In 1950s society, a traditional gender-enforced period, women were seen as and only as the housemaids. Weak and docile under the male’s gaze, women accepted the roles as submissive wives without many of them having accomplished well-paid jobs. The 1960s was a pinnacle time with the second wave of the feminist movement, after 1920s suffrage, were women felt more empowered and open with their opinions. While the movement inspired works like the 1962, Betty Friedan book The Feminine Mystique, were she explains the trials of sexism and the frustration of identity, but it also caused uproar with the American authors who disapproved movement and shifting power roles. Ken Kesey was one of these authors. Kesey fought every unfair societal issue from …show more content…
The prostitutes in the book were seen in a better light than the Big Nurse or the wives. Kesey, almost the way he wrote them, wanted us to like them and cheer for them rather than the “ball cutters”. He seems to have to idea that fun can only happen if you are drunk and/or having sex. “As I walked after them it came to me as a kind of sudden surprise that I was drunk, actually drunk, glowing and grinning and staggering drunk for the first time since the Army, drunk along with half a dozen other guys and a couple of girls—right on the Big Nurse’s ward! Drunk and running and laughing and carrying on with women square in the center of the Combine’s most powerful stronghold!” The main character only was happy and laughing and reminiscing when it was with alcohol and women. “I felt so good thinking about this that I gave a yell and swooped down on McMurphy and the girl Sandy walking along in front of me, grabbed them both up, one in each arm, and ran all the way to the day room with them hollering and kicking like kids. I felt that good.” The repetition in the main character’s feeling at the time shows that women and alcohol were it and something useful in feeling
One of the defining characteristics that embody men is their manhood. Take away this manhood, and the person is stripped of power, thus becoming genderless. One of Nurse Ratched’s methods for extracting power is a metaphorical castration. From the moment McMurphy enters the ward, he understands the nurse’s methods. He knows that “what she is is a ball-cutter… [she tries] to make you weak” (54). McMurphy goes on to tell the men that by removing their balls, the Nurse is removing a source of their strength. By implying that men’s power resides in their sexuality, Kesey is giving in to sexual stereotypes about men. In ...
Kinsey Millhone's [a female character in the book F Is for Fugitive] persona is gendered substantially as masculine. A woman who has few friends and lives for her work, she is self-consciously, almost parodically male-defined, as, for example, when she describes her tendency to amuse herself with the abridged California Penal code and textbooks on auto theft rather than engaging in the teatime gossip of a Miss Marple. (Delamater and Prigozy 73)
The female characters of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest can be separated into two quite different categories: prostitutes and “ball cutters”. Prostitutes are portrayed as the “good” characters while the “ball cutter” characters are seen as “cruel”, such as Billy Bibbit’s mother, Harding’s wife, Nurse Ratched, and Chief Bromden’s mother.
It was expected of women to get married, have children, buy a suburban home and do housework. The video, “A Word to the Wives” displays what Betty Friedan calls, “the feminine mystique”. The video presents the dilemma of a woman who is not happy because she does not have the newest house. Her friend has all the new “necessities” in order to successfully complete housework. Women were defined by what they had, not by who they were. Friedan’s research found that despite fulfilling the “feminine mystique”, when women were questioned they realized they were not truly satisfied with their life. The woman in the video would not of been fulfilled by buying a new house, or object. Women were deprived of the need to put their skills and talents to a purpose. The video, “Are You Popular” also shows the expectations of women.. It promotes that appearance, serving others, and rewarding men with “women” gifts such as baking is how to be popular. It condones girls for “parking in cars” but accepts men who do the same thing. Women must earn the approval of men, and men must earn women by doing thing women are “incapable” of. The repression of women in the 50’s is what eventually causes the “outbreak” of feminism in the 60’s. The idolism of the “female mystique” covered the sexism against women in the
In a report called “Women’s Rights” from Issues and Controversies acknowledges that “In the 1960s, however, changing demographic, economic, and social patterns encouraged a resurgence of feminism” (Encyclopedia). Incidentally,
Image of the Prostitute in Modern Literature. Ed. Pringle, Mary Beth and Pierre L. Horn.
The “Feminine Mystique” is a highly influential book in the early second wave feminism movement. It is said that it helped shaped the demands of the second wave by insisting for the right to work outside the home, and to be paid equally; the right for reproductive freedom; the demand that women should not be expected to have children and be mothers if they do not want to. Betty Friedan addresses “the problem that has no name” which is the women who are highly educated, suburban housewives that are bored and want something “more” in their life. This is the point where women knew we needed a second wave. Women’s role had gone backwards and they were beginning to realize that they were all experiencing the same “problem that has no name”. “The
The majority of the female characters in the novel are portrayed as the antagonists, with the exception of the prostitutes, and could be labelled as having ‘emasculating female authority’. Feminists would argue that Ken Kesey’s portrayal of Nurse Ratched in particular is misogynistic and critics would question why the character is negatively portrayed despite her role as an authority figure in helping patients and keeping order. This negative portrayal of women with power and authority may mirror the general feeling amongst men in 1960s America during the time when the feminist movement focused on workforce inequality such as limited leadership opportunities and lower paid salary. Kesey’s portrayal suggests that women cannot gain authority
Ken Kesey’s One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest is a book in which he dealt with the issues of racism, sexuality and authority that is going on in a mental institution. In the novel, the women are depicted as the power figures who are able to significantly manipulate the patients on the ward. There are four ways of Ken Kesey’s use of “woman” as a subject: Superiority of male sexuality over female authority, matriarchal system that seeks to castrate men in the society, mother figures as counterpart of Big Nurse and “Womanish” values defined as civilizing in the novel. Over centuries women have been objectified, meaning they have been treated as objects valued mostly for their physical attributes, rather than human intellect.
