The movie Mona Lisa Smile is set in 1953; post-war and pre-feminism. Katherine Ann Watson, a progressive Art History teacher, is hired to teach at Wellesley. This selective all-women’s college is described in the opening scenes of the film as “the most conservative university in the country” (Newell, “Mona Lisa Smile”, 2003). Watson wants to teach at Wellesley in order to influence the next generation of women. Some of the brightest female students in the country attended Wellesley. Among these students are: Joan Brandwyn, a driven student with a 4.0 GPA, Betty Warren, the daughter of the Alumni Association president, Giselle Levy, a flirtatious and outgoing young woman who has had an affair with a Wellesley teacher (Bill Dunbar), and Connie Baker. These women are bright, and largely members of the upper class. Their social class not only affords them the Wellesley education but vacations abroad and elaborate parties and weddings. Watson quickly realizes that the goal for the students at Wellesley is not just to get an education, but to get a husband. This fact is in direct conflict with Watson’s own desire to help the female students grow into independent women. The school nurse, Amanda Armstrong, believes in the importance of female independence as well. Both Watson and Armstrong’s beliefs are met with disapproval by …show more content…
Her homosexuality would certainly be considered a deviant behavior in 1953. The characters in the film, however, just seem to ignore it. There is no indication that Armstrong’s sexuality has even garnered a moral stigma among her coworkers or peers. She has somehow passed as meeting the norms, or expectations, of her society. When it is revealed that Armstrong has provided contraception to female students, however, she is fired. The fact that her behavior could influence the adherence of others to the norms was apparently more deviant than her personal
Moreover, education can also be halted due to ones gender. This is so in the case of Carrie Bishop. Because she is female, her father will not pay for nursing school. If not for Miles, Carrie's liberal brother and graduate of Berea College, she would have stayed at home and become the traditional homemaker. Another way her education was stunted is not due to anyone persons prevention but by her own personality and physical appearance.
Rimer hooks the reader immediately in the opening paragraph by describing a transforming moment in an older woman’s life. The woman was leaving her life and beginning anew; she was going back to college. The women in Rimer’s essay range in age from 37 to 85 years old. Getting married after high school or discouragement by their families to attend college was a reality faced by these women. Colvard’s parents “opposed her going to college” (para.3.). Legare was “married at 19” (para.10). Martindell’s father forced her to withdraw from college (para.17). Previous negative familial attitudes concerning women attending college is a theme throughout the essay.
Today lots of people know Nina Simone for her legacy; she was a supreme and classical trained pianist and she was also a civil rights activist. In 2015, a Netflix movie was released on Nina Simone, called “What happened Miss Simone?” to depict who Nina Simone really was as a person. The actress playing her in the biography musical is, Dominican and Puerto Rican, Zoe Saldana. The trailer for the movie made an uproar of controversy. The controversy comes from Nina Simone legacy, combined with appearance and performance of Zoe Saldana; which led people to their many opinions on what they thought of the movie.
"A Woman’s Place", the name of the commencement speech given by Naomi Wolf at the Scripps College graduation in 1992; contrasts the independent and the dependent woman. In today’s society, there are two different types of women: the woman who has a good head on her shoulders and knows where she is going in the world, and the woman who seeks dependence within the masculine world. Just as they were thirty years ago, women are still not considered to be equal to men. They are more or less looked at as being second to men.
Women are not only assumed to only take care of their family, but to not have the education that they do rightfully deserve. Women can contribute to the world as plentiful and gloriously as men can, but the chances are not given to them. For example, when Minerva tells Trujillo that she dreams of attending the University to study law, he replies "'The University is no place for a woman these days'" (99). Trujillo implies that by going to school to heighten her education, it would be ...
...rave and caring nurse (Radcliffe, 2010). It is not about who the student is now, but who he or she will become.
...er the last century women have made enormous contributions in the sciences, art, and medicine, proving that those fields are not just for men. By completing their education women have proven that they can handle the many stresses that go along with college, such as dealing with others, exams, and receiving a diploma. Women have also been dealing with immense stress through the years, with both having children and maintaining their families.
This is clearly evident in Betty Warren’s condemnation of Professor Katherine Watson’s progressive, feminist ideals. Warren writes, “It is our duty- nay, obligation to reclaim our place in the home . . . Her [Watson] subversive and political teachings encourage our Wellesley girls to reject the roles they were born to fill” (01:08:01-01:08:28). By writing this, she clearly indicates that Watson’s denial of a traditional lifestyle is deplorable. Warren also implies that Watson is not a respectable woman, being as she lives a lifestyle that is not in accordance with what a woman is meant to do. The entire publication is a direct attack on Watson’s gender identity, being that it suggests that she is not feminine enough. Warren hopes that with this publication, Watson will quiet her voice. This is her way of maintaining the patriarchal elements of their society.
