Women's Oppression

Opening Question: Do men tend to place too many domestic responsibilities upon women?

Introduction:

Gender stereotyping is a prevalent issue within modern society. From 1608 to 2014, American men have been confining women to the household to perform a similar group of tasks—cooking and cleaning. In the essay “Lost in the Kitchen,” author Dave Barry attempts to entertain while simultaneously informing his audience that gender-stereotyping exists today. He notes that while they do exist, little is done to prevent them from occurring. To express his argument, Barry uses simile, metaphor, and allusion throughout his essay.

Core Question 1: In paragraph two on page 62, Barry states, “…most men make themselves as useful around the kitchen as ill-trained Labrador retrievers.” What is the purpose of this simile?

Body Paragraph 1:

The author uses simile to hook the audience, men, into his argument. Barry states, “My point is that despite all that has been said in the past 20 years or so about sexual equality, most men make themselves as useful around the kitchen as ill-trained Labrador retrievers.” In this line, he is stating that men are nearly as useful as dogs; domestic dogs cannot do much for themselves, and it is to be considered insulting. However, the fact that it is insulting causes men to listen closely to his argument in an effort to search for reasons to oppose this simple comparison. The simile is used mainly to increase women’s credibility and consequently bring down men’s. If the simile used did not have such a rude premise, men would not pay as much attention to the argument and may even become bored. This use is significant within the text because it causes the audience to listen to the argument. If men continue to liste...

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...on to prove that women’s stereotypes still remain because they have not changed since the 1950s in comparison to an old television show.

Closing Question: Is the issue of women’s rights still an issue in the modern society?

Conclusion:

Throughout the essay, Dave Barry makes it clear than women are still oppressed today. However, women’s rights are no longer fought for. He repeats the fact of oppression several times by mentioning the fact that his wife often worked in the kitchen. In the last line, he states, “This seemed pretty accurate to me, so I thought I’d just tack it on to the end here, while she makes waffles.” This shows that women are still oppressed because they consistently work in the kitchen due to the sole fact that their husbands do not. It reinforces the argument by comparing it as a basis to prove that gender stereotypes are as wrong as sexism.