In James Tiptree Jr’s short science fiction story “Houston, Houston, Do You Read?”, three men aboard their spaceship accidentally travel into a future solely inhabited by women. From their various interactions with the women on board the Gloria spacecraft, the men quickly discover that they have no place in this futuristic environment and are denied access back to Earth. While this rejection appears tyrannical on the women’s part, it is justifiable as the utopian nature of the female society thrives on the lack of a male population. Specifically, the women’s self-sustainability, along with the dominant behaviour and inherent aggression of a man’s masculinity justifies their denial of the men’s access to Earth.
Ever since the extinction of the male population, women have become fully sustainable in their lifestyles. Although the men do not pose a direct risk towards said sustainability, they do not contribute towards any necessary development either. One area of self-sustainability is the women’s ability to establish and maintain a consistent quality of life. For instance, the Earth’s population encompasses five main activities: farming, fishing, communications, transport and space (183). The establishment of this network of activities indicates that the Earth’s population has fully adapted to a new lifestyle. While the men might hypothetically contribute to Earth’s development, it is unnecessary because the women can adapt a satisfying and consistent quality of life by themselves. Hence, they do not have a necessary reason to admit the men to Earth. Another area of the women’s self-sustainability is their capability to reproduce asexually through cloning technology. As Lorimer discovers, the original clone-strains “were part of ...
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...to enter Earth in “Houston, Houston, Do You Read?” is ultimately justifiable due to the latter’s inability to contribute positively towards society. The men provide no useful development due to the women’s self-sustainability, while the dominant and aggressive components of the men’s masculinities present too great of a threat. In all fairness, Tiptree shatters the hegemonic appeal of a patriarchal society to present a world where men are unimportant and where the women are the major figures in power. However, such a setting still results in the degradation of a specific group. Therefore, it is questionable whether true equality between groups or genders can ever be reached without catastrophic results ensuring.
Works Cited
Tiptree, James Jr. “Houston, Houston, Do You Read?” 1976. Her Smoke Rose Up Forever. San Francisco: Tachyon Publications, 2004. 163-216.
While Darwin left the qualities associated with maternity as a given, Gamble describes the results of natural selection in detail. By juxtaposing the “extreme egoism” (86) of males and the “altruism” (86) of females with “the unequal struggle for liberty and justice” (87), Gamble alters the connotations of the qualities of each sex. No longer are men envisioned as physically and mentally superior hunters that provided for families, but instead as tyrannical oppressors in the classic struggle for liberty. Gamble furthers her explanation of male oppression through sexual selection. With this, Gamble turns the connotation of male superiority on its head, suggesting that this supremacy is in fact a societal artifact, not a biological
Gender inequality has existed all around the world for many centuries. Women were seen as property of men and their purpose of existence was to provide for the men in their lives. Men would play the role of being the breadwinners, whereas women played the role of being the caregiver of the family and household and must obey the men around her. The Handmaid’s Tale, written by Margaret Atwood portrays how women in society are controlled and demeaned by men, and how men feel they are more superior over women.
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In his essay, “Come Back to the Raft Ag’in, Ed Gentry,” Betina Entzminger argues that at the heart of James Dickey’s Deliverance lies the search for a lost masculinity in today’s world, told through the lens of the protagonist’s canoe trip. He asserts that Ed understands the societal pressures upon each gender, forces that compel us towards the stereotypes that pervade our culture. Further, Entzminger believes, “Despite the fact that Ed sees these constructions as constructions, he is unable to rise above them” (Entzminger). Ultimately, Entzminger posits, “Ed dutifully destroys that which challenges his own and his community’s conceptions of gender and sexuality, and he finds comfort in his return to his community at the novel’s close” (Entzminger). However, though Entzminger is correct that Ed never does ascend beyond society’s gender constructions, his error is in his assumption that Ed ever wanted to, or that he even should have.
