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In her feminist Novel So long A letter, Mariama Ba uses the protagonist of Ramatoulaye and her close friend Aissatou, in order to convey her messages of the criticism of culture and religion and subsequently the implications it has on the society and women in particular. As Ramatoulaye is depicted as a conservative feminist, the addressee of her letter, Aissatou, is shown as a radical feminist and this is evident in the manner in which they respond to the situations they find themselves in. As a conservative feminist, the expectation would be not to challenge decisions profoundly but rather, assume a less hands-on approach and not act contrary to the limits which have been set for them. On the other hand, a radical feminist is one who steps out of their ‘comfort zone’ and tackles situations in a stringent manner, not standing for any form of injustice served towards them and are often characterized as people who act in a rash manner or those who act ‘upon their emotions’. Faced with similar challenges, we see Aissatou react by more independently making the contrary choice in undertaking the unexpected for a woman in that society during the post-colonial period while Ramatoulaye, in a more orthodox manner, remains content, settles for, and compromises, against the desires of her heart, in the name of abiding by culture and remaining in union with religion as presented to her. This essay aims to scrutinise the effectiveness of the use of juxtaposition and parallelism by Ba, to find out how far her message that feminism is a rewarding method of escaping the shackles of culture and religion imposed upon women, and that feminism is the way forward for African women in the novel was successfully delivered to her audience to fulfil her intention.
Get original essayBa introduces the nature of Ramatoulaye in the early stages of the novel, in order to present the conservative feminist. From the very beginning, she informs us of Ramatoulaye’s docile, submissive nature, where against her emotions, she refuses to react as a result of her anger, where she is evidently uncomfortable and not appreciative of her co-wife’s existence in her home and in her life as a whole. When we see Ba writes “The presence of my co-wife irritates me. She has been installed in my house for the funeral, in accordance with tradition.” This quote goes to show the strong repercussions culture brought unto the women of Senegal through the writer’s choice of the words. The word “installed’ dictates of an object which has been placed or fixed somehwere forcefully, thus dehumanizing Binetou, and questioning implicitly Modou’s reasons for marrying her, while informing the audience of Ramatoulaye’s scorn for her co wife – Binetou. However, despite having expressed her disconcert, she does not do anything in protest, but rather endures, familiarizing the audience of the true nature of the conservative feminist.
Her friend Aissatou’s actions, which make a significant statement of the character, are used to convey the radical feminist nature of Aissatou. When Aissatou, against all odds, defies the cultural expectation of women in the society where - as laid down by Seynabou - “…a woman does not need much education…” and pursues further education upon leaving her marriage eventually earning herself a job at the embassy. We notice her persistent nature to advance radical feminism in this society, by going against the cultural expectation of remaining docile and submitting to the men. The unexpected nature of this decision is brought out through Ramatoulaye’s reaction. “You had the surprising courage to take life into your own hands.” The use of the word “surprising” shows the unfamiliarity of the decision. “They enabled you to better yourself. What society refused you.” This shows the impeding characteristics of the Senegalese culture and the detrimental effect it had on the lives of women in this society. Through the quote “the first quality of a woman is docility” we see the society’s low regard for social progression of women. Thus, it was out of the ordinary for Aissatou even succeed let alone do it the way she did. Again, Aissatou buys her best friend Ramatoulaye a Fiat 125 when she mentions in passing her struggles with public transport. These feats show her character as persistent and independent- traits often characterized with radical feminists. Criticism from many including Mawdo’s mother and Modou who believed “…a goldsmith’s daughter had no heart.” only pushed Aissatou further to changing the norm. Ba’s vivid descriptions and concentration on Aissatou’s acts as being persistent, thorough and determined, depict her as a role model to Ramatoulaye, a feminist in her own respect, as a metaphor to represent feminism and the reward it can bring to women allowing them emancipation from the servitudes of culture.
