...m Roxanne Rodriguez 10/28/10 English 101 Professor Murray Women in the Military: Warriors or a Liability? Since the dawn of time women have proved themselves in one way or another to be just as capable as men, so if a woman so chooses to risk her life fighting and engaging in hand to hand combat in a war to defend her country why shouldn’t she be allowed to? Women have dutifully served alongside and even in front of men in a line of combat throughout history which extends thousands of years into the past in many cultures and countries around the world. The warrior woman dates back to prehistoric times when individuals mostly fended for themselves to survive. During the Roman incursion into what is today England, there was Boadicea, the British warrior queen who led her people to battle against the Roman invaders. There was also Jinga, the majestic and murderous black queen who fought the Portuguese in seventeenth-century Angola. Modern western culture includes a famous and more popular example, Joan of Arc, who in 1429, at age 17, successfully led French troops into battle against the English. Even without the specific examples of these heroines, consider how, in our more recent history, hundreds of women have disguised themselves as men to fight in the Revolutionary and Civil Wars. These acts are not just those of bravery, but true patriotism and those are the type of individuals who are needed in the line of duty to defend this great nation. A women’s restriction...
Words: 1730 - Pages: 7
...Stereotypes of Gender against Women Throughout history, women have been discriminated against in our society. At times, they have been considered the weaker sex and also, they have been expected to do work that only demands low responsibility. These responsibilities may include: housework, being a good wife and mother. However, the world’s perspective towards women has had significant changes, and companies like Walt Disney Production are still generating stereotypes of gender against women in their films such as Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, and Mulan. Media is frequently responsible of encouraging these patterns by the way they show their information and entertainment to the audience. Laura Mulvey, a British feminist film theorist, is best known for her essay, “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema” which was published in 1975. Here, she describes the role of women in movies “as a tool of attraction for the male gaze” (Mulvey). According to Mulvey’s statement, this work aims to describe the stereotypes of gender that Disney films display throughout their past productions. It also shows how the films can affect everyday lives. Over decades, these cartoons have been criticized for illustrating the traditional American and European values, thus creating stereotypes, which are often not a clear image of the current situation in our society. One of the most discussed topics in the animated features of Walt Disney Productions is the stereotype...
Words: 1607 - Pages: 7
...stereotypically would be either the ‘dangerous seductress’, ‘cute but essentially helpless’, ‘unworldly’ or the ‘self-sacrificing angel’ as stated by Bertens. Feminists stress the utmost concern towards gender divisions in society and although Duffy portrays this division I do not agree that The World’s Wife is nothing but feminist propaganda. The noun ‘propaganda’ suggests that her work is agenda pushing and overall has a negative impact. Although it could be argued that Duffy’s attack on literary stereotypes of women being either the seductress or innocent is feminist propaganda, a more convincing argument would be that it isn't feminist propaganda and she is simply giving a voice to women who have been ignored creating equality in both genders in the light of my readings of Delilah and Anne Hathaway. One could argue that in Delilah Carol Ann Duffy is illustrating feminist propaganda through the adherence to literary stereotypes of women as the immoral seductress’ and the man as the ‘warrior’. As Millet found that the ‘relationship between sex and power’ clearly shows ‘the distribution of power over the male and female partners mirrors the distribution of power over males and females in society at large’ this can be applied to this poem due to several references to sex throughout. In stanza four, ‘He fucked me again’ the verb ‘fucked’ suggests an emotionally detached act which illustrates ‘Delilah’ as using her body in order to attain power which further establishes the idea that...
Words: 1502 - Pages: 7
...three friends are eating burgers and the other woman is eating a subway sandwich. The women who chose the subway sandwich as her lunch of choice immediately began criticizing her friends for choosing such unhealthy lunch choices so close to the Halloween holiday. She then implies that they should be eating subway, in order to be able to look their best in their Halloween costumes. The other two friends stare at the woman in awe as she models an array of different costumes that perpetuate female stereotypes by incorporating...
Words: 921 - Pages: 4
...Warriors in the Workplace When it comes to equal pay, the American woman is grounded in a renowned waiting room. But the number on her ticket, the term of her stay, prominently depends on where she lives and to whom she was born (Paquette). Since the 1970s, the wage gap has narrowed to 21 percent by 2014, just 79 percent of what men are paid. Many attempts to further narrow the gap through the passage of bills such as the Paycheck Fairness Act have been stalled by Republicans. In October, California took a big step towards closing the wage gap between men and women, as Governor Jerry Brown signed a pay equity law: one of the toughest in the nation (Hill). Women should be paid equally as much as men for the same work, not less. First off, women need to be able to support their family too. For example, procedures like "raising the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour [to] help all minimum wage workers make ends meet and disproportionately assist women, who make up 63% of this group”(Van Hollen). A woman can work just as hard as a man at her job all day, possibly longer than another man, and yet she still makes less than him. That should not be allowed, it's just not...
