Politics have been around since the birth of Christ. The term politics in this essay will not be defined by the typical world of meetings, chairmen, and parties. Politics will be referred to as the power controlled relationships where one person is controlled by another. Kathy Goes to Haiti by Kathy Acker tells the story of a womans adventures in Haiti. The novel structurally layers graphic sex scenes and travel narratives in alternating chapters. Through travel and sexual adventures of the protagonist Kathy, the novel portrays sexual politics with the presence of a dominant male figure and the power they gain through such dominance. In this essay, I examine the presences of sexual politics in Kathy’s travels and sexual adventures.
When Kathy
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During these sex scenes the language of the novel becomes more descriptive which allows the sexual politics to be interpreted through the actions and words of the characters. The sex between Kathy and the taxi driver is only the beginning of men gaining power from dominating and degrading Kathy. For not only is Kathy at the mercy of men during sex but as the novel also describes her vagina, the author in her own way gives the man more power by using a degrading and harmful word such as “Cunt.” Both the taxi driver and Roger assert their dominance over Kathy by not only the sexual position but also in the type of sexual act performed. For instance in every sex scene there is a forceful and rough nature that always has the man in control and the sexual position “doggy style” where the man penetrates the woman from behind, again putting the control in the man’s hands. With Roger everything is strictly business and he has no sympathy for Kathy as “his huge cock rushes into her. He’s too rough and he hurts her (91).” With no worries for Kathy’s wellbeing, this is only another instance that Roger portrays the powerful dominant figure in this
Recently, I saw a movie about female tennis champion – Billie Jean King, and although I have never been into the feminism (neither can I say that I quite understand it), her character woke up some other kind of sensitivity in me. After this – to me significant change – I could not help myself not to notice different approaches of John Steinbeck and Kay Boyle to the similar thematic. They both deal with marital relationships and it was quite interesting to view lives of ordinary married couples through both “male” and “female eyes”. While Steinbeck opens his story describing the Salinas Valley in December metaphorically referring to the Elisa’s character, Boyle jumps directly to Mrs. Ames’s inner world. Although both writers give us pretty clear picture of their characters, Boyle does it with more emotions aiming our feelings immediately, unlike Steinbeck who leaves us more space to think about Elisa Allen.
... Through “A&P”, John Updike has told of a coming revolution, where the establishments of authority will have to defend each and every rule and regulation that they have put in place. He tells of a revolution where this young generation will break sex from its palace of sanctity. Every single idea that was present in American society that led to the sex driven, often naïve, free spiritedness of the sixties to present day are present in John Updike’s “A&P”.
...She does not act like the other girls, most of the time yet, she does want Krebs to fit into to a role -- her beau -- and fulfil obligations -- going to her indoor baseball game. Those two attributes together cause Krebs to be fonder of his sister than anyone else and at the same time push her away. Krebs even pushes away his mother because she tries to diligently to convince him to conform. Thus causing Krebs’s to say he does not love her, the ultimate form of rejection a child can do to a parent. Due to guilt Krebs does agree to conform but struggles with his decision. Ernest Hemingway’s character Harold Krebs tries to reject conforming to society but in the end he realizes that he can not escape it and grapple with reality.
The first chapter in the book dealing with marriage demonstrates a clear and precise attitude towards women and their social standings in society. The Zoé Mignault case was a perfect example of how the patriarchal system was in affect. The father controlled every aspect of a young girl’s life, including picking a husband for her. The legal system at this time simply encouraged this type of action and supported these types of power imbalances.
Irigaray, Luce. "This Sex Which Is Not One." Feminism: An Anthology of Literary Theory and Criticism. Ed. Robyn R. Warhol and Diane Price Herndle. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers UP, 1991.
Accordingly, I decided the purposes behind women 's resistance neither renamed sexual introduction parts nor overcame money related dependence. I recalled why their yearning for the trappings of progression could darken into a self-compelling consumerism. I evaluated how a conviction arrangement of feeling could end in sexual danger or a married woman 's troublesome twofold day. None of that, regardless, ought to cloud an era 's legacy. I comprehend prerequisites for a standard of female open work, another style of sexual expressiveness, the area of women into open space and political fights previously cornered by men all these pushed against ordinary restrictions even as they made new susceptibilities.
Once Enlightenment philosophies created new views on individual’s natural rights and their place in society, resistance to oppressive government was inevitable. The core beliefs of freedom and equality above all served as a catalyst for the revolutions in America, France, and Haiti. Because of these shared ideals each revolution is interconnected with the revolution before it. However, the waves of this revolutionary movement that swept through the Atlantic World became increasingly radical with each new country it entered. By looking at the citizen involvement and causes of the American, French, and Haitian revolutions, the growing radicality of these insurrections can be better understood.