The two sides of feminism and their respective ‘representatives’ are juxtaposed and examined to depict the more fruitful one when both their husbands, Mawdo and Modou remarry in these relationships, and exercising of the traditional practice of polygamy subsequently inducing emotions of anger in both women as it is sufficiently portrayed to the audience. Ramatoulaye perseveres and pushes through her tattered marriage despite her dislike for her co-wife who stepped into her marriage and disoriented touch between Ramatoulaye and Modou. Ramatoulaye’s discomfort was no secret and she “…cried everyday…” in despair and despite, calls from her children to divorce Modou and “do what aunty Aissatou did” , she remains in the marriage where her love for her husband has not faded, yet, his own for her, is gone. Aissatou, upon Mawdo’s marriage of young Nabou, even in despair, decided to leave the marriage which she saw as non-beneficial to her well-being as it brought sadness, even though Mawdo ‘still loved her’. These scenarios depict the burden which polygamous relationships – a prominent aspect of Senegalese culture and the Islamic religion - bore on the women such that it bound Ramatoulaye to this ‘toxic’ marriage. Aissatou’s reaction however was that of a strong, self-sufficient woman, in that she found comfort in books and immersed herself fully in them to expand her knowledge, eventually overcoming her despair, much faster than Ramatoulaye did. This statement made by Aissatou challenges an aforementioned idea that “… a woman does not need much education.” The scenario shows the difference between the two types of feminism, in showing that feminism was a rewarding method of dealing with the issues that face women and even though radical feminism bore results faster than conservative feminism, at the end of it all, the two women, eventually are freed from the hurt they suffer from and are able to move forward, and step past the challenges. This is effective in showing the collaboration of women in feminism as a whole to achieve a common goal, and to show that feminism is the route towards an equal society where men would no longer be placed above women, rather than a competition between radical and conservative feminism to show which is ‘better’.
This juxtaposition is put in place in order to question which side of feminism is more rewarding. The distinction in the reactions of the women, and the reaction of the society to their actions shows a difference in the two sides of feminism. Ba seeks to show her audience that both sides are one, and that there is no real answer as to which one is better, rather, they aim to achieve the same goal as eventually, Ramatoulaye and Aissatou’s happiness comes out on top, even though they took different routes.
In conclusion, these techniques of parallelism, juxtaposition, imagery, characterization and paradoxes, set an abundant foundation for the bigger picture which Ba sought out to encapsulate in her audiences minds, the idea of the criticism of culture and religion in the African society towards women. Through this, it is no question that her themes, ideas and objectives were attained and her intended message of ‘feminism for all’ was received by the audience the way she envisioned it. This was also aided by the epistolary form, which allowed for the readers to understand the book from a personal point of view, that of a Senegalese woman who experienced the prejudice of the society first hand.
Feminism in India is a set of movements aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for Indian women. It is the pursuit of women's rights within the society of India. Like their feminist counterparts all over the world, feminists in India seek gender equality: the right to work for equal wages, the right to equal access to health and education, and equal political rights. Indian feminists also have fought against culture-specific issues within India's patriarchal society, such as inheritance laws and the practice of widow immolation known as Sati.
Get original essayHindi cinema has been a major point of reference for Indian culture in this century. It has shaped and expressed the changing scenarios of modern India to an extent that no preceding art form could ever achieve. Hindi cinema has influenced the way in which people perceive various aspects of their own lives. The three movies that we discuss here have three different points of view towards women. To some extent, they identify areas where ``modern feminism'' comes into contact with ``traditional values.'' The analysis which follows tries to decipher and articulate these points of view. It also attempts to determine the ways in which these films affect the discourse generated by the Women's Movement. But before the analysis, we summarize the plots of these films.
Powerful Women Characters In Indian Cinema That Show What Women Can Truly achieve As PM Narendra Modi launches the “Beti BachaoBetiPadhao Yojna”, we recollect some of the most powerful women characters from Indian cinema who showed what it was that educated and liberated women could achieve. As a medium with the strongest influence on the Indian psyche, we explore through these portrayals how cinema has played an important role in promoting the empowerment of the girl child through the years.
Cinema plays a key role in depicting amazing personalities who inspire us in more ways than one. In an art form that largely casts men in the lead roles and women as supporting cast, there have been some memorable films that deviated from the norm and depicted strong women characters which left a mark on the society and became an inspiration to many.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched “Beti Bachao Beti Padhao” Scheme on January 22, 2015, which aims at generating awareness and improving the efficiency of delivery of welfare services meant for girls. When it comes to women empowerment, Indian cinema is not far behind. Here are 11 most powerful and memorable characters that portrayed the strength of women perfectly (spoiler alert ahead) –
Rani Mukherjee’s portrayal of a fierce cop in Mardaani perfectly showcases the true strength of a woman. The character is based on a real-life cop who solved several child trafficking cases. Shivani Shivaji Roy not only single-handedly beat up some of the worst criminals but held her own against the evil doers. The perfect mix of strength and respect, Roy is an inspiration.
