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Essays about feminism in literature
Feminist literary criticism intro
Overview of feminism and its place in literature
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There has been a long and on going discourse on the battle of the sexes, and Simone De Beauvoir’s The Second Sex reconfigures the social relation that defines man and women, and how far women has evolved from the second position given to them. In order for us to define what a woman is, we first need to clarify what a man is, for this is said to be the point of derivation (De Beauvoir). And this notion presents to us the concept of duality, which states that women will always be treated as the second sex, the dominated and lacking one. Woman as the sexed being that differs from men, in which they are simply placed in the others category. As men treat their bodies as a concrete connection to the world that they inhabit; women are simply treated as bodies to be objectified and used for pleasure, pleasure that arise from the beauty that the bodies behold. This draws us to form the statement that beauty is a powerful means of objectification that every woman aims to attain in order to consequently attain acceptance and approval from the patriarchal society. The society that set up the vague standard of beauty based on satisfaction of sexual drives. Here, women constantly seek to be the center of attention and inevitably the medium of erection. An elevation of beauty is treated as a form of improvement, both for men and for women. Simply put, women emphasize their differences in order to gain a sense of equality and avoid comparison from men. However women are limited in the sense that beauty in itself is very restricting. And the fact that women direct their beauty towards men shows us that men are the basis and the end means of beauty. In which this beautification is not really a form of self-improvement; there is no real flourishing... ... middle of paper ... ...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. Sources: De Beauvoir, Simone. The Second Sex. Trans. And ed. H.M. Parshley. New York: Vintage,1989. ix-xxxv; 253-63; 267-327; 425-83. Marx, Karl. “Alienated Labor.” In Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts. “Throwing Like a Girl.” A Phenomenology of Feminine Bodily Comportment, Motility and …Spatiality.” Human Studies 3 (1980): 137-56
Throughout history, woman’s self has been Other in discourse, literature, and doctrine. She has been designated this position in the world by those who hold social power. This dichotomy is maintained under a hierarchy that serves to benefit men. I will be attempting to support Beauvoir’s idea of the self as Other under a patriarchal society by looking at statements from philosophers and myths, as well as identifying shortcomings she may have.
Charlotte Perkin’s Gilman and Simone de Beauvoir is both forward thinking authors who through their writing captured the concept of women being represented within society as a secondary sub species of man. Gilman through her literary work “The Man-Made World: Our Androcentric Culture”, and de Beauvoir in her work “The Second Sex”. Both of these women presented strong arguments that explored the dehumanization of women throughout history, and explored how language and thought processes during their times continued the process of women being viewed as an “other” in reference to men.
Her chief arguing points and evidence relate to the constriction of female sexuality in comparison to male sexuality; women’s economic and political roles; women’s access to power, agency, and land; the cultural roles of women in shaping their society; and, finally, contemporary ideology about women. For her, the change in privacy and public life in the Renaissance escalated the modern division of the sexes, thus firmly making the woman into a beautiful
In terms of Crawley’s argument of illegitimacy when it comes to the construction and idealizing of gendered norms, which she personally counteracts with butchness, Simone De Beauvoir’s “The Second Sex” (1949) supports the idea that we create what men and women value. Beauvoir looks at gender not as a natural occurrence, but rather the normalization and expectations related to female bodies; women should be feminine and adapt to physical responsibility different from men.
Misogyny is not the result of the physical state of womanhood; it is the product of the conventions that a society has established for how a woman should compose herself (Rey). These societal rules were created with the intent of perpetuating a patriarchal system in which women cannot express themselves freely. Misogyny is an attempt at enforcing these rules, and misogynistic behaviors can be performed by anyone. While The Gender Knot discusses how the limitation of female sexual expression and the enforcement of gender roles are forms of misogyny, “Girl” and “Mona Lisa Smile” indicate how these practices affect women.
Iris Marion Young’s essay “Throwing Like a Girl” examines the unique causes and characteristics of feminine bodily comportment. This examination requires Young to create her own applicable definition of femininity using the elements of Simone de Beauvoir’s theory of feminism and Merleau-Ponty’s theory of phenomenology that she agrees with. However, she must also alter and discard the elements of their theories that she disagrees with. The resulting definition of femininity includes both the societal constructions that define a woman’s situation as well as how women typically react to and interact with that situation.
“Women are not only associated with and defined by the ‘inferior’ realm of flesh (while men represent ‘mind’ and ‘spirit’) but they also are told they must rise above their carnal appetites,” ...