Words: 706 - Pages: 3
...to qualify for tough jobs. “Like all sciences and all valuations, the psychology of women has hitherto been considered only from the point of view of men.” (Karen Horney). In Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the Director David Solomon challenges gender roles in society by empowering the woman, and challenges traditional ideas...
Words: 979 - Pages: 4
...He moves to Arizona, abandoning, his wife, Arlene Joseph, and his son, Victor, when Victor is merely a prepubescent. Twenty-two years after the fire, Arlene receives a call from Arnold’s neighbor, informing her of Arnold’s passing. In light of these events, Thomas’s good hearted nature and positive memories of Arnold inspire him to give money to Victor Joseph, allowing the two of them to travel to Phoenix to pick up Arnold’s ashes and belongings. Both Victor Joseph and Thomas Builds-The-Fire are portrayed as traditional Native American stereotypes - Joseph a warrior, Builds-The-Fire a Shaman. As they play these roles in one another's lives, Joseph regards Builds-The-Fire as a nuisance with both aversion and resentment because Builds-the-Fire’s innocent and trusting manner has lead to an idolization of Arnold Joseph, Victor’s abusive father. This relationship between between Joseph and Builds-The-Fire is clearly demonstrated through their childhood arguments, Joseph's constant frustration with Thomas, and through each parties’ questioning of the others’...
Words: 828 - Pages: 4
...who were in danger. These volunteers were called heroes for risking their lives to help others. Although giving up something valuable like life for someone else’s does not always result in success, their sacrifice still makes them unconditional heroes. Like in the epic poem of Beowulf, Beowulf is about to die and tells one of his men, “Take what I leave, Wiglaf, lead my people, help them; my time is gone.” Beowulf did not win the battle but demonstrated he is humble through the use of some of his last words to recognize his passion and commitment to serve and protect the Geats, the people that depended on him. Success can infer selflessness but sacrifice always comes before success in defining altruism where sacrifice tells more about a warrior than his...
Words: 570 - Pages: 3
...by the machine. “Watch where you’re going gas-huffer! yells the man. The red man does not reply just stumbles off into the fog. “Call an ambulance” someone in the fog yells, “This man needs help!” When the paramedic arrives he tries to speak to the red skinned man, “What’s the problem?” asked the paramedic, the red man whispers for him to come closer because his breath is escaping. He whispers something into the paramedic’s ear and the paramedic reaches in his bag and gives the red man some bizarre looking substance. “What did they gas-huffer say” the white man asked the paramedic? The paramedic replies “He is diabetic and needed insulin.” Sherman Alexie utilizes language, in a unique structure to convey an implied idea. To showcase stereotypes by arriving at a preconceived notion of an individual or group, based on their appearance or mannerisms. Sherman Alexie uses language to decribe the struggles of being stereotyped. “He knew this dark skin and long, black hair of mine was dangerous.” (Sherman Alexie, acclaimed author, poet, filmaker.) This is a perfect example of stereotyping done out of fear of what someone else with the same description might have done to someone else somewhere else. Granted in this situation Alexie compunded the fact he knew he was being stereotyped and played into this role as a dangorus American Idian. When asked how he was doing he chooses to not ease the Seven-Eleven worker that he is not an inraged lunatic but replies with “Hot enough to make...
Words: 978 - Pages: 4
...In the book Revolutionary Mothers: Women in the Struggle for America’s Independence, Carol Berkin has discussions about the various roles women had during the American Revolution. As we see the fight for independence was not fought alone by men. The actual fight was with the women. They went to almost exhausting attempts to do their part as well. These women overlooked their own welfare as well as the safety of their children. While being strong and breaking free of beliefs and stereotypes about what was conceived to be behavior that a woman portrays. Although it was not at all for the women. The women in the book did indeed struggle, different groups of women struggled in different or more forceful ways. Berkin talks about different major...
