Dating back to 1700 B.C, Chinese women practiced foot-binding; this process forced women to have broken and bent bones in their feet or what society considered, “...three inch golden lotuses” (Lim, “Painful memories of China’s footbinding survivors”). During the 1700s, European women wore five layers of clothing that included a suffocating corset which could, “... rupture the ribs…” (Meister). These decisions were made by a society that believed this is what an ideal woman should wear. Moreover, in The Awakening by Kate Chopin, the description of women’s clothing in the 19th century displays that society prefers women concealed in long, thick, and white garments. This society, which is ruled by men, often control the true identity of women by controlling what they wear. However, women who don’t have men to control their lives and are able to choose their attire are categorized by society as wild and sinful. Women are obligated to wear certain clothing and accessories (even if it can harm their health) because societies ruled by men force it on them.
Society imposes restrictive apparel onto women to show them that the clothes they wear are their only identity. Robert forces Edna to wear the, “...rough straw hat…” (Chopin, 17) by placing it onto her head even when the sun was, “...low in the west…” (Chopin, 17) because her outer identity as a well-behaved woman has become the only identity she is known for. Although Edna slowly becomes comfortable with her true character, she is still hesitant to be independent. Edna gradually transitions into an independent woman, but Madame Ratignolle disguises her own, “...complexion… [wearing] gloves that protect her wrists...in pure white…which became her” (Chopin, 19). Her identity ...
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...ciety needs stop the continuation of this rule that women must wear clothes only men approve.
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Following a rough period of half a century, the Song dynasty took power in 960. This began a “Golden Age” of Chinese society. However, the role of women did not advance all across the board. It was more in the northern regions that were influenced by nomads. Unfortunately, the new Neo-Confucian influences held almost everywhere else, with the new influences of Buddhism and Daoism. (Strayer 371) In fact, conditions were terrible everywhere else, if not more so than they ever had been before. One example of the terrible factors women had to deal with was foot binding. Foot binding involved the wrapping feet tightly with gauze and stuffing them into specially designed “lotus shoes”. (Foreman) his process, repeated over many years, shrunk a woman’s feet at the expenditure of vast amounts of pain and broken bones. An outside onlooker would ask themselves ‘Why would people do this to their daughters?’, and the answer is quite
Throughout the novel, as Edna sheds herself of the clothing and possessions that surround her, she becomes more liberated, free, her own woman. The clothing represents the society that confines her and the independence that stripping the clothing gives her enlightens her soul. Kate Chopin uses clothing as a way of conveying the social injustice imposed upon women in the Victorian age in which they were trapped.
Do you expect a five-year old boy to be distracted by what a five-year old girl is wearing? Of course not. If you were to ask a child or teen what they thought about school, they would probably say that they dislike school for a multitude of reasons, two of them being: a misogynistic dress code and the stress of balancing schoolwork with the expectations of society. The American educational system is inadequate compared to countries like Finland in which the dress code is nonexistent and the curriculum is more flexible to human needs; it is imperative that we come together to assure Dr. Anna Hinton, director of innovation and improvement, that she can enhance the broken educational system.
Traditions in Chinese culture are long-rooted and are taken very seriously from generation to generation. However, there must always be room for modern change in order for society to grow and strive across the globe. In Bound Feet and Western Dress the conflict between Chinese traditions and modern change arises. With this conflict it is important to discuss the different meanings of liberation for men and women and they way in which Chang Yu-I was able to obtain liberation throughout her life.
Until the middle of the twentieth century, females were in an inferior position to males in all aspects of society. Women who wanted to deviate from the norm were often restrained by males and isolated in a sphere of society’s “perfectly submissive housewife”, a stereotype which women of the world eventually shattered. Kate Chopin accomplished this through her realist piece, The Awakening.
"History.org: The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation's Official History and Citizenship Website." We are starved : The Colonial Williamsburg Official History & Citizenship Site. http://www.history.org/Foundation/journal/Winter07/starving.cfm (accessed April 1, 2014).
