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Historical background of gender inequality
Female inequality history
Historical background of gender inequality
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“A Vestal’s virginity represented life, death, stability, and chaos for the Roman state,” Ariadne Staples writes in her book, From Good Goddess to Vestal Virgins: Sex and Category in Roman Religion (135). The Vestal Virgins were sacred and moral models of Ancient Rome. They served as priestesses of the goddess of the Hearth, Vera, for thirty years in a “cult.” The women were forced to remain celibate during their thirty years of service -- service that by today’s standards seems closer to human trafficking and bondage than to a sacred position in society. Human trafficking is defined as “modern-day slavery that involves the use of force, fraud, or coercion to obtain some type of labor or commercial sex act,”(What is Human Trafficking?) whereby …show more content…
As soon as the little girls were abducted, they were no longer the children of their parents, they were children of their city. A life of blame and responsibility was bestowed upon them; this is parallel to trafficking victims today, who are coerced into labor or sex, and treated as objects who must make money for their traffickers. For the thirty plus years the women remained Vestals, they were objectified by the city of Rome, treated as objects of chastity and purity. Conformity stripped them of their individuality and personal identity. Each Vestal had to wear the same clothes – long headdresses that draped over the shoulders, red and white woolen ribbons underneath, and a brooch (The Vestal Virgins of Rome). Dressed as one, they were generalized as a group that represented the morals of Rome, not as individual citizens with their own lives. As in all cults, the cult of the Vestal Virgins brainwashed young women to believe their only purpose was to serve Rome, and their life belonged to the city. They were given no choice after their first ten years of training, but to perform tasks for the city’s “well-being.” During their thirty years of confinement, the Vestals had no way
Women were auctioned off as “merchandise” to the best suitor they could get in town. Beauty, though important, was not as important as the dowry the woman possessed, because it was the dowry the family provided that could exalt a man’s societal status to all new heights. Once married, women were expected to have son’s for their husbands in order to take over the family business. A barren woman was not an option and could have easily been rushed to the nearest convent to take her vows of a nun, for no honor could be brought otherwise. No woman could run from the societal and legal pressures placed upon them. Rather than run, some chose to accept their place, but, like Lusanna, some chose to fight the status quo for rights they believed they
In “The Decameron”, by Giovanni Boccaccio, the rolls of men and women are what you would expect of a western society in the 1300’s. Women are generally seen as gentle beings that were somewhat naïve. There was a very distinct line that separated men from women. Through out the stories I noticed a consistent story line of women being very loyal to their men. The men would end up doing terrible things to the woman. In some cases the husbands would actually put the wife through massive suffering and n...
With prostitution still arising and thriving in present day America the Argument and war waged on it by media has changed from an advocated perspective, to being seen as present day slavery among women. Especially with modern practices of forced trafficking and drugged prostitution. the views have changed from one of a women's private and personal freedom of choice, to one of "the ones who weren't lucky enough to get away from being drugged, kidnapped and forced into slaved prostitution."
This paper will discuss the well published work of, Pomeroy, Sarah B. Goddesses, Whores, Wives, and Slaves: Women in Classical Antiquity. New York: Schocken, 1975. Print. Sarah B. Pomerory uses this book to educate others about the role women have played throughout ancient history. Pomerory uses a timeline to go through each role, starting with mythological women, who were called Goddesses. She then talks about some common roles, the whores, wives, and slaves during this time. Pomerory enlightens the audience on the topic of women, who were seen as nothing at the time. Men were seen as the only crucial part in history; however, Pomerory’s focus on women portrays the era in a new light.
“The Awakening” is a courageous piece of literature work that demonstrates how civilization forced tremendously elevated expectancies for females and their hypothetical roles. Kate Chopin uses this novel to bring those “expected roles” to light. Edith Wharton also shows how this epidemic has restricted and impaired two of the protagonist in her story “Roman Fever”. During the time period that this book was written, in the early nineteenth century, this epidemic of forcing roles on women was widespread, and this altered the lives of these women in an abysmal way incessantly.
To complement her dignified demeanour, La Bella wears an amazingly intricate and extravagant blue gown. For a period when women were without a public voice and remained dependant on signs of visual identity such as clothing and jewellery, such a display of finery implies significant wealth and social status. Considering the seductive rendering of the fabric utilising costly lapis lazuli, it is clear Titian desired to present an image of ultimate feminine loveliness.