Ultimately, The Gender Knot provides explanations regarding misogynistic practices, and the protagonists of “Girl” and “Mona Lisa Smile” demonstrate how damaging these practices are. The caustic effects of the limitation of female sexuality are observed in the multitude of rules for women in “Girl,” and in the prohibition of birth control in “Mona Lisa Smile.” These two works also provide insights into the ways that gender roles constrict the lives of women. Through Johnson’s theories, one can come to a better
Accordingly, this emphasis has impacts on the types of pleasure that men request and want to receive that primarily focuses on their pleasure and not that of the women (Kimmel & Holler, 2011, p. 292). Hence, this demonstrates the power of men that is demonstrated by the domination and the submission of women within the sexual interaction (Kimmel & Holler, 2011, p. 124). Thus, gender inequality is reproduced whereby the male is the recipient focus of power (Kimmel & Holler, 2011, p. 291). Additionally, this sex with a prostitute will assist the man in gaining hegemonic status due to his conforming behaviours to the masculinity type (Kimmel & Holler, 2011, p.
As the story begins, the narrator's compliance with her role as a submissive woman is easily seen. She states, "John laughs at me, but one expects that in marriage" (Gilman 577). These words clearly illustrate the male's position of power in a marriage t...
The content of Paul Farmer’s AIDS & ACCUSATION: Haiti and the Geography of Blame, was very boring to begin with. Quite literally, I was sleeping while reading the beginning of it. However, it did pick up towards the middle as it caught my interest; I found that the book was particularly funny. Before reading this book, I had no clue what I was in for other than the title and who would’ve guessed; the title says it all. It was actually about what the title said. The United States blames Haiti for the AIDS and vice versa. Although, Haiti didn’t start with that; the Haitians believed in sorcery and voodoo. The idea of anyone that has someone with ill intent or maliciousness towards them can cause them to become sick with diarrhea, was a chortle. Farmer goes deep into the book as he gives descriptions of three people who came across AIDS. However, these Haitians all believed that it was sorcery or some malign magic of someone who had despised them. The curiousness of one the cases was Manno, one of the Haitians that Farmer had interviewed, who was said to be kind, “Manno never hurt anyone; on the contrary, one thing he was known for was his ready smile. So why would someone wish to harm him?”(Farmer, 76)
Sex Wars; a title provocative enough to garner not only a second look when encountered on an overcrowded bookshelf, but undoubtedly a perfunctory lift from the shelf and a superficial perusal. If you do delve deeper into the novel by Marge Piercy you come to see that Sex alludes to gender and the relationship between men and women; not just the act. War denotes power, agency; a struggle to gain it, fought in our own cities not on some far off shores. It isn't peculiar that Marge Piercy would devote over four hundred pages to such a struggle. A prolific author of poetry, fiction and non; Piercy, a staunch feminist, always "examines women's roles, especially those traditionally relegated to men." in her work. (Unknown) Sex Wars does that as well as illuminates the unique experience of goal-oriented women in a patriarchal society and the hardships that misogyny imposes on women and society as a whole. All of that is done in a historical context and the fact that the novel is so rich in detail, historical and otherwise, and so intricately woven together, if not a historian, you are left wondering what was real and what was fiction.
Throughout the texts we have read in English thus far have been feminist issues. Such issues range from how the author published the book to direct, open statements concerning feminist matters. The different ways to present feminist issues is even directly spoken of in one of the essays we read and discussed. The less obvious of these feminist critiques is found buried within the texts, however, and must be read carefully to understand their full meaning- or to even see them.
Three themes that Dyer develops in his essay on male sexuality are patriarchal power, violence, and the female gaze. Firstly, Dyer mentions that “the penis is also the symbol of male potency, the magic and mystery of the phallus, the endowment that appears to legitimate male power” (Dyer 2013, 113). That is to say, the penis is considered the ultimate force of dominance for men, although it is said that the penis is “far more commonly the soft, vulnerable charm of male genitals” (Dyer 2013, 113). As a result, men tend to play the dominant roles in society, while women are portrayed as inferior and patriarchal power is created. In addition, situated with patriarchal power is violence. Dyer emphasizes violence as an element of male sexuality
Stephen's relationship with the opposite sex begins to develop early in his life. Within the first few pages of the novel lie hints of the different roles women will...