This essay will use Caitlyn Jenner, a transgender celebrity, to prove the inevitability of gender performance, as her transition to womanhood was a conversion from a performance of masculinity to an enactment of femininity. Central to Butler 's claim is the idea that “the body has no ontological status”;
Secondly, I will discuss why there is the fear of the word ‘feminism’ and why do women try to distance themselves of these ideas. Last but not least, I will argue that feminism is still relevant and needed in contemporary society. Post-Feminism and Popular Culture As Angela McRobbie explains in her work ‘Post-Feminism and Popular Culture,’ conservative reactions to the achievements of feminism are actually being denied. Post-Feminism in popular culture, as she argues, relies on the achievements of
At the beginning, the height, and the depression of the women’s liberation movement and the past feminism of the 1970’s-1990’s, Lerner was present through the most radical and ultimate demise of second wave feminism; yet, while she was a female historian, she recognized issues second wave feminism created for future research. At its apex, the women’s rights movement stood only for a loose definition of feminism. Lerner needed to separate these constraints in order to continue to strive in research for women’s history. Thus what Lerner is concerned with is women’s emancipation, which is the “freedom from oppressive restrictions imposed by sex; self-determination; autonomy,” that long “predates the women’s rights movement.” Lerner found that through history, her works could help drive this emancipation. Her serious effort to define and explain the constructs that have done a disservice to the
She discusses two conclusions drawn out by Esther Newton in a statement within Mother Camp: Female Impersonators in America , Newton states that drag is a double inversion, it shows the internal reality as being male and the outside reality as being female, while also presenting that the internal reality is female and the outside being female. Although transvestism is not a theme in A Girl Like Me: The Gwen Araujo Story, drag supports the idea of gender performativity because it is a series of acts which are used to create an effect, though it’s a parody the act identifies a clear image of a woman. An illustration of the internal and out realities being different in A Girl like me: The Gwen Araujo Story is earlier in the narrative of the film. After the family party when Eddie is dressed in a dress and his family look ashamed, the film cuts to a baseball park, Eddie’s mother is trying to normalise Eddy by making him do masculine activities such as
Is there a common attitude society has towards women, and their roles as mothers? Betty Rollin, American journalist, reporter, and author, believes there is. She calls it the motherhood myth. She writes about this subject in her essay, “Motherhood: Who Needs It?” The myth is the idea that all normal women want and need to become mothers (Rollin 286). Rollin believes this is false, and argues that there is no biological drive or instinct, that makes women want to become mothers.
Here I will explore each woman’s role as a female within a patriarchal tradition to reveal that though a feminine voice does emerge at critical moments, a separate feminine rhetorical tradition cannot exist throughout history. Due to the lack of primary sources compared to the abundant secondary source material on Aspasia, incorporating her into the discussion on “female” rhetoric - questioning the influence she had on it and if her influence is peculiarly female - is problematic. Having said this, a significant amount of feminist scholars offer their opinions and as well, and interesting debate has arisen. Xin Liu Gale, Assistant Professor of Writing and Rhetoric at Syracuse University, has written an article in response to the feminist remodeling of Aspasia’s voice. In her article, “Historical Studies and Postmodernism: Rereading Aspasia of Miletus,” Gale questions the historical arguments of three feminist historians, Susan C. Jarratt, Rory Ong, and Cheryl Glenn.
She says, " In sum, the wave metaphor suggests the idea that gender activism in the history of the United States has been for the most part unified around one set of ideas, and that set of ideas can be called feminism" (Nicholson). This is not true and reiterates a history where the issues and voices of so many women were excluded. If the gender movement was more accepting from the beginning the idea that feminism is the only true gender discourse would have never gain as much support, in my
Megan O’niell 100832504 Rob Holton ENGL 3605 A December 8 2014 Elaine Showalter and the Ideal Woman Elaine Showalter is a feminist writer who analyzes the oppression of women in psychiatry. Her contributions to British and American literature have brought new insights to feminism and have helped to influence other female authors to do the same. In writing “Toward a feminist poetics”, Showalter does not show women as being multiple women, but as a single “woman”. It is implied that she does not believe that there can be many different types of women, and that there can only be one. Showalter writes in this article about how women cannot become doctors or lawyers and cannot aspire to be anything other than a writer.
Summary: The admin of The Kinfolk Kollective is transphobic, abusive and refuses to fight oppression when such struggle would damage her ego. A trans woman asked her to take down a transphobic post, and instead she derailed the conversation to be about white feminism, and deleted pro-trans comments from people of color to fit that narrative. This is not her first instance of transmisogyny, and the intentional narrative manipulation signifies that this will not be her last. We call upon other intersectional and revolutionary organizations to correct this error, or failing that, disassociate with the page. Full post: At LFM, we understand the necessity of struggle against racism, transphobia, capitalism, sexism, ableism and more; even within
Simone De Beauvoir authored The Second Sex which regards the treatment of women throughout history. Introducing the popular work, she framed the theoretical question of “what is a woman?” (de Beauvoir, 34). Writing, first, a consideration upon a biological definition, she ends up rejecting the societal norm, for her own existentialist notion. This can be both compared and contrasted to the views of radical feminists, including Monique Wittig. The differences between such views directly affect the formulation of gender inequality and strategies correlated to feminism.