Betty Friedan’s book, The Feminine Mystique, explains the mind set of society in the 1960s. She writes that the women of the ‘60s were identified only as creatures looking for “sex, babies, and home” (Friedan 36). She goes on to say “The only passion, the only pursuit, the only goal a woman [was] permitted [was] the pursuit of a man” (Friedan 36). This mind set, this “feminine mystique,” is clearly shown throughout the show Mad Men. The side effect of the feminine mystique hurt all the women of this time. Matthew Weiner shows how this conception of the “ideal woman” hurt all of his lead women. The consequences are shown in the two women who bought into the idea, Betty and Joan, and the one who re...
In the novel, Kesey suggests that a healthy expression of sexuality is a key component of sanity and that repression of sexuality leads directly to insanity. For example; by treating him like an infant and not allowing him to develop sexually, Billy Bibbet's mother causes him to lose his sanity. Missing from the halls of the mental hospital are healthy, natural expression of sexuality between two people. Perverted sexual expressions are said to take place in the ward; for example; Bromden describes the aides as "black boys in white suites committing sex acts in the hall" (p.9). The aides engage in illicit "sex acts" that nobody witnesses, and on several occasions it is suggested that they rape the patients, such as Taber. Nurse Ratched implicitly permits this to happen, symbolized by the jar of Vaseline she leaves the aides. This shows how she condones the sexual violation of the patients, because she gains control from their oppression. McMurphy's sanity is symbolized by his bold and open insertion of sexuality which gives him great confidence and individuality. This stands in contrast to what Kesey implies, ironically and tragically, represents the institution.
Society continually places specific and often restrictive standards on the female gender. While modern women have overcome many unfair prejudices, late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century women were forced to deal with a less than understanding culture. Different people had various ways of voicing their opinions concerning gender inequalities, including expressing themselves through literature. By writing a fictional story, authors like Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Henry James were given the opportunity to let readers understand and develop their own ideas on such a serious topic.
Of the many themes in American Literature of the semester, the one that deserves to be looked at more closely is the view and treatment of women. While there are a few works, Fleur being the one that stands out the most, where women were more than just a pretty face and actually did things for themselves and succeeded, more often women were oppressed, demoralized, or exploited by men. In three works in particular this tendency to present women as weak and in need of protection is exceedingly noticeable. These three works are “Daisy Miller: A Study,” Maggie: A Girl of the Streets, and A Streetcar Named Desire. In all of these works the female lead characters are trying to find a better life for themselves and in the end they end up failing and losing their lives or at least the lives they would have had if they had simply done as they were expected to. It makes sense, given that the writers of these three works were all males, but this treatment of women wasn’t just in works by males, in Flannery O’Connor’s works, for example, the female character was still exploited by men. But why were women so often treated this way in literature? The suggestion that women are naturally the weaker sex has long been common thought in society and perhaps these male writers try to put women in their “proper place” by writing works that show women outside of their place getting into trouble and losing everything.
“Girls wear jeans and cut their hair short and wear shirts and boots because it is okay to be a boy; for a girl it is like promotion. But for a boy to look like a girl is degrading, according to you, because secretly you believe that being a girl is degrading” (McEwan 55-56). Throughout the history of literature women have been viewed as inferior to men, but as time has progressed the idealistic views of how women perceive themselves has changed. In earlier literature women took the role of being the “housewife” or the household caretaker for the family while the men provided for the family. Women were hardly mentioned in the workforce and always held a spot under their husband’s wing. Women were viewed as a calm and caring character in many stories, poems, and novels in the early time period of literature. During the early time period of literature, women who opposed the common role were often times put to shame or viewed as rebels. As literature progresses through the decades and centuries, very little, but noticeable change begins to appear in perspective to the common role of women. Women were more often seen as a main character in a story setting as the literary period advanced. Around the nineteenth century women were beginning to break away from the social norms of society. Society had created a subservient role for women, which did not allow women to stand up for what they believe in. As the role of women in literature evolves, so does their views on the workforce environment and their own independence. Throughout the history of the world, British, and American literature, women have evolved to become more independent, self-reliant, and have learned to emphasize their self-worth.
Thanks for meeting with me today, Samantha. Since you are a feminist, I was interested in discussing the novel, Herland, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman with you. As you know, we live in a modern society that is influenced by both our gender roles and the act of sex. In the 21st century, political and social progressivism has allowed men and women to possess an expanded view of themselves and how they conduct themselves, presenting a paradigm shift that starkly differs that of 1916, Herland’s publication date. For example, it has become common, although there still may be a slightly negative connotation, for women to hold occupations, such as engineering, once solely held by men. Similarly, men becoming nurses or even stay-at-home dads have also