-I will be concentrating on the different, even contradictory, ways people invoked the discourse of civilization to construct what it meant to be a man.” (p. 25) She argues that the specific aspects of discourse of civilizations are race, gender and power. The author uses different people to prove her thesis. She does this to illustrate different views of manhood in different times and also genders.
Similar in nature, lesser offences such as tormenting are found in Susan Faludi’s writing, “The Naked Citadel”, where the student population contains cadets that are mentally unhealthy. Because The Citadel has an all male student body, it becomes easier for them to share the same distaste for females wanting to join The Citadel. The distaste that they carry for females is shown through the inhumane, continuous tormenting that the students inflict on each other. Susan Faludi describes some of these acts, where “The beaten knobs were the women, ‘stripped’ and humiliated, and the predatory upperclassmen were the men, who bully and pillaged” (85). The men feel need the power to hurt others due to their seclusion of females, ironically again since
She shouts, “I’ll tell you what you really want. You want a caricature woman to prove some idiotic point... like power makes women masculine... or masculine women are ugly.” Sydney Pollack shows the audience that men’s interpretation of women is that they cannot be in a place of
Human suffering anywhere concerns men and women everywhere”. There is so much bad form and enduring, shouting out for attention victims of yearning, of racism and political abuse in Chile, for occasion, or in the occasion journalists and artists, prisoners in such a large number of terrains administered by the left and by the
As with all theories, this feminist approach to Louise Halfe’s “Body Politics” does not come without its flaws. While it can be argued that this poem criticizes the performativity of feminine gender roles in a patriarchal society, this cannot be proven definitively without knowing the author’s original intentions. Furthermore, the poem does not give its readers enough information to conclude that the society the women live in is in fact a patriarchal society. This becomes evident, as there is no reference to any masculine figure – so any assumptions about the masculine-dominant culture are purely speculative. It is possible that Halfe wrote this poem in an attempt to challenge the gender binary, however one stands to question how successfully she is in doing so.
Maxine Hong Kingston's use of talk stories in The Woman Warrior emphasizes that individuals will find a more fulfilling life if they defy the traditional gender norms place on them by society. While contemplating beauty standards in Chinese society in “No Name Woman” Maxine Kingston thinks, “Sister used to sit on their beds and cry together… as their mothers or their slaves removed the bandages for a few minutes each night and let the blood gush back into their veins” (9). From a young age girls are expected to be binding their feet and are told that it is to look beautiful, but in reality that is not why. When a womans feet are bound they are restrained and silenced. These girls could be free and happy but they are restrained by men through this binding.
In the end her push for equality’s of gender, causes her to be sent to death by the male figure she
These anxieties are transformed into hatred and aggression, suggestive of the codes of conduct that permeated during this historical period — codes that valued masculine strength and their physical feats, which are essential to overcoming the degeneration of the body and the mind. As such, the moral weight of
She argues that men are innately vicious, but women can overcome through sexual freedom by becoming comfortable with one’s body and the power it holds. In making her points she establishes a rebellious and triumphant tone. Symbolism and repetition of the phrase “carnivore incarnate” (Carter 110) are also used to solidify her argument. The assertion made in “The Company of Wolves” is very important for young women in the world. Instead of shying away from one’s body and the power it posses, women should embrace it and acquire sexual freedom.
Women’s Body The Figuration of the female body is well described in both Woman at Point Zero by Nawal El-Saadawi and Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale. Both novels show that the women bodies are not their own and controlled by others which it turned into an object in order to survive. In this paper, I would like to argue how the objectification of the female bodies in both novels resulted in their oppression and sufferings. Moreover, what is the definition of the figuration of a body to both Offred and Firdaus? And is there a way out to survive this tragedy in both novels?
Margaret Atwood has seamlessly woven a tapestry of feminist elements - mainly regarding gender oppression - within her works. With that, using two of Atwood’s texts, The Handmaid’s Tale and The Year of The Flood, as the foundation for our literary research, we will be focusing on the commodification of the female flesh in both similar dystopian contexts. Commodification refers to the action or process of treating an object, or a person, as a raw material or product that can be bought and sold, or even treated as an object of which sovereignty can be held over by one. In both works, women are victimized and treated as sexual beings whose bodies and physical expressions can be freely used by the men who have power over them against their will. The two texts illustrate how society brings about the oppression of women and this exacerbates the commodification of women.
The role of women in literature crosses many broad spectrums in works of the past and present. Women are often portrayed as weak and feeble individuals that submit to the situations around them, but in many cases women are shown to be strong, independent individuals. This is a common theme that has appeared many times in literature. Across all literature, there is a common element that causes the suffering and pain of women. This catalyst, the thing that initiates the suffering of women, is essentially always in the form of a man.
Khushwant Singh’s Train to Pakistan recounts the event of the Partition of India, which happened in 1947. Set in a fictional village of Mano Majra, the novel aims to depict the cultural and political clash between the Sikhs, Hindus, and Muslims and, by following the development of the characters, unveil the moral of humanity. Throughout the novel, Singh portrays the experience of conflict that each character, including Juggut Singh, Iqbal Singh, and Hukum Chand, has to deal with. Based on the characters’ development, Singh’s goal is to present the idea that love always conquers the power of violence and ethnic antagonism. Singh starts off with a description of the Partition and of Mano Majra, a habitat for Sikhs, Hindus, and Muslims.
Apparently, men do fear of women; and they put their fear on display with various exhibitions of hatred, which is sweeping broadly, cross-culturally, consecutively over time as a result of mental perturbation, not an endeavour to generate and elevate beneficial environment for a male-biased system. Described as one of men’s psychological anxiousness, misogyny owes its origin to “identical experiences of male’s development cycle, rather than causes by the environment alone” (2001). In other words, men’s development cycle is to blame for their inner struggle; and without uttering it directly, the implied word is “mother” and/ or “wife”. Ultimately, his work on misogyny itself is misogynistic because the underlying message is clear: despite being left with no voice and just a few choices, being victims of brutality, violence and hatred, women themselves are the root of the
This thesis consists of Hanif’s portrait of women and their marginalized positions in the society and economic, social and religious pride and prejudices towards women in Pakistani society which is an important theme of his novels. He belongs to those who are proof of that some people can tell the truth more comprehensively and authentically with fiction than facts. In his second novel Our Lady of Alice Bhatti (2012), he discusses the battle and determination of a woman fitting in with minority goes out in a patriarchal society and endures accordingly. In a male dominated society women in Pakistan are in lower position than men , they are always on the periphery, and are subordinated to men and are in debased positions both within the house and outside the house. Alam (2011) shows by her study that women’s unequal positions contrasted with men make them weaker both out in the open and private circles.
