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Sylvia Plath's Argument About Gender Expectations Of Women

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Sylvia Plath’s idea for male dominance frames Maria Burton Nelson’s argument about gender expectations for women’s sports. Using an anecdote as her title “I won, I’m sorry”; it explains why both Nelson and Plath have somewhat similar arguments. Nelson’s argument is that females are being “attacked” by males while they are playing sports and Plath’s argument is that males should be first in anything and everything.
Nelson uses Plath’s quote about her letting the man be first, gets the readers angry, because some modern women do not think like Plath. Sylvia Plath lived in the 1930’s to the 1960’s where putting males first was common. In the 20th century, women were supposed to be the small, weak and beautiful human beings, always depending on the man for strength. Her own …show more content…

Despite being the norm in the 20th century, this drastically changes when the 21st century. Women of all ages started to break out of the old stereotype of wearing makeup and dresses. Girls now can do things like playing male sports and were free to make their own decisions in life. Not many females want to continue the myth of male superiority and always be second in everything (525). Most women today want to get their own jobs, make their own money and do things that males can do. For example, there are now female sports teams like professional soccer and football. The problem is the female sports are still scrutinized by not only the majority of the male viewers and athletes but also other females . Females have to

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In the article, “I won, I’m Sorry”, Mariah Burton Nelson uses an anecdote to begin the article. Sylvia Plath’s anecdote, focuses on the idea of women conforming to men in order to enhance male comfort and superiority. The topic of conformity arises as the anecdote is used to describe how some women, such as Plath, will behave in a particular way in order to fit society’s definition of feminine behavior. Burton Nelson then shifts to write about women in sports and how female athletes’ behavior is modified to fit into traditional gender roles. In order to frame, “I Won, I’m Sorry”, Mariah Burton Nelson uses the anecdote about the poet, Sylvia Plath, to depict how women allow gender expectations be the determining factor on how females behave.

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In the early nineteenth century, Victorian assumptions about women and their abilities were still alive and raging within the mainstream American society. One Victorian assumption would be through emotions, or a woman’s manner of expression, which was more apparent than a man’s own show of emotion. These minor differences on “manner of expression” between the two genders allowed even more damaging assumptions and stereotypes to flourish and stay relevant within the society. For many citizens, there was a question if females could gain characteristics such as loyalty, cooperation, and emotional control when playing sports. Women’s sports were just beginning in many universities and colleges, however, the female teams could only compete against other female teams from the same college or join an intramural team.

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Phrases like “you throw like a girl” and “you play like a girl” are some of the leading factors to drive sexism. The feminist writings “Throw Like a Girl” (1980) by Iris Marion Young, a political philosopher, explains just how sexist the phrase is and how it affects women every day. She explains that girls being bad at sports are a direct result of the sexist way that girls are brought up. Girls are instructed to not be aggressive, but rather to act passive, mature, and restricted in the sense of physical activity. The stigma surrounding girls playing sports forces them to be bad do poorly.

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Sylvia Plath is considered to be one of the most significant female poets known not only to Americans but also to the whole world. Her death in 1963, followed by an unfortunate and short life did not end her input and influence inliterature, she became an icon to the female literary society. Sylvia's outstanding style of writing and themes which she portrayed in her works such as death, seeking for an identity or oppression on women in a patriarchal society began the feminist movementin America and changed the role of women. This topic is of a great importance because they way that Sylvia Plath was expressing her feelings and showing her negative view on a patriarchal society and oppression on women was a giant leap in the world of a women's liberation movement.

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