The story Tess of the d’Ubervilles illustrated the life of a young woman – Tess in an unjust and hypocritical society. As for present societies, things are not that different from the Victorian time society. Let’s take a look at Kesha Rose Sebert’s case; she is a well-known singer who became so for her hit songs such as “Tik Tok” and “Timber”. As most people may have already known, she filed a lawsuit once in 2014 and again in 2015 against her producer Lukasz Sebastian Gottwald also known as Dr. Luke for sexually, physically, verbally, emotionally abusing and raping her for many years. The reason why she kept quiet for all these years was because she wholly believed Dr. Luke had the power and money to carry out his threats to her. To those …show more content…
We can take marriage as an example. Khmer people value virginity as purity, girls who are still a virgin mean they are pure, and have lived their life correctly. Therefore, it is a requirement for a woman to be virgin in order to get married into a family. If a girl has lost her virginity, then she cannot be married into a family and her family will be shamed. Men can lose virginity and be able to get married with their head held high. isn’t that called double standards? Another point that proves Khmer society is similar to Tess’ society is divorce. In the Victorian society, the law made it almost impossible to get divorce .On the other hand, in our society, the law is more tolerate of divorces, yet divorce is still uncommon. That is because of the biggest obstacle of all , social pressure ,which is a common problem in both society. If a couple gets divorce, they brought shame to themselves and their families especially for the women. She will have a tougher time remarrying than men. In the Victorian time, it's actually impossible for the girl to remarry, which again show that double standard /gender inequality exist in both societies. Hence, both the people themselves and their families generally want to get a divorce no matter how badly the couple condition is. All in all, gender inequality, wealth and power abuse still exist in every society. However, the alarming fact is that our present Khmer
During the Middle Ages the Catholic Church was the epicenter of most people 's lives and it influenced them greatly, and their rulings shaped many societies. In order to encourage civil relations and less greed and bloodshed the Catholic Church installed a rule of no longer allowing divorce. For some time divorce was used in order to sever ties with your spouse when they couldn’t provide an heir, land or financial gain, or as much as another suitor. This led to many divorces and serial marriages, bloodshed and out right injustice. Some may argue that these marriages weren’t entered in with high regards to such a hefty commitment knowing that it could simply be ended whenever either spouse pleased. Coontz uses the story of King Lothar II to portray how divorce was used in order to be greedy; King Lothar II married Theutberga in order to inherit her brothers land, when he didn’t conceive with Theutberga he wanted to divorce her in order to marry his cosort Waldreda, who he did have a son with. The Catholic Church showed their strength and seriousness of their new decree and denied him the divorce from his wife three times even after accusing her of incestrial adultry, locking her away, and remarrying Waldreda. (‘The Marriage Scandal of the Millennium’ 95-98 Coontz). With the long held ban on divorce, one may conclude that if you have to stay with someone for life you better find something that will
ꀀ ꀀine a world of unequal social status. Envision a world where customs are different, whether that is through family or political standpoints. In America, in today’s day and age, every human being despite their gender is supposed to be seen as equal. In our modern world, gender equality is beginning to prevail, and men and women are looked at on the same level. However, there are still flaws in our society. Some of these flaws are exemplified through Cao Xuequin’s novel The Story of the Stone: The Golden Days, Volume 1. The Qing Dynasty, as depicted through the families in the book, portrays a life of unequal gender relations, through marriage, family matters, and education.
In 1975, The Khmer Rouge became the ruling political party of Cambodia after overthrowing the Lon Nol government. Following their leader Pol Pot, the Khmer Rouge imposed an extreme form of social engineering on Cambodian society. They wanted to form an anti-modern, anti-Western ideal of a restructured “classless agrarian society'', a radical form of agrarian communism where the whole population had to work in collective farms or forced labor projects. The Khmer Rouge revolutionary army enforced this mostly with extreme violence. The book “First They Killed My Father: A Daughter of Cambodia Remembers”, written by Luong Ung, is the author’s story of growing up during this time period. She was five years old when the Khmer Rouge came into power. As stated in the author’s note, “From 1975 to 1979, through execution, starvation, disease, and forced labor, the Khmer Rouge systematically killed an estimated two million Cambodians, almost a fourth of the country’s population.”
Women were put under heavy strain due to cultural expectations and norms. They were expected to be under their family's beck and call 24 hours a day and while husbands could escape household pressures such as screaming children, by going to the pub with their friends, women could never even dream of that kind of freedom.
Getting a divorce was very difficult, most nations would not even end a marriage by having legal consent. Court trials were expensive which made it hard for a women to afford. Even if a divorce was granted the women would not receive anything. The children, land, house, and all of her belongings would be given to the man. If the father choose he could take the children away from the mother at any time and give them to someone else to raise and care for.
Feminism is motivated by the need to establish equality between the genders since most feminists attribute women’s problems to inequality between the two genders. Therefore, by way of a collection of political movements and social theories, feminists seek to curb this inequality between men and women. It is important to note that the equality sought after by feminists is not just economic and political, but also social equality. According to Heather Gilmour, The institution of marriage during the pre-modern era or the Victorian era was based on inequality as the roles to be fulfilled by both genders for the success of the marriage were essentially different (Heather 26). As the roles kept changing over time due to different circumstances, so did the expectations of marriage and along with that, the rise of feminist movement. Screwball comedies such as It...
