What Is The Power Of Female Empowerment In 'Whip Smart'?

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Several critics seem to assume that for one to endorse the values of female empowerment, they must represent the image of overt liberation over those who seek persecution covertly. However, that is not the case; female empowerment describes a woman’s struggle to break from societal bounds. Liberations can manifest as words or actions made to reinstate one's rights and control. These efforts are found in the narrating persona of Melissa Febos “Whip Smart,” as well as Sylvia Plath’s "Daddy." These works depict fights against oppression by particular males, as well as against the systematic oppression of patriarchal society. In both cases, the narrators achieve personal empowerment employing their mastery of literature to reverse gender roles …show more content…

Growing from a young woman who was humiliated by the duality of her sexuality, to a woman who reclaims her sexuality through her sexual experiences as a dominatrix. Although not all feminists think alike, some may even dispute Febos claims; that being a dominatrix can result in female empowerment. In recent conventions regarding, ‘dominatrix’ the figure is either hypersexualized or seen as a threat. This harmful parallel normalized ‘dommes’ or ‘dominatrixes’ as a threat to 'traditional sexuality.' Ultimately, these critics believe this line of work leads to the disempowerment of women and creates a hostile persona. Feminists theorists such as Andrea Dworkin and Audre Lorde both echo the following views, "women facilitate a complex and contradictory negotiation of pain, pleasure, and power in their performance in the fetish realm of BDSM... is linked to female sexuality and violence."(Dworkin, 410) Dworkin claims of BDSM reinforcing violence in women rest upon the questionable assumption that women are not in control. Consequently, arguing that the inherent violence that exists within these practices are primarily those directed against women. Lorde reinforces this idea when she states how BDSM legitimizes the male desire to subdue, assault and control women. These ideas are by extension, a reflection of the negative patriarchal connotations and the stigmas that are attached to BDSM. …show more content…

Robert. A Piazza and Sheryl Meyering would undoubtedly take issues with the argument regarding Plath and her belief. Piazza, claims the following about Plath's, "there is 'little feminist consciousness,' and explains 'Plath's work [is] being read... by readers searching for political sustenance,'. In other words, Piazza believes there was a lack of feminist sentiment that the Plath never held can easily be attributed to her writing (Piazza, 201)." Additionally, critic Sheryl Meyering would further add to these inaccurate interpretations when equating Plath's desires for a family with desperation to conform to 1950's society. Meyering writes, "Sylvia Plath's intense desire to be accepted by men and to eventually marry and have children was purely a product of the constrictive 1950s social mentality during which the author came to womanhood" (Meyering, xi). By focusing one's personal life, Meyering overlooks the ubiquitous problem of social inequality. Wanting a husband and children does not take away from fighting against social

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