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In Gail Bederman’s Manliness and Civilization, she aims to describe the concepts of manliness and masculinity at the turn of the century. Bederman explains that the concept of what it means to be a man is ever changing as a result of the ideology of the time as well as the material actions of the men. During the Progressive Era, many forces were at work that put pressure on the supremacy of white, middle class men. Some of these forces included the growing move toward empowered women, the unionization of the working class, and the move from self-employment to big, corporate business. She delves into the way that both racism and sexism were used to build up the concept of masculinity and the turn of the century discourse on civilization.
Johnson, Allan G. The Gender Knot: Unraveling our Patriarchal Legacy. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. 1997.
Perkins, Geroge, and Barbara Perkins. The American Tradition in Literature. 12th ed. Vol. 2. New York: McGraw Hill, 2009. Print
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Traditionally, men have held the power in society. Women have been treated as a second class of citizens with neither the legal rights nor the respect of their male counterparts. Culture has contributed to these gender roles by conditioning women to accept their subordinate status while encouraging young men to lead and control. Feminist criticism contends that literature either supports society’s patriarchal structure or provides social criticism in order to change this hierarchy. “The Yellow Wallpaper”, by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, depicts one women’s struggle against the traditional female role into which society attempts to force her and the societal reaction to this act.
“If women’s contribution to the development of culture is to occur only through the exercise of masculine qualities, then that de...
The films message to viewers about gender and power is that women are meant to take care of the home and play the supportive role, while men go out to their jobs and provide. Men are strong and burly and women are naïve and domesticated. Women need men and men always come to the rescue to save women and give them a happy ending. Power is portrayed in the film both visually and through the film’s script and dialogue. The common idea that women are inferior to men is placed subtly in this movie throughout the plot and how these charac...
Ecofeminists hold the domination of women as their focus as they see the root cause of nature domination and the domination of others as due to a patriarchal conceptual framework. Warren states that a conceptual framework is defined as “a set of basic beliefs, values, attitudes, and assumptions which shape and reflect how one views oneself and one’s world. (64)” It is a “lens” through which one perceives reality and our “lens”, according to the Ecofeminist, is patriarchal. Patriarchy is a “male biased”, gendered institution that rejects convergence and embraces dichotomies and dualisms. Patriarchal views privilege masculine over feminine, reason over emotion, competition over cooperation and force over empathy.
Indisputably, roles and characteristics of opposite genders have been ubiquitous, since historical evidence proves so – dating back to when the practice of oral tradition was favored over written language. This historical evidence is especially apparent in literature from previous time periods. In these works of literature, men and women often have very different social and economic positions within society. Particular duties, or tasks, are practiced depending on the gender of these individuals. However, in the advancing world we are currently living in, these duties are beginning to intertwine in an effort to allow equal rights amongst opposite genders. This effort to break the sexist barrier, which encompasses our world, has already begun rattling the chains of politicians and the like. However, with the progressions made thus far in retaliation to sexism and unequal gender privileges, the United States of America is heading in a positive direction towards gender equality. Nonetheless, the female gender is perceived as a lesser entity in society while the male gender is dominant and controlling. The masculine individuals in literary works usually govern, or direct the feminine individuals. These characteristics are often evident in various literary works – including “Hills Like White Elephants,” and “A&P” written by Ernest Hemingway and John Updike, respectively. The slow and steady transformation from a sexist society to one that allows inferior genders to perform similar tasks, if not the same as their superior counterparts, may disturb the ideological mindset of figures with authority; however, it provides inferior genders with the opportunity to branch out socially, economically, and politically.
Women have always been essential to society. Fifty to seventy years ago, a woman was no more than a house wife, caregiver, and at their husbands beck and call. Women had no personal opinion, no voice, and no freedom. They were suppressed by the sociable beliefs of man. A woman’s respectable place was always behind the masculine frame of a man. In the past a woman’s inferiority was not voluntary but instilled by elder women, and/or force. Many, would like to know why? Why was a woman such a threat to a man? Was it just about man’s ability to control, and overpower a woman, or was there a serious threat? Well, everyone has there own opinion about the cause of the past oppression of woman, it is currently still a popular argument today.