Born on December 25, 1921, Clara grew up in a family of four children, all at least 11 years older than her (Pryor, 3). Clara’s childhood was more of one that had several babysitters than siblings, each taking part of her education. Clara excelled at the academic part of life, but was very timid among strangers. School was not a particularly happy point in her life, being unable to fit in with her rambunctious classmates after having such a quiet childhood. The idea of being a burden to the family was in Clara’s head and felt that the way to win the affection of her family was to do extremely well in her classes to find the love that she felt was needed to be earned. She was extremely proud of the positive attention that her achievement of an academic scholarship (Pryor, 12). This praise for her accomplishment in the field of academics enriched her “taste for masculine accomplishments”. Her mother however, began to take notice of this and began to teach her to “be more feminine” by cooking dinners and building fires (Pryor, 15). The 1830’s was a time when the women of the United States really began to take a stand for the rights that they deserved (Duiker, 552). Growing up in the mist of this most likely helped Barton become the woman she turned out to be.
Ben is one of the main characters in the movie. It all started with the class going to a
There was seldom a mention of male and male students choosing to become nurses. Along with the belief of nursing being a career choice more female-directed, there was also the repeated mention of the career being for middle-class women (Price, 2008). Historically, women have been the dominant face of nursing and it has always been considered a suitable career for women, whereas most careers in the past would never be acceptable for a female. For some of the female students who were interviewed, this stereotype was part of a deferent to choosing nursing. They did not want to be thought of as a stereotypical women, and be casted into a mould of what most women choose (Price, Hall, Angus, & Peter, 2013). In a modern society, more and more women are wishing to push the boundaries on what use to be referred to as a male dominated territory. This is true in careers as well. Many females second guess their decision in choosing nursing due to
A college education is something that women take for granted today, but in the 1800’s it was an extremely rare thing to see a woman in college. During the mid 1800’s, schools like Oberlin and Elmira College began to accept women. Stone’s father did a wonderful thing (by 19th century standards) in loaning her the money to pay for her college education. Stone was the first woman to get a college education in Massachusetts, graduating from Oberlin College in 1843. Her first major protest was at the time of her graduation. Stone was asked to write a commencement speech for her class. But she refused, because someone else would have had to read her speech. Women were not allowed, even at Oberlin, to give a public address.
“There is a double standard here that shapes our perceptions of men and women in ways that support patriarchy as a system. What is culturally valued is associated with masculinity and maleness and what is devalued is associated with femininity and femaleness, regardless of the reality of men’s and women’s lives”,( Johnson 64). In the movie Mona Lisa Smile, Betty’s mother was pressurizing Betty to make her husband read a poem at the wedding not just to act like he enjoyed the marriage but mainly because it was a tradition for men. When Betty said she didn’t care about it, her mother refused and still insisted that she should do it. Women are looked down upon when it comes to the assignment of gender roles and this is because of labels that the society has placed on the female gender. In a home, the father is always the head of the home, providing food and clothing for every family member but there are some women who like to be independent and would also love to work and make money and cater for the family. In the 19th century, women were told they were home makers and were not allowed to endeavor further in higher educational studies. Wellesley College was a college built to raise future wives and not future leaders meaning that society had already placed women below the ladder without any intention or thoughts of them climbing back
The Mona Lisa is one of the most famous art works of all time by the Italian artist Leonardo Da Vinci. This portrait was done in oil and it is a piece that looks very real. On the other hand, “Wynwood’s Finest” is a well-known mural by Abstrk, who is an artist from Miami. This piece is graffiti on a wall and it looks more animated, fiction like, than the Mona Lisa.
In the early 20th century, many women went to college and worked professionally, but the mid-20th century myth of the middle-class suburban housewife downplayed the importance of women's education. Feminists knew that girls and women must be encouraged to seek an education, and not just "something to fall back on," if they were to become, and be seen as, fully equal. In her article, "The Long Way Home," Myrna Kostash discusses her experiences as a feminist in university. "It was 1963 and there was none of us who did not believe we would be different from the brigades of women in the suburbs. We were students. We would be clever, and we would travel, and we would have adventures." (Kostash, The Long Way Home, 167.) University provided the perfect place for like-minded women to meet, extend their influence and advocate for change. "Although university women continued to be the support base of the women's liberation groups, it was not unusual when their meetings included young working women, high school students, middle-aged housewives, single mothers, women from old left groups" (Kostash, The Long Way Home, 170.) Yet, although women were more educated then they had been in the past, the only socially acceptable role for them was to get married and have children. The second wave of feminism sought to change this perception and fought to give women opportunities on par with men including wage equality, maternity benefits, and the right