Dylan Saxon
Professor Lynda Walsh
English 101J
10/16/2015
Why I Want a Wife Rhetorical Analysis The idea of feminism has been around since the early fifteenth century, yet, women actually pushing the feminist movements had not begun until the early twentieth century. Feminism has historically gone through three “waves,” but for the purpose of my rhetorical analysis, I’ll be focusing on the second movement which started around the early 1960’s with an article titled, Why I Want a Wife by Judy Brady. The reason this article was chosen was because a close friend of mine recommended I do a rhetorical analysis of the feministic ideas in the article. This article is very sarcastic with a very strong meaning behind it, while at the same time has
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Beginning in the early nineteenth century, the idea of feminism made it way around Europe over the course of several decades before making its way to The United States. The first modern feminist movement began in 1848 in Seneca, New York with a women’s rights convention. The first actual wave was about women’s political inequality and their lack of representation in the American Government. The first wave ended with the right to vote for women in the 1920’s. Narrowing it down, about 50 years later began the second feminist wave as a result of the first. Except this time, the movement focused on cultural and social inequalities, hence, why Judy Brady wrote Why I Want a …show more content…
She points out that the roles of wife are unfair to that of a husband. She then makes it clear that there is an obvious difference of inequality between the two roles. Exasperated by the dissimilarity in the household, as far as work, she boldly explains her feelings through how she wants a wife. Judy Brady establishes her point by giving examples of some household chores that are normally performed by the wife. She states, "I want a wife who will have the house clean, keep my clothes clean, ironed, mended, replaced when need be, and who will see to it that my personal things are kept in their proper place so that I can find what I need the minute I need it.” She goes on to list numerous duties of a wife and concludes at the end of her article, “My God, who wouldn’t want a
It amazes me how a few decades ago can seem like a whole different world. A course of time can impact our lives more than we know it. In the article, A Day Without Feminism by Jennifer Boumgoidnei and Amy Richntds, both of these authors created this piece to inform their audience that although women have gained more rights over time, there was still more progress to be made. These authors gave many examples of how life for women had been, the obstacles they had to overcome, and the laws women had to break for equality.
Feminism, the idea that women are equal to men, is a concept that has been an aspect of American society since the nineteenth century. However, while it was first constructed in 1848, feminism has not always been a widely embraced topic. It was once seen as an extremely taboo, controversial notion that could easily ruin a woman’s reputation if she were to dare speak of it. Despite this, many females put their fears of criticism aside and gained the courage to stand up for the freedoms of womankind. Two women who took the risk to write about the ideas of feminism were Mary E. Wilkins Freeman and Kate Chopin.
It is safe to say that the box next to the “boring, monotone, never-ending lecture” has been checked off more than once. Without the use of rhetorical strategies, the world would be left with nothing but boring, uniform literature. This would leave readers feeling the same way one does after a bad lecture. Rhetorical devices not only open one’s imagination but also allows a reader to dig deep into a piece and come out with a better understanding of the author’s intentions. Ursula K. Le Guin’s “The Wife’s Story” is about a family that is going through a tough spot. However, though diction, imagery, pathos, and foreshadowing Guin reveals a deep truth about this family that the reader does not see coming.
Throughout the waves of liberal feminism, there is a new characteristic to be associated with the feminist group. In the first waves, it’s white, married, wealthy women who fit the criteria to be a feminist. The first wave begins in 1900 and ends around 1920, during the times of the Suffragettes. This wave began to introduce the inequalities between men and women, especially relating to voting and education. The second wave began to rise in 1950 which introduced reproductive rights, entitlement to sex, marriage, jobs, social lives, and politics. This wave continued to the 1970’s. It’s not until the third wave, which hits in the 1990’s, when inequalities among women are introduced to the feminist movement (FYS Class Notes).
Even after the “first wave of feminism” movement in the early twentieth century, women demanded a change in their roles in American society. Suffragists fought for the passage of The 19th Amendment, which gave women the right to vote in 1920, but later generations still sought for more. These women, who were the decedents of the original suffragists, would go on to create the “second wave of feminism” throughout the 1960’s and 70’s. This wave would go on to not only gain more equality for women, but shifted gender roles dramatically, in areas including the government, the workforce, and popular culture.
The Feminist Movement begin in the in 1848 spearheaded by the Seneca Fall Convention (Smith & Hamon, 2012). Feminism is the reaction to many year of oppression by a male dominated society. In the Feminist Movement women like Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Canton Stanton desired rights, opportunities, and the identity that women deserved (Smith & Hamon, 2012). Osmond and Thorne (1993) stated that Feminist respond by expressing their desire to “develop knowledge that will further social change, knowledge that will help confront and end subordination of women as it related to the pattern of subordination based on social class, race, ethnicity, age, and sexual orientation” (p. 592). The “first wave” of the Feminist Movement
Feminism is the movement for removing inequalities from society. Women imbued with a spirit of radicalism understand that a liberal feminist attitude, despite the seeming slowness of change that accompanies it, may transform a community more rapidly than a revolutionary approach that alienates those to be convinced and, thus, extinguishes the possibility of improvement. (Weaver 49) Feminists confront the problems of their society in hopes of altering society to be equal.