Words: 1205 - Pages: 5
...Crush ‘Em! Eat ‘Em Raw!” provides an insight about how gender socialization is conditioned through toys and sports at an early age. Also teaching and reinforcing stereotypical gender roles through traits, appearances and occupation. (this is an incomplete sentence and it doesn’t flow very well with the previous sentence) Specific toys and sports are associated with certain genders and generalizes the role that boys and girls should uphold. Male characteristics are thought to be strong, tough and are unable to show weakness whereas female roles are to be nurturing, supportive and caring. In Jane Smiley’s article, the author focuses on how Barbie plays a positive role model in her daughter’s childhood. Barbie is portrayed as beautiful woman who posses feminine qualities. Young girls who tend to play with Barbie dolls have a mind set that they should grow up to be like Barbie. “Lucy could apply lipstick with her eyes closed by the time she was five.” (Smiley 238) This quote shows that children are easily influenced by the toy they play with. In comparison to “You Can Never Have too Many”, John McMurtry’s article focuses on football and how playing sports has shaped the person that he is. Football involves a muscular physique, aggressiveness, strong and a competitive mind. These are the kinds of traits society makes males envision themselves to be. Younger boys are usually more active and enjoy playing...
Words: 1137 - Pages: 5
...to prepare them for stereotypical future roles as mothers (Boomen, 2009). Acting as a counter opposite to the former girls play, Barbie is not a doll for girls to simulate and practice motherhood on. In fact, Barbie acts as a platform for girls to freely create and project on her any identity they wish to take on, only to be limited by their creativity. In summary, Barbie is not confined to the traditional social expectations of women. Beneath her seemingly stereotypical idealistic exterior, she is an independent career woman with estimated eighty professions, ranging from a presidential candidate to a nurse (Boomen, 2009). Barbie does not engage in domestic duties and as stated by Lord, motherhood definitely wasn’t Barbie’s area of interest (Boomen, 2009). Subsequently in the late 1990s, Lara Croft emerged as the first main female character in video games. Prior to this, women only played supporting roles. As a female warrior, Lara was “eroticized as a woman and masculinized as action heroine” (Smelik, 2009). Lara embodied attributes commonly associated with the male persona: strong, independent, determined and ‘kick-ass...
Words: 713 - Pages: 3
...However, on its chapters entitled Gender and Feminist Perspective respectively, the author was able to show the different injustices women continually face even in an advanced society. In the chapter on Feminist Perspective, it was stated that women still continually are being fit into negative stereotypes, especially married women and women in the workforce. The chapter was able to fully tackle the causes of discrimination on women in the labor market through wage gaps because of their race and gender. It was said that one of the causes of this was because they are not able to allot all of their time on their jobs because of the demands of their children and family. On the chapter Gender, charts and statistics were shown proving that there is indeed a huge gap between the wages of white males, minority males, white females and minority females. Minority females earn the least among the...
Words: 797 - Pages: 4
...quote above explains the difficulty behind fighting in the Trojan War. Power and authority are two main expectations seen within the Odyssey. Women were not fighting for their lives in combat; this was the men’s responsibility. The men were warriors once they had proven themselves in war. Once proven oneself, these men become heroes. Warfare and fighting brought great control to men, especially over women in the Odyssey. To this day, this is something that can be seen in many societies, but not so much in our own...
Words: 1275 - Pages: 6
...artwork of the “Kenyan woman” there was a variety of colors. The colors in this work portrayed the beauty in different cultures. The smile of the Kenyan woman shows that happiness is beauty. (Page 3). 3. This picture is of the Column of Trajan in Rome, Italy. The spirals on this piece of architecture portray the victories of Napoleon Bonaparte. The history and antiqueness of this column makes this picture beautiful. (Page 8). Chapter 2: 1. Sol LeWitt’s “Lines from four corners to points on a grid” shows how even a line can make a piece of artwork. This piece of work portrays simplicity along with complexity with the use of lines. (Page 28). 2. Elizabeth Catlett’s “Sharecropper” shows the strength of an African American woman. The use of texture in this picture shows the harsh environment the woman was living in. The woman’s look shows her overcoming the hard times. (Page 33). 3. Jacob Lawerence’s painting “Harriet Tubman Series No. 4” portrays a sense of freedom. The people in his painting seem to be jumping and leaping for joy as they overcame an obstacle in their lives. (Page 35). Chapter 3: 1. The artist Deliah Montoya’s artwork known as “Los Jovenes (Youth)” shows a bond of friendship. It portrays the culture and time period it was associated with by the graffiti on the walls. (Page 72). 2. Niki De Saint-Phalle’s artwork “Black Venus” shows that all shapes and sizes can beautiful. Her sculpture confronts all stereotypes of woman. It shows the confidence...
Words: 2952 - Pages: 12
