As the tension of violence withholds freedom from happiness for women, constraints upon the expression and vocations of young women also affect their ability to actualize their potential quality of life. That is, the strains of gendered expectations are injurious to the mental welfare of women. In the past, the psychiatric community has unethically––and yet perhaps unconsciously––used mental diagnoses to prune women into their gender roles and punish deviation from the norm, again referencing the historically sexist conventions of psychology [Source B]. The Journal of Mental Health Counseling continues to attest that “girls who defy gender roles are more often rejected by peers and have a higher risk for experiencing significant psychological …show more content…
Society has witnessed the work of a variety of creative workers who have come from tragic backgrounds, it only the most unfortunate that some have tragic endings as well. Marilyn Monroe’s archived poetry and diaries depict an artful yet quite sad soul, she writes of her love for her craft, defying her difficult past, “working (doing my tasks that I/ have set for myself)/ on the stage—I will/ not be punished for it/or be whipped/ or be threatened/ or sent to hell to burn with bad people feeling that I am also bad./ or be afraid of my [genitals] being/ exposed known and/ seen—”, but also confesses that she is “very lonely” and paints the narrative of an exploited figure in short verse [Source F]. As aforementioned, Plath also depicted her personal experienced in her books, as well as being at the forefront of the confessional poetry movement. Her poem “The Applicant”specifically examines the construct of marriage, gender stereotypes and social pressures, while poems such as “Daddy” and “Lady Lazarus” and the last poem written before her death, “Edge,” are popular for their dark themes, provocatively sad tone, and distinct language. Despite the chain reaction of abusive environments female artists may enter when they professionalize their creative work, a result of women’s psychological augmentation, women express their emotions, potential mental …show more content…
Therefore, women’s commonly endured emotions can evolve into a serious diagnosis and they are at risk for further ailment and violence in that vulnerable state. Suicide attempt rates in women are an effect of the harmful behaviors of society and the past of psychological treatments’ failure to aid and tendency to hurt struggling women. In turn, it has led to the loss of great and talented artists whose lifetimes and legacies were cut short due to their mental illness which was fostered by hostile communities and traumatic events. Between 1960 and 1970, the period following the apex of consumerist culture and the nuclear family that confined women to the household during the mid 20th century, “the number of American women who took their own lives increased by 32 percent,” likely a partial result of the “feminine mystique” defined by Betty Friedan [Source A]. Aside from her own childhood misfortune of losing her father at eight, approaching adulthood, Plath again “struggled with questions of vocation and romance to the degree that her first suicide attempt came after her prize guest-editorship at Mademoiselle magazine,” an encounter that threw her into considering the previously addressed decisions a young woman “must” make on her life path––she instead was driven and