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Gender inequality in the modern world
Women in classical Hollywood
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Dustin Hoffman is the lead star in the 1982 movie "Tootsie". Where he plays as an unemployed actor, who crossed-dress to play a title female role "Dorothy Michaels" in a soap opera. Dorothy is a conservative woman who never tolerates prejudice and discrimination against women. Tootsiee exemplifies sexism in the society. Women have been experiencing gender stratification, which is hard to modify. Nevertheless, society expects highly of women to be perfect, in able to survive in a patriarchal society. In addition, being as women, there are some advantages and disadvantages. Which vary in every society.
The culture and society in which the female person dwells defines woman as Other, as the inessential correlate to man, as mere object and immanence.
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The only role of women is to ensure the stability of the family and not to work alongside of men in a work field. Gender stratification puts women in a position where they do not receive the same respect and honor as men. For example, in the movie "Tootsie", one of the crew members in the soap opera is asked by the director to get him a drink. Then the crew member also asks Julie, played by Jessica Lange, if she wants one. However, the director immediately answers him, "no! She's fine" without waiting for Julie to respond. The director ignores the fact that Julie has also been working just as hard as everybody else, yet, her effort is unrecognizable. On the other hand, according to Kessler-Harris, "a gender-based division of labor was common, but not rigid. The participation of women in work that was …show more content…
Do women have to be perfect in all aspects? Do they have to be tough and aggressive, yet, soft and mild at the same time? As a woman, I constantly feel that I have to prove myself that I am important, and that I also deserve equal rights as men. Hoffman's female character "Dorothy" has female features, but with a male's attitude; which gains her high admiration from everyone including men. What does it mean to be a woman? For me, it depends on where people categorize women. Being a woman means being a human, and acknowledging the difficulty that comes with that. It is inspiring to hear Dorothy's words to the doctor, " stop thinking of me as a woman, and start thinking of me as a person." Dorothy's words make me feel more of a human being, and not just as a woman labeled as "other". I am more than just a woman; I am not just anyone's
Discriminating gender roles throughout the movie leaves one to believe if they are supposed to act a certain way. This film gives women and men roles that don’t exist anymore, during the 60s women were known to care for the family and take care of the house, basically working at home. However, a male was supposed to fight for his family, doing all the hard work so his wife didn’t have too. In today’s world, everyone does what makes them happy. You can’t tell a woman to stay at home, that makes them feel useless. Furthermore, males still play the roles of hard workers, they are powerful compared to a woman. However, in today’s world a male knows it isn’t right to boss a woman around, where in the 60s, it happened, today women have rights to do what they want not what they are
The Depression Era was chaotic and detrimental to most Americans, but it was also a time of growth in some ways. Women playing major roles in movies during this time period was becoming more and more common. Women were viewed in many different ways though. In “Room Service”, women were viewed as hard-working, influential individuals, but they were also very invested and dependent on love. In “The Public Enemy”, women were viewed as something that could be thrown away when they were of no more use, and finally in “Gold Diggers of 1937”, women were viewed as sneaky, smart people who would to whatever they had to do to accomplish their goals. These conflicting views of women show depth and diversity in a dark, dreary time period.
”. It mirrors how society use to view woman as “stock animal” and only meant for breeding. The Yellow-Wallpaper exhibits how society's expectation can stifle and suffocate a person base upon her gender. It shows how the individual suffers underneath the weight of Societies expectation.
Gender has played specific roles in societies all over the place. Men are usually seen as the dominant gender and therefore appear to be more important to society but women still have an important role. It was not that long ago that women did not have many rights or play an important role at all. In America, laws were put in place to make men and women equal and today many women have filled jobs thought of as a man’s job but there is still a common thought of women being less important in society than men. Before deciding if a woman’s role in society is complimentary or not, the role of all humans must be examined. A woman could appear to have a terrible role but maybe that’s because everybody has a terrible role in that type of society. Same
During the 1920’s women were fervently depicted as inferior to men and incapable of the success. In the novel The Great Gatsby female characters are subject to gender based stereotypes and blindly follow culturally accepted norms which dictate their place and position within society. The expectations placed upon the female characters to comply with the norms of society limit their potential to become successful in comparison to the male characters, who are successful in the 1920’s. Within The Great Gatsby, Fitzgerald illustrates the female characters as socially and economically limited and dependant, due to the strong implementation of patriarchal roles of men in society. Women are confined
It is said that Western civilization had been primarily male dominated and as a result as diminished the feminine. Women’s roles in society have changed drastically over the past decades. While it took much time, progress for women’s rights has blossomed. Influences in civilization have affected view points of the commonly held mores, expectations, and stereotypes which define gender.