When most of the youth in villages seem to be migrating to urban cities for better jobs and opportunities, the simple character of Gita (played by Gayatri Joshi) from Swades sets an example of an empowered woman who can make her own decisions. This highly educated village girl gave up lucrative offers in the city and chose to stay in the village to teach kids and reform the village. Her unconditional love for the villagers and her selfless acts made her a strong character which many women would aspire to.
Rani Mukherjee’s character Michelle as the visually and hearing impaired protagonist in the movie Black is one of the most powerful portrayals of a physically handicapped person in Indian cinema. The relationship of Michelle with her aging teacher (Amitabh Bachchan) and how she helps him to rediscover life is very liberating, inspiring and shows the true strength of a woman.
The character of Rosie played by Waheeda Rahman in this 1965 classic showed women in a different light. At a time women were expected to be dutiful and follow their husbands even when unhappy, Rosie left her cheating and unsupportive husband and decided to choose her passion for dancing and someone who valued her as a person. Later, she again followed her heart and drifted apart from her lover when he did not turn out to be what she had expected. Rosie was one of the rare characters in Hindi cinema who stood for what she believed in and made her own choices in life.
Though all the girls in Chak De did justice to their character, there was one girl who stood out and gave a fresh and powerful answer to the male-dominated society. We are talking about Preeti Sabrawal (Sagarika Ghatge) who portrayed the character of an independent, self-respecting and dignified hockey player who refused to give up her career for her celebrity boyfriend. She not only stood up for herself but was an inspiration to all the ladies who sacrifice their dreams at one point or another because of their partners’ different priorities.
Men in most societies were seen as breadwinners while the role of women was restricted to being a good homemaker and a good mother. This applies to women in a highly patriarchal society of India. As societies entered the world of modernization, the role of women changed dramatically. Media played an important role in the modernization of societies and greatly affected the image of women in today’s modern world. A number of researches have been done on the role of women in different societies. However little has been said about the importance of films in portraying women in shifting roles over different decades and the impact it has on societies in general. Over past decades, Indian cinema has witnessed a significant transformation in the way women are portrayed through films. Contemporary films portray women as more independent, confident, and career-oriented This article deals with these fast-changing role of women portrayed in Indian cinema and its influence on the patriarchal Indian society with a focus on some representative Bollywood films. The aim is to link the changing character played by women in films with the emerging status of women in India, as films are a reflection of changes in the social structure.
The 1994 Disney film Mulan portrays individualism to motivate younger girls to pursue their dreams. The push for feminism is shown through Mulan’s individualistic behavior, while it breaks some of China’s taboo behaviors regarding the mannerisms of a woman.
Get original essayLauren Dundes currently teaches at McDaniel College and publishes articles about any topics regarding race and gender. She has published multiple articles about Disney princesses and their roles in feminism, race, and gender roles. Madeline Streiff is associated with Hastings College of Law and has collaborated with Dundes regarding Disney princesses. This article jabs at the flaws shown in Mulan and The Princess and the Frog. In Mulan, the end storyline could have further emphasized Mulan’s freedom and individualistic thinking, but the movie ended in her fulfilling her domestic duties. In The Princess and the Frog, Tiana resumes playing her role as the help. Her adventures as an anthropomorphic frog did not further her personality nor did it help her reach her goal in owning a restaurant.
This article is very helpful in providing opposing views to my argument. Aside from adding opposite views, this article’s section on Mulan shone a light on the different symbolisms used to portray her rebellious state. This article is also helpful in comparing Mulan to another Disney movie. Regarding The Princess and the Frog, this article talks about the social ladder seen throughout the movie. The social ladder in this movie and the gender roles in Mulan share similar characteristics with one another.
Both authors shows bias in the unfairness of the portrayal of both Disney princesses who could have had a bigger impact in the future, but, instead, Disney decided to have both of them return to their domesticated roles. The authors show an extreme dislike towards the path Disney chose to lead their characters down. The audience is definitely meant for feminists and other people who advocate for gender equality. This article has a reading level for college students.
