers, mountains shrouded by mist, everything hidden and quiet. In addition, I think the writer’s purpose is to bring to the eyes of the general public the harsh consequences of being a female in a patriarchal society. The mother devotes her time to explain to her daughter about her aunt who took her own life and was forgotten by her own family because of Chinese expectations of how a female should behave. I think by Kingston’s mother explains this story about her aunt because she is trying to save her daughter’s life. I was surprised that the aunt’s name is never mentioned in the story. The narrator's aunt was deeply shamed, and fiercely loyal despite the terrible situation she was in. Guilt no doubt took hold in her heart and put her on the path to...
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...there is only one God in most contemporary religions, Hinduism being an exception, men and women tend to view that God differently. Davie showed that women see God more as a God love, comfort and forgiveness whereas men tend to see more as a God of power and control. It could be argued that these traits that men and women tend to associate with God are similar to typical masculine and feminine values e.g. Power and control is stereotypically a male trait. In the majority of religions, males are given the more significant roles. An example of this is Christianity which is seen as inherently patriarchal with men made in ‘the image and glory of God’ and women made ‘for the glory of man. This is supported by the Old Testament which states ‘...for the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church.’ There are many female characters in the biblical texts and some are portrayed as acting charitably or bravely, however the primary roles are reserved for males. All the most significant Old Testament prophets such as Isaiah and Moses are male, while in the New Testament all the apostles are men. The most prominent females in the Bible, Eve and Mary mother of Jesus can be interpreted as reinforcing patriarchal idea regarding, on one hand, the dangers of female sexuality and on the other, the virtues of motherhood. Similarly in the Quran, the sacred text of Islam contends that ‘men are in charge of women’. Even Christianity and Buddhism are dominated by a patriarchal...
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...Descriptive Understandings 1. We believe that Tagaloa created our islands because he wanted somewhere to stand (" He made a resting place by creating the rock called Manu'atele. He divided the rock so he wold have other places in the sea that would serve as stepping stones " Page 15). 2. When a baby is born, we believe that their future depends on where we bury their umbilical cord. " To bury a piece of umbilical cord near an oven guarantees that the boy will become a good cook. " Page 83). 3. When fishermen are out at sea, we are required to remain unoccupied by work and leisure and pray for a successful trip. (" When families do not pray, the bonito constantly slips off." Page 55). 4. We call upon gods and goddesses in belief that they will protect us in hard times. ("Villages or families had tutelary gods or goddesses who may be called upon for help during a natural crisis or times of war " Page 66). 5. We believe in ghosts of ancestors and we must make sure that they approve of our actions ("They cause trouble when they do not approve of the activities that family members engage in and bring misfortune such as illness" Page 71). 6. We believe it is wrong to eat the animals that have spirits because we have a connection with them ("They refrain from eating particular land or sea creatures because they observe totemism" Page 70 ). 7. We believe that these spirits of dead ancestors come in forms of animals or people who are still living among us (" They are purported...
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...during those interactions. Sexism: bias against people on the basis of their gender. Racism: bias against people on the basis of racial or ethnic groups. Classism: bias against people based on social class Ableism: bias against people with disabilities. Ageism: bias based on chronological age. Typically directed toward elderly people. Heterosexism: a belief system that devalues lesbians, gay males, and bisexuals – or any group that is not exclusively heterosexual. Feminist/ Feminism: women and men should be socially, economically, and legally equal. Women and men who hold these beliefs are feminists, however many people believe in feminist principles, even if they do not identify themselves as feminists. Cultural Feminism: emphasizes the positive qualities that are presumed to be strong in women than in men qualities such as nurturing and caretaking. (Cooperation) Liberal Feminism: emphasizes the goal of gender equality, giving women and men the same rights and opportunities. (Reduce our culture’s rigid gender roles) Radical Feminism: argues that the basic cause of women’s oppression lies deep in the entire sex and gender system, rather than in some superficial laws and policies. (Dramatically change its policies on sexuality and on violence against women) Women-of-Color Feminism: emphasize that feminism must pay attention to other human dimensions such as ethnicity and social class. Similarities perspective:...
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...MESTRUATION / Female Anatomy maria PSY215 ALESSANDRO BIEN 03/02/16 Menstruation: The sloughing off of the built-up uterine lining that takes place if concepine lining that takes place if conception has not occurred. The menstrual cycle is the process of ovulation and menstruation in women and other female primates. It is regulated by intricate relationship between the hypothalamus and ovarious endocrine glands, including the pituitary gland, the adrenal glands, and the throughout the cycle, releasing chemicals that stimulate the pituitary to produce two hormones that affect the ovaries: follicle-stimulating hormone and luteingzing hormone. Our menstrual cycle phases occur each month when your reproductive system repeats a regular pattern of events, all controlled by hormones. There are four parts, or phases, that repeat. Here’s what you need to know about each: The menstrual phase is the part commonly referred to as “your period.” The official start of your cycle is the first day of your menstrual phase the first day of your period. You may be thinking, “Where is this stuff coming from?” Menstrual blood is shed from the lining of your uterus. It goes from your uterus through your cervix, vagina and out through your vaginal opening. A period usually lasts about three to seven days. It may seem like more, but the average amount of menstrual flow for your entire period is about a quarter of a cup. Ovulation is one part...
