BEWITCHED
Bewitched is a sitcom about a man who is married a witch. This show was featured in 1964 on ABC. Elizabeth Montgomery plays a good-hearted witch named Samantha. She is strong, independent, and wants to do things the mortal way by giving up life as a witch. She tries to live like a house wife, but she fails to perform household duties without her power. Darrin Stephens is her mortal husband played by Dick York. He is a talented advertising executive. He follows his set of socially masculine behavioral norms by earning a good living for his family. Samantha's dominant mother, Endora, played by Agnes Moorehead, is who Darrin constantly struggles with against because he disapproves witchcraft. Hegemonic masculinity refers to the dominant
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The Barbie of the 60s, she was a fairytale beauty that had it all: displaying the feminine characteristic of a beautifully balanced body, beautiful long coiffed blonde hair, and perfectly manicured nails. She demonstrated the icon of beauty and accomplishment that many of that generation aspired to follow. As the wife of a successful advertising executive, Darrin Stephens, Samantha had for the casual observer which describes by way of, that part of the individual's performance, which regularly functions in a general and fixed fashion to define the situation for those who observe the performance. Americans can observe that Samantha appeared to follow the stereotypical expectations of performance as the 60s wife with a beautiful, immaculate house on the right street, beautiful children, and an adoring husband who financially supported their middle-class lifestyle ranch culture. Her character is an empowering one in the way that she maintains both the social status quo and privilege: meeting the particular needs of her husband and children. This allowed them to perform within the commonly accepted standards by which they became accepted in their community and social circles. This is what the typical heteronormative American family is …show more content…
Darrin is so entrenched in the hegemonic discourse of moral normalcy that he is unable to even imagine the world where being mortal is possible. Hegemonic discourse is promoted within Darrin which is the dominant social position of men and the subordinate social position of women. Hegemonic masculinity subordinates other masculinities and femininities. In most Western societies today, hegemonic masculinity is associated with whiteness and heterosexuality. There are various ways of being a witch just as there are various ways of being gay. Hegemonic features can be shown in the fact that as a married couple they become the Stephens: as Darrin's surname is Stephens. Male dominance is shown here for most women take their husband’s last name. Also, Darrin often calls Samantha by the miniature
In a world where many are led to believe that they fall short of what society depicts as “perfect”, it is still true that everyone is beautiful in their own way. There are even more demands on girls now a days than there has ever been before. Some may think they need to fit in, so they become someone they are not or they begin to act like a totally different person. “Barbie Doll” by Marge Piercy, illustrates society’s high and unrealistic expectations on the physical appearance of women, while failing to see that a woman’s self-esteem is at risk of being diminished.
The treatment of females from the 18th century through the 21st century have only gotten worse due to society’s ignorant judgment of the gender. Of which, is the change from the previous housewife like actions to the modern day body figure. This repulsive transaction is perceived throughout literature. From the 19th century’s short story, “The Story of an Hour” written by Kate Chopin in 1894 and the 20th century’s poem, “Barbie Doll” composed by Marge Piercy in 1971.
In Marge Piercy’s, “Barbie Doll,” we see the effect that society has on the expectations of women. A woman, like the girl described in ‘Barbie Doll’, should be perfect. She should know how to cook and clean, but most importantly be attractive according to the impossible stereotypes of womanly beauty. Many women in today’s society are compared to the unrealistic life and form of the doll. The doll, throughout many years, has transformed itself from a popular toy to a role model for actual women. The extremes to which women take this role model are implicated in this short, yet truthful poem.
The speaker is trying to address all Americans that know deeper into Barbie doll life. By using the word “hippie” she gives a sense of rejection, opposition and liberalism towards things. Hippie Barbie reveals the ugly truth about the society based on the appearances that we live in. Using personification as her strongest tool, she uses Barbie to establish a somewhat comic parallel world with real women. The author introduces her poem with; “Barbie couldn’t grasp the concept of free love.
Every woman grows up knowing that they one day want to be beautiful. In Marge Piercy’s “Barbie Doll” she gives an in depth look at what negative effects the concept of beauty can have on an individual. From infancy to a full grown adult woman, beauty has been a way of thinking and lifestyle. As a little girl you are given petite shaped, blonde, blue eyed dolls. While boys are given brawny soldiers and mechanical toys.