Ivy Hsieh is an assistant professor at Tamkang University. She studies language and literacy. Matoush is literacy researcher who received a doctorate from the University of Florida. She published multiple articles in journals about literacy, language, and linguistics.
This article explains the history of the Ballad of Mulan and its different versions of the texts. Each version of the ballad portrays a different meaning, even though they are all based on the same story. Some based Mulan’s actions on filial piety. Others based it on her individualistic nature. This article also shows the hybridization between Chinese and European culture. This is helpful to my research because it goes a bit more in-depth in China’s culture. It also helps that it helps me see how China’s culture gets westernized. Aside from the culture aspect, the origins of the poem shows why Mulan was portrayed as she how she was in the movie.
The authors showed bias towards the appropriate way to show off Chinese culture. Each topic usually relates back to what was standard in China or how children are to interpret Mulan. The audience is directed towards people looking for different interpretations of the ballad. The vocabulary used in this article was pretty easy to understand, so this reading level was probably directed towards 9th graders and above.
Caixia Xiong is a professor at Hangzhou Dianzi University who has a Bachelor’s in English Language and Literature. She publishes articles about translations and English teachings in scholarly journals. Chuanmao Tian is a professor at Yangtze University with a Master’s in Applied Linguistics. He is a director of the Hubei Provincial Translators’ Association and a member of the Translators’ Association of China who published a few articles concerning translation in major scholarly journals.
The main point of this article was to point out the differences between the American original animation and the Chinese dubbed animation. The words that were translated had to be converted from modern colloquialism to formal, old, Chinese phrases. Aside from that, this article points out the old Chinese taboos that are not considered taboos in America. It also points out the difference between the film and the original ode, The Mulan Ballad, such as the addition of new characters and the differences in the scenes of the ode and the film.
My paper is going to focus on the difference between China and the U. S. A. This article is very beneficial because it points out some of the major flaws between the film and the ode, along with the translation between the American and Chinese versions. I also want to talk about individualism, which this article briefly talks about. Both authors showed bias towards keeping the traditional text of historic China. Aside from that, it did not deter from them pointing out the flaws of the film. The audience is for people who are interested in studying the difference between American and Chinese culture. Apart from being written by college professors, this reading level could easily be interpreted by a junior high school student in an A. P. classroom setting.
Gwendolyn Limbach teaches at Pace University as an english professor. She writes articles on feminism and other popular texts. This book chapter highlights the gender roles portrayed in the movie. It emphasizes the importance of genders and learning where they stand in society. Females are supposed to be docile and submissive; males are supposed to show masculinity, mentally and physically. This article continuously references back to the proper roles of male and female. Because of its many references, I can use it to argue about Mulan’s involvement in feminism. Her actions throughout the movie showed equality between men and women, and, because of that, she easily refutes the argument that men are better then women. She decreases the thought of the double standard for genders near the end of the movie.
The author embraces the fact that Mulan is a transvestite, and is semi-biased towards genders accepting their “designated” roles. She seems to support that being in-between the state of male and female truly allows your true talent to shine through your facade, since the in-between spot has less barriers to overcome. This book is pretty easy to comprehend, but with the use of difficult vocabulary, this book has the reading level of a senior in high school and above. The audience is directed towards those in the LGBT community and anyone who is interested in why Mulan decided to perform the actions she chose to do.
In recent years, social media has become a powerful tool for activism and organizing, enabling groups like Gabriela Youth to reach wider audiences and coordinate actions more effectively. This paper seeks to explore how Gabriela Youth's activism intersects with their online presence, as well as their offline efforts. By examining the motivations of the organization and its members, we hope to gain a better understanding of what drives them to pursue their goals and how they are able to mobilize support from others. Additionally, we will investigate the target audience of Gabriela Youth and the ways in which they engage with them both online and offline. This will involve an analysis of the group's social media accounts, including their use of hashtags, memes, and other forms of online communication, as well as their physical presence at events and protests. Through this analysis, we hope to shed light on the ways in which online and offline activism can complement each other, and the challenges that come with maintaining a strong presence in both spheres. Ultimately, our goal is to provide insight into the strategies that organizations like Gabriela Youth use to effect social change, and the impact that these strategies have on their target audience and the broader community.