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...economic determinist, as he believed that the functioning and running of society was based upon the economy. Because of this, Marx says that is why there was a divide between the proletariat (working class who have only their skills to sell) and the bourgeoisie (the ruling class who own the means of production). The bourgeoisie cannot operate without the proletariat, as they cannot produce products, and similarly the proletariat cannot operate without the bourgeoisie, as they need them so they can be paid a wage and feed their families. Therefore, even though the Bourgeoisie were exploiting the proletariat and the proletariat could have walked away to stop being exploited, they never walked away as they needed the money. On the other hand, this can be viewed from a different perspective. The reason why these people may have not left their jobs is because they could have been in a state of false consciousness, whereby they were unaware of their exploitation by the bourgeoisie. This helps us to understand society as the Marxism theory provides reasoning on how the bourgeoisie were able to exploit the proletariat, which in turn fuelled capitalism and allowed the ruling elite to maintain their profits. It is also relevant to today’s society, as it helps to explain why many people who are in a hard laboured, low paid job (e.g. Factory workers) do not leave, despite hating their job, and this is because they need the money to survive. On the other hand, the Marxist theory can be seen as...
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...The Rules of Being a Woman For many years, women have been looked at as inferior in comparison to men. Our anatomical differences seem to have come with an instruction sheet on how each gender is expected to behave and live their lives. Lorber suggests rather than looking at just the physical sex organs of our body to determine how we are expected to act, people should look at “behavior and only then look for identifying markers of the people likely to enact such behaviors…” (729). Society has constructed multiple gender roles and when they aren’t met, you would be considered straying away from the norm. Women have always been degraded on due to the stereotypes society has created for them. Some of these stereotypes include the idea that women are domestic, sexual objects, and weaker than men. And between society and those women that have been affected by these stereotypes, we have slowly but gradually figured out how women have overcome these gender roles. In Jessica Grose’s article “Cleaning: The Final Feminist Frontier Why men still don’t do their share of the dirty work” she gives us an overview of the amount of men and women who participate in household chores in the following statistic, “…about 55 percent of American mothers employed full time do some housework on an average day, while only 18 percent of employed fathers do.” So although this percentage has gotten better, assuming back then women were more degraded on when it came to housework, women still take the...
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...The mother's principal role is to take care of the children and be the primary nurturer in the family. They are also the primary caretakers of the home. Children are required to be obedient, respectful, and submissive to their parents. Girls are expected to help with domestic chores around the house, whereas boys are expected to do activities outside the house, such as taking care of the yard and running errands (Evans and Davies 1996). (Net Industries and its Licensors) Functionalist theory focuses on the ways that sports contribute to the smooth operation of societies, communities, organizations, and groups. This is why a functionalist approach is popular among people interested in preserving the status quo in society. Many people connected with organized competitive sports also prefer functionalist theory because it emphasizes the “functions” of sports and supports the conclusion that sports are a source of inspiration for individuals and societies. Functionalist theory however has three major weaknesses. Functionalists see sport as a relatively stable social institution that always serves specific functions in societies. Such an approach overlooks the diversity of sports, the extent to which sports promote the interests of powerful and wealthy people, and the possibility that sports may sometimes produce or reproduce social outcomes that actually disrupt the smooth functioning of society. Additionally, functionalist theory may overstate the positive effects...
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...Critically assess the relationship between, gender, religious participation and religious organisations (33 Mark) Statistics have shown that women tent to be more religious than men across most cultures globally. This is reflected by the Church Census records as it shows that participation in churches and denominations in England and Wales between 1979 and 2005 women were consistently more likely to attend. There are various reasons why females are more religious than men ranging from socialization, exploitation to patriarchy in traditional religions. Women’s sexuality has always been a dangerous factor in religion; this is because women menstruate and give birth they are considered to have a great capacity to pollute religious rituals. This can be seen in the Adam and Eve story in Christianity as Eve has ‘seduced’ Adam in order to eat the apple which God had forbidden to do so. This shows that the presence of a female can distract men from performing religious rituals and worshipping God. Bird argues that sexuality is an important factor in many religions. In Roman Catholic churches priests are expected to be celibate meaning they have to deliberately refrain from sexual activity while in other religions such as Islam are opposed to homosexuality. This means that in order for priests to carry out their duty appropriately there needs to be a degree of policing of the body; and the presence of women makes it more difficult. Due to patriarchal ideologies women have refrained...
