Have you ever considered if your body affects your professional life? Nowadays we have laws that attempt to protect people from being discriminated against in the workplace, but this was surely not the case for Medieval mystical women. Their bodies played a significant role in their spiritual lives, and there was pressure from the general patriarchy in addition to the more influential religious community. Being the “other” within the Catholic church, mystics needed to function within the patriarchy’s guidelines in order to succeed. This translates into women’s self-esteem, body images as well as feelings about the products of their bodies. In the case of Marie d’Oignies, the Beguine Movement and its heretical groups and flexible commitment …show more content…
Marie’s primary mode of expression is through her gift of tears, what the patriarchy would view as a typical female emotional reaction. The profuse crying began while “considering [Christ’s] torment upon the Cross, she found such grace of compunction and wept so abundantly” (Petroff 179). Seeing that Marie is a patriarchal woman, her words and opinions would be disregarded by any person, man, who could validate her mystical abilities. Therefore, drawing attention to herself and her connection to Christ through her tears is her most effective alternative. In his article “The Gift of Tears: Weeping in the Religious Imagination of Western Medieval Christianity” Jessie Gutgsell recognizes that “tears are from the heart, and thus are to be trusted as effective means of communication with the divine” (248). Following this emotional development, a priest within her church exercised his patriarchal male abilities and “exhorted her with honey-tongued rebukes to pray in silence and to restrain her tears” (179). At first, Marie takes on the subordinate female role and listens to this priest. However, she then reverses traditional gender roles, and exercises her first miracle by imploring Christ to impose the gift of tears to said priest. He was “sobbing frequently and with disordered and broken speech, he barely avoided total collapse” (179). Clearly, Marie thought that this priest needed
In the poem "To the Ladies," Lady Mary Chudleigh demonstrates affinity between wife and servant (1) through the use of a controlling metaphor. She describes a wife’s role by depicting it through ideas that are strongly associated with slavery. Chudleigh’s use of deigning diction, her description of the wife’s submissive actions, and her negative attitude towards the perceived future of a woman who gets married show the similarity among wife and servant (1). Chudleigh presents this poem as a warning to women who are not yet married, and as an offering of regret to those who are.
Introduction The belief of Tocqueville that women play a critical role in societal shaping cannot be separated from his emphasis on the importance of good values and mores to maintain and achieve social prosperity and stability, especially in a democracy. According to Tocqueville, the term mores referred to the various notions that men possessed the different opinions, and the total ideas that shape the mental habits. In the estimation of Tocqueville, mores forms one of the large general causes that are responsible for the democratic republic maintenance in the United States. Mores, according to Brooks et al. (2000p.89), are especially influential and crucial in the democratic societies because of the freedom that people enjoy the strong role of the opinion of the public and the general authority weakness.
During the 19th century, gender roles in the American society were extremely different in comparison of the roles in the 21st century. Only men could enjoy true freedom, freedom to work in factories, shops, military, vote, etc., while women were left at the house to oversee the domestic duties that once belonged to servants. What this means is that women were not truly free; free to voice their opinion, to work alongside of men, earn pay, and even vote. They were expected to be excellent housewives and nothing else. It was shortly after her husband died, leaving her with six children to raise on her own that she began to write scandalous stories that were way ahead of her time and completely unappreciated. These stories often times placed the
In the 1940’s, the United Nation Conference came together to resolve issues, in reference to women to establish a commitment at treating men; and women the same in an ecumenical way. From the 1940’s to the 1970’s many different conferences were held to overcome these issues regarding the gender roles of these women compared to those of men. “Under the banner of “equality, development and peace”, each conference assessed the programs of commitments made by various nations on behalf of women; along the side of the (NGO) that funded non-profit organization and spoke on behalf of the poor from all walks of life” (Lindsey, 2011, pg. 137). These people are designed to affiliate on the process of diversity issues, to which they presented to these organizations on the importance of women in a changing world; which are “politics, religion, ethnicity, and economics” (Lindsey, pg.
Of all the literary lenses, one would not think that feminism would be a prevalent topic in a war novel. In Tim O’Brien’s iconic book, The Things They Carried, the idea that women were just as important as men acts an important theme, however from a different perspective. Movies and epic war stories tell of the heroic actions of the World’s finest: bulky men with an appetite for battle. Yet, there always lied a backbone. Comfort, inspiration, ease, all things that women provided to soldiers during any war. Yet, sometimes things did not go as planned and rash actions were made. O’Brien’s masterful use of lenses creates an interesting novel, one that will stand the test of time, however, the aspects of the feminist lens provides much insight into the inner lying meanings of the book, mostly in the areas of characters, objects of importance, and the role of gender in the Vietnam War.
In Alexandre Dumas’ La Dame aux Camélias, central characters are played by women. Guiseppe Verdi, in his adaption, likewise places Violetta as the centre of La Traviata. Despite similarities in their storylines, the portrayals of women differ between the literary works. It can be argued that the function of women in La Dame aux Camélias is to perpetuate the idea that women, even those fallen or of a lower standing, are capable of being in power and behaving in a logical manner, while La Traviata’s Violetta is a mark of the tragedy of love that seems all too common in the human experience.