During the 1960’s there was a lot of major events that happened in the United States. The 1960’s was known as a decade of “culture and change”, there were lots of political and cultural changes. (Anastakis, 22) One particular movement that was important to society and the country was the Women’s Movement also called the “Feminism Movement”. The first women movement which happened a few decades before focused on gender equality and overcoming different legal problems. The 1960’s women’s movement focused more on different issues such as family, sexuality, workplace issues, and also rights of reproductively. (MacLean, 45) I chose to cover this topic because women have always been influential throughout history, and I being a woman it is important to know about our rights and who paved the way for us.
Judy Brady’s “I want a wife” is a sarcastic, humorous and ironic essay. The essay is well organized rhetorically. The essay is all about the underestimated values and responsibilities of all the wives in almost all the societies. It consists a lot of elements of ethos presenting the credibility of wife. In the first couple of paragraph Judy demonstrates her credibility “I belong to the classification of people known as wives.
Judy Brady is a well know feminist and activist during the nineties. She is also a well know writer and get publicity for her most influence essay over females and their roles as wife in “Why I want a wife”. She wrote this essay to give strength to her fellow activist in showing feminism. She also tried to show the world, how females are considered. Even though Judy’s essay talks about a long list of duties of women as a wife, her way of organizing it through ethos, pathos and logos to develop her argument , use of rhetorical devices such as irony, anaphora and her simple way of explaining main ideas to her readers, made it a successful essay.
Since this research is only focusing on the Baby Boomers and on, our timeline begins not in 1920, when the Nineteenth Amendment was passed, but in the 1950’s with the return to normalcy movement. The first question asked to all the interviewees was “What do you think when you hear the word ‘feminism’ or ‘feminist’?”. This questions tackles the first idea of the change in how feminism has been and is viewed by women in the three generations. Patricia Santangelo answered in the same way described in the first chapter of Women’s Voices Feminist Visions in the sense that she states she does not believe herself to be a feminist, saying that she “thinks it’s baloney” (personal communications, March 15, 2014), yet subscribin...
The term “feminism” tends to have a negative connotation in today’s culture. Feminism is now focusing on female dominance and male disrespect. Women are fighting for equality, yet using personal bias to define equality, claiming identical rights for all will produce an equal culture. The mainstream feminist movement is using this corrupted view of equality to force rights of women. Contrary to popular belief, true feminism fights for true equality for women, as well as other people groups. The false view of feminism causes women to distort gender roles, dishonor themselves, and degrade men.
The bitterness of Brady is palpable in her writing, especially with lines like “I want a wife who will not bother me with rambling complaints about a wife 's duties.” This means to incite anger in the reader; it is so blatantly disrespectful to the point the reader may wish to object. It implies a frustrated woman is a lesser woman, when the entire essay intentionally points out these frustrations. Another comment that creates tension for the reader is when she exclaims, “If, by chance, I find another person more suitable as a wife than the wife I already have, I want the liberty to replace my present wife with another one. Naturally, I will expect a fresh, new life […]” This makes it seem as though a woman is disposable and easily replaceable if she does not conform to these ideas. Finally, when Brady ends her writing with the rhetorical question, “My God, who wouldn 't want a wife?” it inspires two different responses. First, it challenges the male audience by making the reader feel inferior if they disagree with the author; Secondly, it inspires empowerment amongst the female audience by allowing them to feel proud of everything they’re able to accomplish without due
Throughout history, women have remained subordinate to men. Subjected to the patriarchal system that favored male perspectives, women struggled against having considerably less freedom, rights, and having the burdens society placed on them that had been so ingrained the culture. This is the standpoint the feminists took, and for almost 160 years they have been challenging the “unjust distribution of power in all human relations” starting with the struggle for equality between men and women, and linking that to “struggles for social, racial, political, environmental, and economic justice”(Besel 530 and 531). Feminism, as a complex movement with many different branches, has and will continue to be incredibly influential in changing lives.
Throughout the 19th century, feminism played a huge role in society and women’s everyday lifestyle. Women had been living in a very restrictive society, and soon became tired of being told how they could and couldn’t live their lives. Soon, they all realized that they didn’t have to take it anymore, and as a whole they had enough power to make a change. That is when feminism started to change women’s roles in society. Before, women had little to no rights, while men, on the other hand, had all the rights. The feminist movement helped earn women the right to vote, but even then it wasn’t enough to get accepted into the workforce. They were given the strength to fight by the journey for equality and social justice. There has been known to be