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...inappropriateness in the gender role of that sex. To make the diagnosis, there must be evidence of clinically significant distress or impairment in social, occupational, or other important areas of functioning (American Psychiatric Association [DSM-IV-TR], 2000). There are several diagnosis mentioned in the DSM. Transvestic Fetishism is when heterosexual men cross dress for sexual excitement. These people don't necessarily have childhood cross gender behaviors. Schizophrenia patients may demonstrate Gender Identity Disorder behaviors. The DSM is used by many mental health workers to officially diagnosis a patient, most insurance companies won't pay for treatment if proper diagnosis hasn't been made. Kenneth Zucker PH.D. is a well known psychologist and sexologist, and head of the child and adolescent gender identity clinic at Toronto's Centre for Addiction and Mental Health. Zucker supports GID being listed as a disorder in the DSM. He has also been chosen to by the APA to be chair of the Sexual and Gender Identity Disorder work group in revising the DSM fifth edition. According to Shelley Janiczek Woodson, PH.D. “In fairness, it could be argued that any mental health professional working with and/or studying transgender people has some inherent level of conflict of interest in the revision or elimination of the controversial diagnosis of Gender Identity...
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...Breast Cancer Thesis: Breast cancer, however, remains one of the major concerns in the medical field, mainly because it has many forms and happens to strike a large number of women. I-Cancer as the disease of the twentieth century A-Definition of cancer B-Statistics on cancer victims II-The nature of breast cancer A-Breast cancer as a leading cause of death among women B-Types of breast cancer 1-In situ cancers 2-Invasive cancers 3-Inflammatory cancers III-Causes of breast cancer A-The heredity factor B-Menstruation and age C-The diet relationship IV-Treatment of breast cancer A-Detection of the cancer B-Therapy methods C-Coping with consequences of surgery V-Conclusion I-Cancer as the disease of twentieth Century The twentieth century has often been called as the cancer century. This is because more than a hundred types of cancer have been discovered in this century, and secondly, because enormous medical efforts were made to fight all kinds of cancers all over the world. In the early decades of the century, cancer was considered to be a fatal disease, and although many cancers remain fatal, medical therapy has developed significantly over the years such that most cancers can be treated and cured. After decades of struggling with various cancers, doctors are now becoming more aware of the causes of these diseases, how they can be treated, and what can be done to prevent them. Breast cancer, however, remains one of the major concerns in the medical...
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...Women feel the personal need to get an abortion for many reasons. One of the most common reasons women decide to get an abortion is because they feel the need to put their focus on the children they already have and they feel like having another child would jeopardize that. Another very common reason women opt to get an abortion is because they feel that they are financially unable to care for a child. Other common personal reasons can include lack of family support, being unable to raise a child that was conceived as a result of rape, potential relationship problems, disruption of a job or getting an education, or feeling too young or ill-prepared to raise a child. Sometimes a woman feels the societal need to abort her child because it could possibly be born with disabilities, or it is not the preferred sex (en.wikipedia.org). Women can also decide to get an abortion due to medical reasons. Often, if the baby is causing the mother life-threatening health issues she will decide to abort it in an attempt to spare her own life. Also, it is a possibility that if the mother has cancer she will be consistently receiving treatment and will often abort her baby because it has probably contracted deformities as a result of the treatment. This particular reason is most common among women who have cervical cancer or breast cancer because the treatments can most directly affect the fetus (en.wikipedia.org). Abortion has become one of the most controversial, divisive topics in the United...
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...A woman is sexually assualted by a man she knows nothing about a complete stranger! A few weeks later she discovers that she is pregnant. What should she do? She has two options: either have the child or abort the child. To an advocate or pro-choice, this would be considered an aggravating circumstance and a reasonable excuse to abort the child since it was not conceived out of love or by the woman’s choice. To an advocate of pro-life, although this is an unfortunate occurrence, aborting this child would be morally wrong and considered murder. Abortion is touchy subject that has essentially divided the nation. On one side people believe that is a woman’s choice regardless of the circumstances. On the other side, there are people who believe that the unborn child is a human being at conception and has the right to a life. Abortion is a very controversial public issue, which highlight two opposing views in regards to abortion and support both views with research. We must first get the full meaning of the word “abortion” before we can talk about it. According to the book “Introduction to Abortion,” it is any procedure that removes a fetus from a woman’s womb” (Roleff). Abortion end’s a pregnancy and terminates a fetus’s life. For most people this very harsh thing to do, but to the women who were sexually assaulted, they feel it is the best decision for them. Who is right? The debate over abortion has divided people in two groups: pro-life and pro-choice. Pro-life group...
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...helped them ofT in Cuba, New York, Bali, Hawaii. 'We'll meet in California next year,' they said. All of them sent money home. "I remember looking at your aunt one day when she and I were dressing; 1 had not noticed before that she had such a protruding melon of a stomach. But I did not think, 'She's pregnant,' until she began to look like other pregnant women, her shirt pulling and the white tops of her black pants showing. She could not have been pregnant, you see, because her husband had been gone for years. No one said anything. We did not discuss it. In early summer she was ready to have the child, long after the time when it could have been possible. "The village had also been counting. On the night the baby was to be born the villagers raided our house. Some were crying. Like a great saw, teeth strung with lights, files of people walked zigzag across our land, tearing the rice. Their lanterns doubled in the disturbed black water, which drained away through the broken bunds. As the villagers closed in, we could see that some of them, probably men and women we knew well, wore white masks. The people with long hair hung it over...
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