Their initial characterizations play on the stereotypes of the ideal “mother” and “wife,” respectively, yet once Lucy dies, all that remains is Mina’s chaste model of the perfect mother. She mothers the men in the group, going as far as embracing Arthur Holmwood as he weeps for his diseased fiancée, Lucy. Lucy also offers to comfort Quincey P. Morris, another of Lucy’s suitors. Moreover, the men in the group praise Mina for her intellect; Van Helsing goes so far as to state “She has man 's brain, a brain that a man should have were he much gifted, and a woman 's heart” (Chapter 18, 30 September, Dr. Seward’s Journal). Lucy can type, follows her husband’s study of the law, and keeps an account of the entire adventure, but the men on her side insist that she is too weak to fight. Even at the beginning of the novel, Lucy states, “when we are married, I shall want to be useful to Jonathan, and if I can stenograph well enough I can take down what he wants to say in this way and write it out for him on the typewriter” (Stoker 43). This implies that the purpose of a wife is to be an accessory to her husband’s skills, and to be dependent on him for original ideas. Mina must operate under these terms and conditions in order to represent a facet of what women ought to be, and this standard and internalized mentality concerning the role of women in relation to men suggests that part of what it means to be
“If Barbie was designed by a man, suddenly a lot of things made sense to me,” says Emily Prager in her essay “Our Barbies, Ourselves” (Prager 354). Prager’s purpose for writing this essay is to explain the history of Barbie and how the doll itself has influenced and continue to influence our society today. Prager is appealing to the average girl, to those who can relate to the way she felt growing up with Barbie seen as the ideal woman. Emily Prager uses a constant shift between a formal and informal tone to effectively communicate her ideas that we view women today based upon the unrealistic expectations set forth by Barbie. By adopting this strategy she avoids making readers feel attacked and therefore
The Barbie is a plastic, man-made female toy, which has perfect facial symmetry, unnatural body dimensions, and perfectly unblemished white skin. In Chris Semansky’s Overview of “Barbie Doll,” he explains that the Barbie “is invented to show women have been socialized into thinking of their bodies and behavior in relation to a male-controlled idea” (Semansky). The title directly alludes to the Barbie toy, which represents a design of a man-made construction of the female image that shows an unnatural human form that could only exist inside the imagination of men. Throughout both “Barbie Doll” and “The Birthmark” you will find the female protagonists seeking an ultimately perfect form, free of the characteristics that those around them see as unworthy. It is as if they are chasing the blueprint of perfection that is present in the Barbie. The original Barbie came with three outfits a bathing suit, a tennis outfit, and a wedding dress (Semansky). Her outfits clearly symbolize restrictions forced on female privilege, identity, and autonomy, where “she embodies the ideals and values of her middle-class American community” who expect her to “spend her days at the country club and her afternoons cooking dinner for her husband” (Semansky). This is directly similar to the “outfits” those around the women in “Barbie Doll” where the girlchild is born
First, readers can tell that Lucy Westenra’s position as a feminine character in this novel is there to support the masculine society. This can be seen through the text and Lucy’s thoughts and by her descriptions of the other characters who are also in the novel. While Lucy is writing letters back and forth with Mina, Lucy starts to represent her womanhood by writing to Mina, “You and I, Mina dear, who are engaged and going to settle down soon soberly into old married women, can despise vanity” (Stoker 78). The expectations of a woman during this time would be for them to settle down, start a family, and to take care of the family and their house. Next, Lucy is very willing and goes out of her way in order to please her husband, Arthur Holmwood. Lucy wrote “I do not know myself if I shall ever speak slang; I do not know if Arthur likes it; as I have never heard him use any as yet” (Stoker 78). In this quote, Lucy is saying that if her husband does not like it that she wil...
(Bolds Line 4) This is especially important when considering the pre-modern definition of a witch. In pre-modern times, a witch was defined as a woman that practiced dark magic in order to advance the agenda of the devil. A man was not ever considered to be a witch, as men were not seen to be easily manipulated by the devil. (Kramer and Sprenger 13) This offers validity to my claim that a male of female can both be witches in some capacity.
On television today you will see stereyotypes of male and female roles in society. These stereyotyps are exemplified in many tv shows and even childrens cartoons. Some shows which stereyotype sex roles include, the flintstones, the jetsons, and almost every sitcom on television.
“The sitcom is a jumble of mixed metaphors: the repetition compulsion of eternal sameness conjoined to a desire to overturn the established order; a profound aesthetic conservatism bundled with an ingrained desire to shock. Every sitcom possess not just a routine that it perpetually seeks to overturn but also a particular style of fomenting that chaos.”
In the short story, “Barbie-Q” by Sandra Cisneros, you can see how ones social class can affect their lifestyle and outlook on the world. The theme of this short story composed by Sandra Cisneros is destitution. Cisneros starts the story with incidental symbolism, a portrayal of the Barbie dolls "Yours is the one with mean eyes and a ponytail” (14) and "Mine is the one with bubble hair” (14), then precedes to explain the dolls attire. Which clearly they made themselves "This and a dress invented from an old sock when we cut holes here and here and here…” (14). We can see Cisneros' aim was to furnish the onlooker with the kind of circumstance the characters are in and how they manage being poor to the point that they can't have decent looking Barbie dolls, nice outfits, or a good quantity of toy accessories.
Stone, Tanya Lee. The Good, the Bad, and the Barbie: A Doll's History and Her Impact on Us. New York: Penguin Group, 2010. Print.
It may seem trivial and go unnoticed to most, but by assigning Barbie a real career, people are able to identify with and recognize her. The marketers also provide Barbie with a life other than modeling, such as friends and a home. The Ken doll, which is commonly known as Barbie’s boyfriend, makes her appear more real to the audience. Girls are able to identify with the idea of a boyfriend, which makes the notion of Barbie seem more realistic and desirable. The same idea is applied to the many friends Barbie has been accompanied by over the years. Lastly, and perhaps most famously, Barbie, like almost all of the girls who play with her, have a home. The Barbie Dream House is just another clever way her marketing team has presented her to society as a real person. Humanizing Barbie, and portraying her in such a manner makes her more attractive to potential buyers. The girls who engage in play with dolls do not want merely a doll; they desire something they can relate to and envision in the real world. Imaginative play is a large portion of childhood, and the ability for children to posses a doll like Barbie , who represents a real person in society, is extremely valuable. The use of social constructionism in the marketing of products such as Barbie is both brilliant and effective.