The impacts socially of the gendercide include women being married younger and younger due to the lack of suitable age females. This young marriage and the pressures on the young girls to provide families causes them to miscarriages and create harm to their underdeveloped bodies. In addition to younger marriages, high rates of prostitution become a problem. Most girls will be stolen and sold into sex trafficking. The lack of females causes male tensions to be high with no female perspective to calm down all the male testosterone in the environment. With no females to marry and love, they turn to illegal practices to satisfy their desires. The marriage of such young females also hurts their opportunity to grow and develop as women in society. They lose their chance for education, and they settle down to simply raise children. This also
But in reality, a male narrator gives a certain sense of understanding to the male audience and society’s understand of the male and females roles and responsibilities in a marriage. Just as men were expected to cut the grass, take out the trash, pay the bills and maintain the household as a whole, women were expected to cook, clean, nurture the children, and be a loving and submissive wife to their husband. The only stipulation required for this exchange of power was to establish a mutual love. In the Victorian age love was all it took for a man to take or alter a woman’s livelihood and
This was a vast problem for all females of this time, because even their body, technically, was not owned by them. In an article adopted by the Senate and Assembly of the State of New York it declares, “the act of marriage either ended a woman’s independent existence or transferred control of her life from her father to her husband” (Property Act of 1848). It was commonplace for women to be treated as if they were property and not as human beings. They did not have the rights to their inheritances. Anything left to a woman went straight to the husband, leaving the wife with no control over how it was used or spent. Due to this fact, the value of a soon-to-be bride was often determined by their likelihood to inherit significant property from their fathers. Also, even a married woman was not able to own here own land. Any acquisition of property had to be placed under the husband’s name, leaving women unable to purchase land without their husband being present to provide his signature. Women of this time were not able to sign any contracts without the presence of their husband. A girl pretty much signed her life away as soon as she got married. During the 1800’s, it was seldom acceptable for a woman to get a divorce. Should a woman have run away from an unhappy or abusive marriage, they were captured by the law and punished. It was not until 1891 that they stopped capturing and punishing women for fleeing. If a woman did work while she was married, she was forbidden to keep her income. Should a widow inherit the dower rights of their husband in the absence of a will, they were not even allowed to control the assets. Very few females were anything more than housewives and mothers. They were not encouraged to acquire a degree or seek professional
The Victorian era was an extremely difficult time for women in Great Britain. They were subject to gross inequalities such as, not being able to; control their own earnings, education, and marriage. As well as having a lack of equality within marriage, women had poor working conditions, and an immense unemployment rate as well. Not only was the fact that women were viewed as second-class citizens and had limited rights compared to men during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries a major problem, but women were also held to a much different standard, and expected to carry out many
In the early 1900’s divorce rates were low and you could not get a divorce without showing significant proof of abuse, abandonment, or adultery. In the nineteenth century, society individuals did not think too much about the importance of love and compassion in a marriage. It was
The Victorian era, spurred a momentary sequence of both women and men in search of a prosperous relationship regulated by the demanding etiquettes of the Victorian Society. If these desired qualities were not in possession, a man or woman could be labeled as ‘unsuitable’ in the positions of a husband or a wife. Women suffered mostly throughout the Victorian Era as rights were ceased and the rules and guidelines of society were placed. The Victorian Era caused the rights of women to escalate when the Vision of the “Ideal Woman” was introduced amongst society; producing segregation between men and women to last for years to come.
The Victorian Age was a virtuous era, full of chaste women and hard-working men. As with any seemingly utopian society, there are the misfits: those who always seem to go against the grain. Hidden in the shadows of towns were bastardized babies and public outcasts. The flourishing literature of the era attacks the societal stereotypes and standards that make for such failures and devastating tragedies. In Tess of the d'Urbervilles, by Thomas Hardy, Tess Durbeyfield's initial loss of innocence brings her down to an insurmountable low, and the victorian society, of which she is a part, dooms her to a horrible fate with its "normal" shunning of her innocent misbehaviors. Tess' rapid downward spiral to her death is caused by the chauvinistic actions of the men in the story, solidified by society's loss of acceptance of Tess based on the actions taken against her, and brought to home by Tess' imminent doom to the rigid ways of the Victorian society.
For the duration of time, society perceives men as superior, which infused to their cultural aspect in life. Society instilled male dominance to the minds of young children, imposing a role each sex must play. Girls are slaves of society, submitting to men as their master. And child brides are a perfect way to exhibit patriarchy society (Ludden). The young girl would be married off to take care of her own family, crippling them in attaining an education and getting a job. Girls were not meant to work (Radu). It is also said that the purpose of marrying off girls young was to keep their attractiveness. Roberta Radu says, “'Virginity is an "asset" that families customarily trade for substantial sums of money, so marriage is arranged as early as possible in order to preserve the girl's "desirability". Out of all of these inducements money was the biggest factor. Parents would arrange their daughter marriage due to poverty. The bride’s family would receive a dowry, basically trading girls for money. Again, girls were burdens and the parents used child marriage as a relief...