Get original essayProviding a concrete definition of what feminism is has proved to be an impossible task. Jane Freedman argues that this is because there are different strands of feminism and may have opposing views from one another (1). However, one may attempt to determine the baseline definition of all feminisms. Freedman claims that this baseline definition may start with the assertion that all of the different feminist perspectives are concerned women’s inferior position in society and the prejudice they encounter because of their sex; she further contends that feminists call for changes in the social, economic, political or cultural order, to reduce, and eventually overcome this discrimination against women (1-2).
It is significant to note, however, that the definition of feminism we know today was merely adopted. It has been noted by Fraisse (1995) that the term ‘feminism’ was first used in 1871 in a French medical. In 1872, Alexander Dumas, a republican and anti-feminist writer, used the term ‘Feminism’ in a different context – to describe women behaving in a masculine manner (qtd. in Freedman 2). This type of gender misperception was something that was clearly feared in the nineteenth century, and Freedman argues that it is still present in a modified form in today’s societies where feminists are sometimes perceived as challenging natural differences between men and women (3).
As Freedman mentioned, it is difficult to provide a concrete definition for feminism due to the fact that the different feminist perspective may sometimes have opposing ideologies. Judith Lorber delves and discusses the twelve prominent strands of feminism. The different feminist standpoints will hopefully shed light on the ideologies that Gabriela Youth reinforces and if there are any that may overlap.
Lorber theorizes that the reason for much of the change in feminist perspectives is “the deeper probing into the pervasiveness of gender inequality (8).” She also claims that feminists and women have developed a deeper understanding of gender, sex and sexuality. Lorber grouped the feminist perspectives of the last 35 years into three categories that reflect their theories and political strategies with regard to the gendered social order. These three categories include gender reform feminisms, gender resistant feminisms, and gender revolution feminisms.
These feminist perspectives were mostly from the beginning of the second wave of feminism. Gender reform feminisms include liberal feminism, Marxist and socialist feminisms, and development feminism (9). Liberal feminism claims that gender differences are not based in biology and therefore women and men are not all that different (Lorber, 9) and deserve equal opportunities and rights. This is what most scholars call the ‘mainstream’ feminism. According to Wellington Samkange, liberal feminists are concerned with equal rights and freedom of an individual (1174). An example of this would be feminist groups fighting for equal compensation amongst men and women. A recent study conducted by Georgetown University Center in 2017 showed that men’s earnings are higher than women’s at every level of educational attainment. In fact, the graph showed that men with a bachelor’s degree earn equal or even more than women owning a master’s degree. Liberal feminists believe that if men and women are not different, then they should not be treated differently under the law, and therefore should have the same rights, and the same educational and work opportunities as men (Lorber 9).
Marxist and Socialist Feminisms, according to Lorber, examine the family as a source of women’s oppression and exploitation. If a woman works for her family in their household, she is economically dependent on her husband, much like her children. If, on the other hand, the wife works a day job, she is still expected to fulfill her domestic and maternal duties, and then ends up working twice as hard as her husband, and usually for a significantly less pay (11). Cecilia Green echoes this statement and further argues that men are primarily identified with goods production or paid public work and are only peripherally involved in child minding or domestic maintenance activities (212).
Development feminism emphasizes on the importance of education of women, maternity and child health care, and economic resource for women who contribute heavily to the support of their families (Lorber, 15). This feminist perspective also addresses the political issue of women’s rights versus national and cultural traditions. Judith Lorber cites the United Nations’ Fourth World Conference on Women Forum that was held in Beijing in 1995. The conference concluded with the condemnation of particular cultural practices that are deemed to be oppressive to women. These include infanticide, dowry, child marriage, and female genital mutilation (14).
The gender reform feminisms progressed magnificently into the public consciousness in the 1970s and allowed women to enter the previously all-men workplaces and schools. However, as women slowly eased in the workplaces and learning institutions, they became more aware of the constant and everyday prejudice from bosses, colleagues, professors, students, and even partners and husbands “and formed into a pattern that gradually wore women down (Lorber 16).” This awareness resulted into the gender resistant feminisms of the 1970s and which include two of the talked about gender resistant feminisms, radical feminism and lesbian feminism. Gender resistant feminisms generally view patriarchy and sexism as the most elemental factor in women’s oppression – cutting across all others from race and age to culture, caste and class (insert in-text citation).