To begin, the differential treatments between gender identities have stereotypically discriminated Renaissance women, in Europe, from achieving an era of resurgence, hence obstructing females from their struggle for future change and independence. In the family, women held undermined roles and were expected to submit under the control of male authority . The stages of a woman’s life were solely defined as a daughter, virgin, wife, mother or widow; all of which...
Lefkowitz, Mary R., and Maureen B. Fant. Women's Life in Greece and Rome. Baltimore: The John Hopkins University Press, 2005.
Tunics were are two rectangles tied together by the top. Making clothing required labor in which slaves did, was very expensive. Women developed different styles of fashion like the “stola”, and different hairdos. There were different categories of slaves, the ones who did clothing labor and hair in which lived pleasant lives unlike the regular slave that worked on farms or for citizens. Many slaves sacrificed their hair to make wigs. Citizens often complained because “…slaves often went out on their own and citizens complained that they were unable to tell a difference”. Many women tried to fit because when a new emperors’ wife developed a new hairdo republican women citizens started to copy her and create their own styles, especially when Augustus wrote “The Art of Love – in which it taught men and women how to be attractive to be each other”.
Kara, Siddharth. Sex Trafficking: Inside the Business of Modern Slavery. New York: Columbia UP, 2009. 5. Print.
Despite the overwhelming power of the state and government, women in the Roman Empire were able to gain some degree of emancipation. However, this autonomy was often met with equal levels of suppression. The reforms implemented by Rome’s first emperor, Augustus, proved to be detrimental to the emancipation of women and made the distinction between ‘good’ women and whores blatant (MacDonald, 2000). In general, while harboring more respect for women than other civilizations of the time, Rome was belligerent in its treatment of women. Evidently, the social expectations of women developed considerably during the Roman Empire, however, as a whole, the behavior expected of women was that of an obedient and veritably inferior
In the past of humanity, women's status have always been ambigious. Either they were worshipped as goddesses or despised as unworthy workers. In this research I will analyze closely what it means to be a female in our age and in medieval period by means of two sagas: The Saga of The Volsungs and The Saga of King Hrolf Kraki.
The rigging of the boats in harbor sparkled with flags. In the streets between houses with red roofs and painted walls, between old moss-grown gardens and under avenues of tree, past great parks and public buildings, processions moved” (Le Guin, 466). In essence, the city of Omelas is an allegory to Western culture. While both the city of Omelas and Western Civilization are the land of opportunity and freedom, Eastern Civilizations are plagued with child workers, sex trafficking and poverty. It is evident that suffering exists in all parts of the world but in the city of Omelas, such suffering is said to only exists in the basement of a building. “In the room, a child is sitting. It could be a boy or a girl. It looks about six, but actually is nearly ten. It is feeble-minded. Perhaps it was born defective, or perhaps it has become imbecile through fear, malnutrition, and neglect...the door is locked; and nobody will come. The door is always locked; and nobody ever comes” (Le Guin, 469). The child in the basement symbolizes all
Many Greek gods were seen as both benefactors and tormentors, typically it depends on which god or goddess you are researching about. The seemingly contradictory behavior of the gods, acting as both benefactors and tormentors of man, can readily be explained when viewed in light of the prime directive for man, to worship the gods and not “overstep,” and the ensuing “Deus ex Mahina” which served to coerce man to fulfill his destiny as evidenced by the myths: “Pandora,” “Arachne, and “Odysseus.” Humankind and it’s range of vision over the gods beauty and power portrayed them to be benefactors but unseemingly it depicted their affliction towards humans.
The social hierarchy of ancient Rome reflected these views of sex as a means in gaining political power where the elite upper class male possesses certain rights and powers that later allow him the personal gain of a valued wife. The value of a wife increased in this period of sex and power, now changing the responsibilities of the common housewife from domestic tasks to the responsibility of boosting the male kin’s careers behind the scenes, a useful pawn in the game of elite male politics. The growing power of women grew into their personal accounts as well at the same time trade influences luxury in Rome. This period of laziness and luxury formed the era of moral deprivation and in turn enforcing the social lows of sex within class and the negative implications of pederasty as well as homoeroticism. This constant interweaving of sex and politics creates this era of social hierarchy or rank and marriage as a means for political gain, all of which encompassing the great journey of the Roman population in their deviance from Greece and into the spotlight of mistress of the