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Feminism as a special topic in literature
Gender norms and roles
Women social roles in society
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More handpicked essays just for you.
Feminism as a special topic in literature
Gender norms and roles
Women social roles in society
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Feminism as a special topic in literature
An Invisible Thread by Laura Schroff and Alex Trensniowski is a memoir about Laura's reaction to her close friend Maurice’s toast at her 50th birthday. Laura and Maurice both played a significant role in each other's life as they both influenced and taught each other many things. Laura had helped Maurice as he grew up and Maurice had taught Laura about love and friendship. Throughout Maurice's Toast, he talked about how much Laura had impacted and changed his life.
Jillan Wine’s short story “Jillian Giggs, a Teenage Perspective” portrays the positive effects that adversity has on the human spirit. The protagonist, Jillian Giggs, encounters several problems throughout her first year in grade 7, including her parents divorce, failing an important math test and her best friend moving to New York. When Jillian first learns of her parents’ divorce, she becomes depressed. This obstacle seems too difficult for her to overcome. She does, however, after speaking to her high school guidance counsellor eventually come to terms with her father and mother’s severed relationship
Similarly to the likes of Margaret Sanger, Friedan fails to mention any reference to black women and those of different ethnicities, consequently raising concerns over the solutions that Friedan is suggesting; if these middle class women go back out and work on their careers then who will come in to their homes and look after their children and clean their house? Aren’t these women who have already been combining the reality of working and domestic duties? After all, when Friedan wrote ‘The Feminine Mystique’ more than one-third of women were already in the workforce. A notable comparison between the works of Sanger and Friedan is that the liberation of women is not only dependent on their gender but also on their social class, introducing an alternative that bodily autonomy is not forefront in the overlap of first and second wave feminism. The women of the feminine mystique had the choice to become a housewife or obtain a career, although they were pressured by society to adopt the latter, the element of choice was still there for them.
The Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions Women’s place in society has been studied for several years, even today in 2018 it is still relevant. The history of the 19th century is when the Declaration of Sentiments and Resolutions has proven that women are just as equal as men. This Declaration has managed to make changes and thoughts about the roles women play in society. Women- regarded as particularly susceptible to religious and moral influences- were increasingly confined to the domestic circle, but they became more important within it (Pearson).
Society has had this concept of what women’s role in life should be since the beginning of time. For as long as anyone can remember, humanity expected women to stay at home, attend the men’s needs, and take care of household duties. Since society has evolved, women have more freedom, rights, and respect from others. However, there is still a small percentage who think women have a distinct place in life and shouldn’t drift from their “path”. In Twin Peaks and “Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?”, women were treated as if they were irrelevant and melodramatic.
In the essay What Meets the Eye, Daniel Akst argues that look or beauty does matter in the daily life, that is, people’s life can be largely influenced or even controlled by look. Through reading Akst’s essay, I completely understand how people have different perspectives of others, as many people pay attention to and worry about how they look in the daily life. And people tend to judge others by their beauty or looks to a large extent. Akst’s ideas quite conform to and reinforce Paglia’s points that pursuing and maximizing one’s attractiveness and beauty is a justifiable aim in any society, and that good surgery discovers reveals personality. Both of them hold the idea that beauty plays an important role in people’s life and it is significant to enhance one’s beauty and attractiveness.
In her essay, “The Importance of Work,” from The Feminine Mystique published in 1963, Betty Friedan confronts American women’s search for identity. Throughout the novel, Betty Friedan breaks new ground, concocting the idea that women can discover personal fulfillment by straying away from their original roles. Friedan ponders on the idea that The Feminine Mystique is the cause for a vast majority of women during that time period to feel confined by their occupations around the house; therefore, restricting them from discovering who they are as women. Friedan’s novel is well known for creating a different kind of feminism and rousing various women across the nation.
In “Why Women Smile,” Cunningham is trying to explain to its readers that there are various reasons behind a woman’s smile. The main point that Cunningham is trying to make is that a book must not be judged by its cover. Cunningham states in her essay that “Psychologist Paul Ekman, the head of the University of California's Human Interaction Lab in San Francisco, has identified 18 distinct types of smiles, including those that show misery, compliance, fear, and contempt” (11). There are so many other smiles that women could be showing instead of the happy smile that women are associated with. The reasoning that Cunningham uses throughout her essay is logos, and logos is found in expository essays to help validate the point the author is trying to bring across.
Females go through their whole lives without being noticed of what they do or did for men because they were and may still be seen as just a “keeper.” Woman stopped being known as the “Keeper” because in 1960, Betty Friedan fought back and females everywhere joined in to fight the oppression and the idea roles they were suppose to portray as housewives and
Today’s perfect women’s social stereotype may be a woman smiling. However, Cunningham states lots of history about society has tried to force women to hide their actually smiles. She writes “Women weren’t always expected to seem animated and responsive; in fact, immoderate laughter was once considered one of the more conspicuous vices a woman could have, and mirth was downright sinful.” (174) I think it shows the women are forced to obey because of social pressures, however, it also shows that society’s view changed about the women’s smile. As a result, women should show their emotions in certain ways to face those pressures from society.
Life in the twenty-first century has its perks. There have been some amazing advances in the world, with major breakthroughs in science, medicine, technology, and more. But the part we take for granted most is our ability to be human beings. For the majority of history, women were seen as lesser than men. Men thought that they were emotional, hormone driven creatures with no greater purpose in life than to bear children.
Friedan’s Chapter One and Two Karly Marin Sacramento State University Communication Studies Major Gender Ideology Introduction Women play a pivotal role in the growth and development of social, economic and political spheres. There are countable women in the history of the world who have made remarkable contributions to the various spheres. Their accounts are recorded in books, magazines and journals amongst others. The Feminine Mystique is one of the books that received a wide audience in the 1950s.
This theme relates to the real world because gender inequality is a problem that has been faced throughout history. In many cultures in the past, women were in-charge of domestic work while men took the roles of public life. Be that as it may, both men and women took equally important roles; however, because of the longstanding gender bias in the world, the roles of men in society were glorified more than the roles of women. Today, gender inequality still exists in the world. Specifically, today’s women are faced with sexist comments and attitudes from men that put women down.
Women’s place and role in the society is something that has been discussed and changed over time. Should their rights be the same as men’s? Should they be superior? Inferior? The world faces a dilemma on weather they should be or not equal as men.
In nearly all historical societies, sexism was prevalent. Power struggles between genders mostly ended in men being the dominant force in society, leaving women on a lower rung of the social ladder. However, this does not always mean that women have a harder existence in society. Scott Russell Sanders faces a moral dilemma in “The Men We Carry in Our Minds.” In the beginning, Sanders feels that women have a harder time in society today than men do.