Radical Feminism has been concerned with all forms of oppression which affect the life changes and human dignity of women (Thompson 133). Radical feminists claim that patriarchy is the primary cause of women’s oppression and could be difficult to eradicate its root is deeply embedded in most men’s consciousness (Lorber 16). The oppression of women, radical feminists have argued, provided the model for all other forms of oppression because it happened first in human history. Women were the first social group to be enslaved. Once men learned that other human beings, namely women, could be enslaved, they applied that model to other groups of men (Thompson 133). One may confuse radical feminism and associate it with misandry or the hatred of or contempt for men or boys. Jone Lewis, however, states that radical feminism opposes patriarchy not men, “and to equate radical feminism to man-hating is to assume that patriarchy and men are inseparable, philosophically and politically (“What is Radical Feminism”).”
Lesbian feminists assert that heterosexuality functioned as an institution that supported male supremacy and female subordination. Moreover, lesbian feminists claim that lesbian individuals and relationships presented a profound challenge to the social and economic order given the central importance of heterosexuality and marriage to the maintenance of male supremacy. Additionally, lesbian feminists also claim that lesbians exemplified women’s liberation, demonstrating the personal, economic, and sexual independence that feminists believed all women should possess (“Lesbian Femnism” Encyclopedia Britannica)
Feminists – regardless of the perspectives and ideologies they support – all around the globe are performing different forms of activism everyday. In the Philippines, “Malaya,” a campaign against victim blaming, recently organized an assembly and had different speakers discuss about abuse on women and the different forms of victim blaming. Students were also given a chance to perform their spoken word poetry about the issue. A month ago, the world celebrated the International Women’s day and in honor of women around the globe, Gabriela and Gabriela Youth, marched along the main streets of metro manila, Tacloban, and Mindanao. And in an international level, every year, thousands of citizens around the globe march along side one another for the annual Women’s March. Indeed, activism (not just feminist activism) is and has been present in our lives.
Joyce’s study, Activism Success: A Concept Explication, she tries to define and create a conceptual definition of activism and activism success based on different measurements and existing literature and ultimately came to a conclusion that activism is “an effort that seeks to change or prevent change to the status quo in order to improve or protect the welfare of some threatened or disadvantaged beneficiary, using methods not limited to prescribed and conventional means of influencing antagonists (Joyce 76).” In the case of feminist activism, feminists have been trying, for more than a century, to fight the injustices towards women, and improve how women are treated in the workplace, in learning institutions, and in society in general through different forms including, but no limited to protests or street demonstrations, petitions, and boycotts.
Using Joyce’s definition of activism, what exactly are the activities/methods used by organizations and individuals to attempt to influence change?
Baumgardner and Richards, have cited the prominent forms of activism (155). The first is activist training which takes a group of passionate and interested individuals and preparing them with tools in which to organize protests or recruit more members into an organization (insert int-ext sitation). Case in point, Amnesty International released an “activist toolkit” for individuals who may show interest in activism or may want to start their own campaigns. Amnesty International’s 50-page document gives detailed information on the need-to-knows on activism and being an activist and covers everything from the basics of recruiting potential members, participating in online activism, promotion of campaigns, to being an effective speaker (Amnesty International USA).
The second form of activism is the boycott of a specific product or commodity. Friedman defines boycott as an attempt by an individual or an organization to achieve a specific goal by convincing consumers to avoid purchasing certain products or services (Friedman 97).
Canvassing, or known as door-to-door canvassing, has been one of the notable forms of activism. According to WRAP’s step-by-step guide on canvassing, this method can be used effectively to raise awareness,
Petitions are formal requests for action addressed to specific persons of authority, a specific governmental sector, or even the management of a private entity. Petitions are primarily focused on a specific issue and are created by a concerned individual or a group of individuals whose aim is to collect as many signatures as they can within a period of time (Polyas.com). Each signature denotes an individual’s support for the petition. An example of a popular petition, albeit via created online, is the petition to prevent then-newly elected US President Donald Trump from making a state visit to the United Kingdom. The petition was posted on the petition page of the UK Government and Parliament and has garnerd 1.8 million e-signatures. Should a petition get 100,000 signatures, it will be considered for debate in the Parliament (petitions.parliament.uk).