“The Social Construction of Gender” talks about gender as a concept created by society. In it, the author explains why society felt the need to create gender as a social institution and how gender is embedded into everyday life. The labeling of people as male or female is used by societies as a way of deciding who takes over which responsibilities and who does which tasks. The author of the article concludes that gender and gender inequality is created by society
Rosaldo, Michelle Zimbalist, “Woman, Culture, and Society: A Theoretical Overview”, in Lamphere, Louise & Rosaldo, Michelle Zimbalist, Ed. Woman, Culture, and Society. Stanford CA: Stanford University Press. 1974.
Almost all of us live daily with the effects of social construction, whereby one is observed through their cultural or social practices. Society discriminates against us depending on skin colour and social class. Carole Vance in her article “Social Construction Theory”, has a unique approach to social construction of gender. She painstakingly points out that these cultural influences affect individuals on a personal basis, but society as a whole.
...lways be inferior to men. In their everyday immersion, they are constantly reminded by this fact, and so they constantly subject to men and follow the daily routines prepared for them. They beautify themselves the way man would perceive them to be attractive. And so, even if some women are now displacing men in their own game and in their own world, as long as they wear powders and plastics, they will remain as others. As long as we look at ourselves in context of the eyes of men we will always be treated as mere objects.
In Simone De Beauvoir’s book, The Second Sex, the term the other is used in reference to women. Women are regarded as the inessential and the dependent sex who needs the one in order to exist (De Beauvoir, 1989). The one is referred to as man who is the norm that we need to conform to or else we will be marginalized if we fail to do so. This ideal norm has been present in society since the very beginning of time. Maybe it is because man was created first before woman in the creation story of Genesis and how the religion, Christianity, has a man as their Savior. This is why women are regarded as the weak ones as they are incapable to comply with the norm and are alienated in society. In addition, those men who fail to prove their manliness and do not meet the standards of what it means to be a man are often referred ...
In the 1960’s women did not have the rights they have today, plus most people underestimated women’s ability. The movie shows exactly how men and women were not equal and how almost all men did not expect a lot from women. “ Jim Johnson: Pretty Heady stuff, Katherine: yes it is, Jim Johnson: they let women handle that sort of..” (36.26). This proves how Jim, a man, believes that women are not qualified for significant jobs, and that is how it was back then. Being a women was a struggle for all women, but “Katherine Johnson crossed all gender, race, and professional lines while their brilliance and desire to dream big, beyond anything ever accomplished before by the human
The female body is simply a vessel that a patriarchal society makes use of or suppresses for their own agenda in the race to obtaining power. Unlike a man, a woman occupies her appropriate place in a patriarchal society with the predetermined notion that her sexual services are appropriately reserved in obedience to the patriarchal prerogative. Her virtue lies in what she does and does not do. In the two novels, Woman at Point Zero and Pillars of Salt, the female characters seek to expose and condemn the ideological trappings which pacify patriarchal societies.
middle of paper ... ... women know and think that if they don’t act or behave to their expectations they will. looked down upon and possibly neglected by their family and society. To avoid losing friends and family, most male and female, construct their own role in their life.
This aspect describes a reluctance when viewing women as equals to men. There is a natural intention of the society to oppress women and had been seen to be a common aspect. A patriarchal society had contributed much to the development of sexism among people. The belief that men are the heads of the families as well as the breadwinners had reduced the position of women in the traditional society. In this case, women have been seen to be feeble and supposed to carry out domestic chores. In many traditional societies, the role of women has been to take care of the children at home as well as carrying the household chores (Krieger, 88). This factor had reduced the position of women in the society and in most cases are viewed as the less fortunate. It is very true that sexism is prevalent and woven into the fabric of our day to day culture and society. This had made it be more invisible to the community. This idea had been able to reduce the value and oppression targeting women in the community to the point that it is assumed to be