Some believe they are “both disturbed and exceedingly rare” (Devor, 110), others view them in terms of psycho, and some even are known as saints. In the dawn of the 1960s most cultures in the United States would view transvestites as psycho, disturbed, and exceedingly rare. Most transvestites during this time were aware of society’s unaccepting views towards them and either conformed to society’s norms or expressed themselves within the safety of accepting others. In Vern L. Bullough’s article “Transvestites in the Middle Ages” he discusses transvestites and examines it in the terms of social status. Throughout Bullough’s studies he analyzes transvestite saints that shaped the attitudes towards transvestites in North America. During Bullough’s study he comes across the difference between male transvestites and female transvestites. It is clear that status could only be gained if females dressed in the clothes of males. On the other hand, if male saints were to dress as females they would both lose status and have sinned. The difference between men and woman transvestites is just another look at society’s illiberal policies. The men at “Casa Susanna” knew that if they were to de-masculinize themselves they would be scrutinized and lose status within society. Not only were society’s views towards transvestism narrow-minded, they were discriminatory based on sex. The need to conform to society’s norms has been an ongoing battle throughout time, and is a clear example of a one-sided cultural intolerance towards
After the Depression and World War II was a time of peace and happiness in the 1950s. Families moved to suburbs, fostered a baby boom, and forged a happy life of family togetherness. During this time, gender roles thrived and everyone had to play their part in society. The typical woman had to stay home and watch over the children, while the men had to go work to support his family. Although this was the typical American way of living during this time, women should have gotten more freedom and power in the house and outside.
“Each ought to maintain her proper place in society and, along with this, her particular lifestyle,” writes Christine de Pizan. Described by many as a protofeminist, de Pizan holds true to the modern feminist standing that women deserve more than they are given. In her writing, The Book of the City of the Ladies, she describes six different types of women in society. It is important to look at the time in which she wrote the piece, in the late fourteenth and early fifteenth century— a time when women had no voice. Through extraneous methods, de Pizan forges her own voice and ultimately brings women to be viewed as more than just things. Though de Pizan never argues that women are equal to men in any way, she gives women a place that they belong.
In the early 1900’s, the woman's role was to stay home, clean and take care of the children. Arthur Miller illustrated the life of the average woman in the 1900’s with the character Linda in Death of a Salesman. Arthur Miller was born in Harlem, New York in 1915. Arthur Miller’s father owned a clothing company that employed four hundred people, but after the wall street crash his family lost everything and moved to Brooklyn. After graduating in 1932, Miller worked in several small jobs to pay for his tuition, While in college at the University of Michigan he majored in Journalism worked for the student paper. Arthur Millers early career started after his graduation, he wrote The Man Who Had All The Luck in 1940 which won the Theatre Guild’s National Award, In 1946 Miller’s play All My Sons won Him his first Tony Award. In 1948 he wrote Death of A Salesman won him another Tony Award, the New York Drama Circle Critics’ Award, and the Pulitzer Prize for drama. Death of A Salesman is the story of Willy Loman and the struggles he faces trying to achieve the “American Dream”, not only for him but for his sons. Willy wants to have a perfect family and a perfect life, but his family and life are know where near perfect which causes him to go into depression and want to kill him self. Due to Willy’s many desperate attempts at suicide he starts to lose his mind, start talking to himself and have flash backs. After Willy’s sons Happy and Biff are turned down for a loan Willy finally goes through with taking his life, and leaves his family with the insurance money to pay of debts so they can live a better life. Willy’s wife Linda plays the submissive role, and just leaves Willy in his own hands. In Death of A Salesman linda represents the...
Body modification, in all forms, has always met opposition in Western society, and the modification of the human body through corsetry has historically been no less challenged. But tight-lacing is not the same as tattooing. The belief was that it not only altered a person’s figure, but it deformed her bones, compressed her viscera until they could not function properly, and interfered with her purpose in life: to become a mother. These concerns plagued the minds of female dress reformers and men alike from the corset’s advent in the fifteenth century until World War One began in 1914, when corsets were no longer mass-produced due to the military’s need for steel. The vast majority of European and American men and a percentage of middle-class Western women were those who opposed corsetry, causing those who accepted and enjoyed corsets to be the minority, and yet the undergarment persevered.
She went to the court “as a full and autonomous tenant”1, she made some critical decision for the household as she was the head of the household and disciplined her servants without hesitations. Cecilia acted more like her brother in law as most these things were his works. Cecilia was able to do these things because she was unmarried but her sisters were not allowed to do many such things which shows how the difference in gender shapes the lives but difference in the status of gender plays some major roles as well. Along with the negative side of being married there are also many benefits of marriage which depends on the nature of husband. Cecilia’s sister had many advantages from the marriage such as “social approval and support; greater
In the early 1900s, men treated women as a piece of property. Once a woman married, the husband owned the woman’s land and money. Most men thought women were so fragile that they could not run their own lives. Women may not have liked it but they were forced to live this way The men were the head of the household and made all the decisions. The representation of "The Necklace" and "The story of an hour" represents gender roles as defined by the nineteenth century society guidelines .
In the 1950’s, women were oriented around their homes and were considered to be domestic caretakers for their husbands and children. Betty Friedan challenges the role of women in her book, “The Feminine Mystique,” by elaborating how women are capable of being more than just housewives. While Phyllis Schlafly, an Illinois lawyer and a devoted Catholic, opposes the idea of feminism for it destroys women’s responsibilities to their homes and their families. Friedan and Schlafly explicate the role of women in society, but from two different perspectives, one being a more liberal view while the other conservative, Today, women are supported on whether they believe to accept their role as domestic housewives or reject it to gain something more outside
It has been said that “after a brief period of freedom and opportunity during World War II, American women went ‘back to the kitchen.’” The War was a time of great turmoil and change. One of the most noticeable changes was the increase of women in the workforce, because many women had to obtain a job or career outside of the home for the first time. The expectation was that when the men returned from fighting, the women would give up their jobs and return home (Milkman, WA, 553). When the war was over, the public began to seek a feeling of safety and security. One of the ways this was found was by embracing the more conventional gender roles, with men and women in separate spheres. With a renewed emphasis on marriage, couples began to marry