Society places expectations upon everyone. We can either accept or refuse these expectations, and in the end, this decision will impact our identities. Each of us has the freedom to choose how we let these assumptions influence our life. This personal freedom we have is crucial to the development of our identities. If we did not have the freedom to choose who we wanted to be, then we would have no identity. Leslie Bell’s Hard to Get: Twenty-Something Women and the Parados of Sexual Freedom, selections from Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi, the article “The Naked Citadel” by Susan Faludi are three pieces of work that help to demonstrate how different women all have to the choice to explore their freedom in order to help them achieve an …show more content…
Outside factors, such as society, government and culture attempt to enforce identity categories upon people. Leslie Bell gave an example of a woman who broke free from expectations in Hard to Get: Twenty-Something Women and the Parados of Sexual Freedom. Jayanthi played the role of the “bad girl” by rebelling against her traditional and religious Hindu family. Tired of being her parents’ ‘ideal child’, she thought, “Fuck the standards, fuck the expectations of what I’m supposed to be” (Bell 33). It was evident that Jayanthi was sick of being exactly who her parents raised her to be, a traditional good girl, who was supposed to have an arranged marriage. By having expectations placed upon you, you start to feel trapped in your own body and have no control. So, Jayanthi went out and had a lot of sex and one-night-stands. Up until that point, she felt as though she had no control of who she was. Being bad gave Jayanthi a better sense of self, one that her parents and other men weren 't in control of. She refused the tradition that was placed upon her in order to feel like a strong women. Susan Faludi gives another example of a woman who refused to follow tradition in “The Naked Citadel”. Shannon Faulkner applied to the Citadel, a previously all-male military school. Many young cadets and faculty did not want her coming to the Citadel because …show more content…
Without freedom, there is no way to be who you want to be. After Jayanthi rebelled against her family’s tradition, she knew she would have the freedom to explore her sexuality. To make sense of why she wanted to break free she said, “I’m liberating myself, this is liberation…” and “I want to have stories, I want to have a history. I didn’t have a history, so I wanted to create a history” (Bell 34). Jayanthi needed a new history filled with sexual experiences. Freedom to her meant creating a history that wasn’t expected of her, and doing things she wasn’t technically supposed to do. Not only was she having a lot of sex, she was doing it just to do it. She didn’t care about whether she wanted to or not, or whether it was even enjoyable. The freedom itself was much more desirable than the freedom of being able to go out and have sex. There is a guilty pleasure in using freedom to do things that aren 't expected of you. Azar Nafisi furthers this claim in selections from Reading Lolita in Tehran when she explains how the women and girls in Tehran had the freedom to do things that weren’t allowed in private. They were able to take off their black robes, let their hair down, listen to music, and read banned fiction in Nafisi’s private classroom. Technically, in order to gain this freedom, they had to rebel against the government, just like
Butler, Judith. "Besides Oneself: On the Limits of Sexual Autonomy." Ways Of Readers An Anthology For Writers. Ed. Davis Bartholomae and Anthony Petrosky. 9th ed. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2011. 240-257. Print.
In Deborah E. McDowell’s essay Black Female Sexuality in Passing she writes about the sexual repression of women seen in Nella Larsen‘s writings during the Harlem Renaissance, where black women had difficulty expressing their sexuality. In her essay, she writes about topics affecting the sexuality of women such as, religion, marriage, and male dominated societies. In Toni Morrison’s short story, “Recitatif” there are examples of women who struggle to express their sexuality. The people in society judge women based off their appearance, and society holds back women from expressing themselves due to society wanting them to dress/act a certain way.
The exterior influences of society affect a woman’s autonomy, forcing her to conform to other’s expectations; however, once confident she creates her own
Travis, Cheryl Brown, Kayce L. Meginnis, and Kristin M. Bardari. "Beauty, Sexuality, and Identity: The Social Control of Women." Sexuality, Society, and Feminism. Ed. Cheryl Brown Travis and Jacquelyn W. White. Washington: American Psychological Association, 2000.
Choices and types of lifestyle a person chooses help to create a person 's identity. However when the choices and the lifestyle chosen are affected by the various forces, it can create fake identity of that person. In “Selections from “Hard to Get: Twenty-Something Women and the Paradox of Sexual Freedom,” the author Leslie Bell insist that pressure from society and family create a complex situation for young women where they are forced to divide their choices and choose a lifestyle. The author writes about the the uncertainty and lost identities of young women 's. Identity is a complex issue which can be divided into two parts; one being given identity and real identity. Given identity is best described by race,gender,family and all the other
Accordingly, I decided the purposes behind women 's resistance neither renamed sexual introduction parts nor overcame money related dependence. I recalled why their yearning for the trappings of progression could darken into a self-compelling consumerism. I evaluated how a conviction arrangement of feeling could end in sexual danger or a married woman 's troublesome twofold day. None of that, regardless, ought to cloud an era 's legacy. I comprehend prerequisites for a standard of female open work, another style of sexual expressiveness, the area of women into open space and political fights previously cornered by men all these pushed against ordinary restrictions even as they made new susceptibilities.