Through the society imaginations of genders, the society character can be depicted and captured in this imagery. This virtual representation, the study of an enduring public attitude deceptive in the widespread images of a gender and the ways of representing gender, has proved a productive and enlightening field of research. The stylistic dynamics at work in the genesis and propagating of gender images in the linguistic discourses, and their explicit function, and how they are received is a crucial source in forming a base for the female status in any society. Simone De Beauvoir (2011) addresses the ambiguous imagined femininity by saying “to be considered [as women] she must share in that mysterious and threatened reality known as femininity”. Such ‘mysterious and threatened reality’ is indeed independent of facts as this paper shall revel, and they neither mirror the female reality nor provide a truthful reflection of the female, but purely part of the cultural imagination.
In this essay, I will give an overview of Iris Marion Young’s Throwing Like a Girl and by using the examples provided by Young, set out the main argument of her essay. Then I will explain the application of Young’s ideas with Merleau-Ponty’s philosophy of embodiment followed by explaining the difference between her ideas and Simone de Beauvoir’s rejection of a “feminine essence.” Lastly, I will give reasons in favor of Young’s position. Young argues that that “throwing like a girl” has no relation to a “feminine essence” but is rather due to women’s situation of being conditioned by their actions in a patriarchal and sexist society.
Why is a woman “the other” of a man? The term “the other” describes the female’s secondary position, to a man, in her own mind and in society’s standards. In The Second Sex, by Simone de Beauvoir, the understanding of reality is made up of interaction between opposing forces. For an individual to define oneself and have a true understanding, s/he must also define something in opposition. “[A]t the moment when man asserts himself as subject and free being, the idea of the Other arises,” says de Beauvoir. Throughout history, men claim themselves to be the subject or the superior to women. A man sees a woman as the object to his success. She is essential in sexual pleasure and in producing children, but as an independent she has no substantial value. A woman completes her partner when she, herself, isn’t complete. This idea leads women to hesitate in following their own dreams and asserting their freedom. Even though this imbalance is closer in modern times, the situation is still present. Society accepts “roles” a man and a woman should play, when in reality everyone should ...
Historically, power has been manifested hierarchically within the social training of genders. Simone De Beauvoir’s concept of ‘otherness’ has theorized how individuals’ personal manifestations of self are influenced deeply by their social position and the available power to them within these circumstances (2000:145). She remains one of the first to develop a feminist philosophy of women. In her book The Second Sex (1950), Beauvoir provides “a philosophical account of the development of patriarchal society and the condition of women within it” (Oliver, 1997:160). Beauvoir’s fundamental initial analysis begins by asking, “what is woman” and concludes woman is “other” and always defined in relation to man (Beauvoir, 2000:145).
For predominantly Catholic languages, French and Italian, they call men “beautiful without it having a feminine connotation. However, Protestant shaped countries retain evidence of “a pagan admiration for beauty” (314). The English language defines a man as being handsome, giving him room for imperfection and flaws. Men grasp the word “beauty” and use it to pit women against each other with certain remarks and comments. Turning a word that used to mean excellence into an obligation of constant worry and struggle, makes women fear what will become of their reputation as a woman if this is standard is not held to its highest.
There is no such thing as a less superior race or the other because even though we are created differently as man and woman, we are still created equally, of which we deserve to be given equal opportunities in order to attain our full competence as human beings. In time, with the growing feminist movements striving for gender equality, women will no longer be seen and treated as the weaker gender and being a man will no longer be the norm anymore. Society will learn to accept how women are created with their own set of capabilities and their contributions as both men and women are needed in society because characteristics that are lacking in men are said to be present in women and vice a versa. We need one another as we are created for a purpose to complement one another and to continue on improving society for the better.
...e ability to achieve anything in life. Hopefully, readers would learn from this novel that beauty is not the most important aspect in life. Society today emphasizes the beauty of one's outer facade. The external appearance of a person is the first thing that is noticed. People should look for a person's inner beauty and love the person for the beauty inside. Beauty, a powerful aspect of life, can draw attention but at the same time it can hide things that one does not want disclosed. Beauty can be used in a variety of ways to affect one's status in culture, politics, and society. Beauty most certainly should not be used to excuse punishment for bad deeds. Beauty is associated with goodness, but that it is not always the case. This story describes how the external attractiveness of a person can influence people's behavior and can corrupt their inner beauty.
I identify as human because another human said I was one. That human was told she was human by another human who was told she was a human by the human who gave birth to her. With that in mind, it seems arbitrary for a human to define what a human is, mainly because the umbrella of humanity is diverse phenotypically, genetically, and culturally. Alas, the wide ambiguous definition of “human” is perplexing for the species that decided it was their duty to define everything on the planet. Out of desperation and ignorance, people resort to distorting the definition to what individuals know best-their own reflection. Historically, those in power decide which interpretation are given more weight than others. Some examples of this duality are seen