One of the main controversies in this book is the plight of women and men’s struggles. Although both experienced different kinds of inequalities, women were the target of the Taliban. In 1978, women in Kabul were demanding their rights during the Afghan Women’s Year. The president who was in charge then was president Daoud, and he decreed, “The Afghan woman has the same right as the Afghan man to exercise personal freedom, choose a career, and fins a partner in marriage” (53). This decree was absolutely invalid when the Taliban expelled a humanitarian organization that was run by women, and because of that, the Taliban took over Kabul. Women were not allowed to work outside of home. Because of that, Latifa mentions that women in Kabul usually just bake bread, do embroidery,
Another obvious example of the symbolism of clothing is seen at the end of the novel when Edna removes all of her clothing before committing suicide. Chopin writes that when Edna was "there beside the sea, absolutely alone, she cast the unpleasant, prickling garments from her, and for the first time in her life stood naked in the open air" (558). Edna seems to be removing her final restrictions before finding her freedom in death. This last rebellion against society seems to give Edna her final "awakening". This awakening can be seen when Chopin writes, "She felt like some new born creature opening its eyes in a familiar world that it had never known" (558).
The possibility of a life beyond the scope of motherhood, social custom, standards of femininity, and wifedom characterize Kate Chopin’s vision of her heroine’s awakening, but Edna’s personal growth remains stifled by her inability to reconcile the contradictory impulses pulling her in different directions. Edna clearly envisions herself somewhere between mother-goddess figure Adele Ratignolle and the artist-spinster Mademoiselle Reisz, yet can not seem to negotiate a space that affords the luxury of love unspoiled by self-sacrifice and obligation. Edna’s “soul” surfaces when she allows herself to act on impulse over duty, but as Chopin’s words reveal, Mrs. Pontellier blindly fol...
In this excerpt, the burqa is described as “tight”, “heavy”, and “suffocating”, making it seem like an unpleasant garment to be ensconced in. The burqa can cause an “unnerving” feeling, which can make daily tasks hard to complete. When interviewing a girl in Afghanistan, Daniel Pipes, American historian, writer, and commentator, got her opinion on the burqa, “When I wear a burqa it gives me a really bad feeling. I don't like to wear it. I don't like it, it upsets me, I can't breathe properly.”
Before the early to mid 1800’s, women were forced to squeeze into corsets made of whalebone, steel or buckram. It gave them the figure eight profile which resulted on a number of health problems, including their organs and body to become deformed. Over the corsets, women wore heavy layers of petticoats despite the weather. (Small Business Administration 3) Dresses emphasized the bust and hips, attempting to make women look very voluptuous. With the spread of commercialism, hundreds of new beauty products were introduced. These ever-popular restricting fashions were later outdated.
In her article "The body as attire," Dorothy Ko (1997) reviewed the history about foot binding in seventeenth-century China, and expressed a creative viewpoint. Foot binding began in Song Dynasty, and was just popular in upper social society. With the gradually popularization of foot binding, in the end of Song Dynasty, it became generally popular. In Qing Dynasty, foot binding was endowed deeper meaning that was termed into a tool to against Manchu rule. The author, Dorothy Ko, studied from another aspect which was women themselves to understand and explained her shifting meaning of foot binding. Dorothy Ko contends that “Chinese Elite males in the seventeenth century regarded foot binding in three ways: as an expression of Chinese wen civility,
A lady is an object, one which men attempt to dominate. A man craves to get a hold of this being beneath his command, and forever have her at his disposal. In her piece “Size Six: The Western Women’s Harem,” published in 2002, Fatema Mernissi illustrates how Eastern and Western women are subjugated by the control of men. Mernissi argues that though she may have derived from a society where a woman has to cover her face, a Western woman has to face daily atrocities far worse then ones an Eastern woman will encounter. Moreover, Mernissi’s core dogma in “Size 6: The Western Women's Harem” is that Western women are not more fortunate than women raised into harems in other societies. Additionally, she asserts that though women in the Western world are given liberties, they coincide with the unattainable ideals of what is aesthetically pleasing. Furthermore, to strengthen her argument towards her wavering audience, Mernissi’s main approach in her paper is to get the reader to relate with her issue by means of an emotional appeal, while also utilizing both the ethical and logical appeal to support her thesis.
Early 19th century clothing for women was designed for style and beauty, sadly, this left practicality, safety and comfort completely out of the picture. Corsets, which were worn to slim the waist and lift the chest, presented many serious health concerns for women. These vices that women wore on their bodies increased their blood pressure and made breathing very difficult. Fainting was so commonplace that a fainting couch was designed and present in most households Prolonged wearing of corsets weakened back and stomach muscles to the point that some women, who had worn corsets for many years, struggled to hold themselves upright without them. If cinched to tightly, they had the power to bruise the internal organs and push them out of alignment, causing sever health issues. (Berkowe)