Women in today’s society seem to be having a very difficult time expressing themselves without dealing with lots of criticism. Common values are standing in the way of women’s drive toward molding themselves into whatever they desire. Our culture has made standards about how should women look, act, and conduct themselves that greatly limits what they can do, and still gain respect. Martin S. Fiebert and Mark W. Meyer state that, “[there are] more negative [gender] stereotypes for men than for women.” This idea doesn’t seem to have a great amount of validity in our present society. Society set certain standards that men are supposed to live up to such as strength and confidence, which are more behavioral characteristics. Women seem to be more trapped than men by societies standards because they are supposed to live up to standards dealing with beauty and size, which are more physical characteristics These specific guidelines have been set by society that are sometimes unattainable for a majority of women. The women that follow the specific criteria are greatly respected, and the ones that try and be innovative usually are criticized if not disliked.
People say we are who we are but, in reality the friends, family, and the media shape us everyday of what is called our identity. Families have a huge impact of who and what we are of course. In both Julia Alvarez “Once Upon a Quinceanera” and Jayme Poisson “Parents keep Child’s Gender Secret” talks about in how which families influence who and what we are and how much power they have in shaping one’s identity even if we do not see it. It is evident that society have expectations that are placed among gender and/or women roles but families tend to have the power to avoid these issues. Due to the articles, families do shape women 's identity just as men and have much power in doing so, due to tradition, expectations, and the way how society keeps reminding them to act a certain way.
A livable world is defined from the society you participate in everyday life. We as people make laws and regulations for situations that may or may not happen. This is because humans are imperfect and full of flaws. Laws and regulations are the guidelines for properly living in a society that dictates to the mass instead of hearing individual concern. Then again what is it meant to be “imperfect”? Who designates the description behind being perfect? This is what I believe is “the norm” or normal way of life of a society.
Mary Pipher goes on to say that the problem faced by girls is a ‘problem without a name’ and that the girls of today deserve a different kind of society in which all their gifts can be developed and appreciated. (Pipher,M). It’s clear that cultures and individual personalities intersect through the period of adolescence. Adolescence is a time in a young girl’s life that shapes them into the woman they become. I think it begins earlier than teen years because even the clothing that is being sold for younger girls says sexuality. Bras for girls just beginning in every store are now padded with matching bikini underwear, Barbie dolls are glamour up in such away that these girls believ...
... However, through the narrators partial freedom she more importantly finds a new compassionate/humane path on her journey to womanhood. Also, this new path in itself acts as a sort of self-healing for the grief experienced by the narrator. Though only partial freedom was found and cultural boundaries were not shattered, simply battered, the narrator’s path was much preferable to that of her sisters (those who conformed to cultural boundaries).
Over time, a women’s identity has been seen as powerless and incompetent to achieve anything. This image of women is being created at a young age at young age. For instance, little
The protagonist in the story began to realize society’s views of her when her father introduced her to a salesman, while she was working outside, as his “new hired hand”. She was almost pleased until the salesman replied “I thought it was only a girl”. Even her grandmother bombarded her with commands, “Girls keep their knees together when they sit down.” And “Girls don’t slam doors like that.” The worst was when she asked a question and her grandmother answered “That’s none of a girl’s business.” Even after that, she continued to slam doors and sit awkwardly because she felt that it kept her free. In other words, she was not ready to accept and claim her gender identity.
Freedom is highly subjective as its meaning can change from person to person. History is defined in many ways by the quest for freedom: physical, spiritual, and mental. But how does one know what authentic freedom truly is? Sometimes the individual creates a situation where they are a prisoner and don’t even know it. Without a Name by Yvonne Vera, a woman named Mazvita is raped outside of her village, which begins a journey in which she tries to free herself from her trauma by erasing its memory. She finds her freedom hindered not only by outside forces but her own mind. She in effect becomes her own jailer. True freedom, she discovers can be gained only by unlocking her memory.
Throughout Western civilization, culturally hegemonic views on gender and sexuality have upheld a rigid and monolithic societal structure, resulting in the marginalization and dehumanization of millions of individuals who differ from the expected norm. Whether they are ridiculed as freaks, persecuted as blasphemers, or discriminated as sub-human, these individuals have been historically treated as invisible and pushed into vulnerable positions, resulting in cycles of poverty and oppression that remain prevalent even in modern times. Today, while many of these individuals are not publicly displayed as freaks or persecuted under Western law, women, queer, and intersexed persons within our society still nonetheless find themselves under constant