Protests, or demonstrations, according to Dalton, are “direct-action techniques of confronting political elites, instead of participating within a framework defined by elites (59)” and can be concentrated on certain political or social issues. In the case of feminist activism, there have been numerous recorded street demonstrations through the course of our history that have affected and improved societies’ views on women – notable feminist protests in history include: women’s suffrage parade in Washington DC, 1913 which resulted to women being granted the right to vote (Cohen, The White House) and the Icelandic women’s strike in 1975 or also known as the “Woman’s Day Off”, wherein 90% of the women in Iceland went on a strike and refused to work, cook, and look after their children (Brewer, BBC News).
Mohamed Taib argues that to develop a more meaningful experience of activism, two important elements must always be present (3). First, campaigns must always have a sense of historical mission. This means that one must be aware that the present condition of a society is shaped by historical events and that actions and decisions made in the present will affect the future (3). Ultimately, one can argue that radical feminists having been trying to disrupt the status quo because they are aware that the current position of women in society is a result of decades of constant discrimination against their gender, and that through activism, they hope to affect the future status of women, and hopefully attain equality.
The second important component of activism is a genuine concern for people (3). Taib argues empathy is an important attribute in campaign or movement and that activists cannot truly and effectively confront societal problems without experiencing the challenges, sufferings and the joys of the group of marginalized people they wish to help and making a sincere effort in understanding the “mechanics of society and the processes of social change (4).” One cannot be an effective feminist activist without understanding and empathizing with the everyday struggles of women – catcalling, victim-blaming, rape culture, and discrimination among others. One must also understand the essence of feminism and what perspective one stands by.
The Self-Determination Theory (SDT), explores what motivates people and “moves them into action (Deci & Ryan 486).” Edward Deci and Richard Ryan, the proponents of this theory, suggest that there are two different types of motivation. The first is autonomous motivation which describes what an individual is doing when he or she is feeling a full sense of willingness and choice. Individuals who are autonomously or intrinsically motivated tend to “endorse what they are doing because they find it interesting or enjoyable, or consistent with their deeply held values (Deci & Ryan 486).”
One can argue that individuals participate in feminist protests because they consider themselves feminists and they value gender equality and believe that everyone, regardless of their gender and their preference, should be granted equal opportunities and rights under the law, in the workplace, in health institutions, and in learning institutions.
But what happens when an organization and its members have lost its purpose, its sense of historical mission, its genuine concern for people? Sarah Sobieraj theorizes that some organizations are more focused and motivated by gaining visibility – this means that their primary concern is attaining media coverage. Sobieraj further argues that there have been instances wherein organizations would train their volunteers how to answer interviews should a journalist ask for one, organize press conferences, and even go as extreme as break the laws of state, all for the hope of gaining the media’s attention (17). However, Sobrieraj claims that this hunger for publicity not only fails, but also affects the organization itself detrimentally; because the marketing strategy of the organization is solely tailored for the news media, members find it difficult to establish rapport with ordinary citizens who might be interested in their cause. Often times, Sobrieraj found it insincere and dishonest (17).
With Sobieraj’s contention on media-centered activism, she questions the motivations of these organizations for holding protests (both offline and online). This study was echoed by Jackie Smith et al. They contend that protesters are ultimately interested in shaping the agenda-building process by helping define how issues are framed in the mass media. These activists often rely on street protests to attract media attention that might further their aims and amplify their issues on social agendas (7-8).
Sobieraj and Smith’s contention is anchored on the second type of motivation in the Self-determination theory, the controlled or extrinsic motivation, which argues that an individual’s behavior is motivated by incentives and rewards such as money, fame, and praise among others (Cherry, Very Well Mind). In the case Sobieraj’s contention, organizations are extrinsically motivated by the possibility of media coverage which organization heads and members deem as their reward for active participation.
Offline feminist activism has, time and time again, proved itself by disturbing the status quo through the different forms of activism. However, the dawn of the internet as also proved itself is efficient in aiding and mobilizing offline activism. Online activism is not an uncommon phenomenon. In early 2018, approximately 8.5 billion of the world’s population have direct access to the internet, specifically through their mobile phones, and to the different social media websites (GSMA Intelligence). Liu Ting noted that the concept of online activism or “cyberactivism” is used to describe social movements that occur in the virtual world which demand social and cultural change (95). Similarly, Vegh defines cyberactivism as “a politically motivated movement relying on the Internet (71-72).” Likewise, Ethan Zuckerman coined the term “participatory civics” to refer to forms of civic engagement that use the digital media its core component and further claims that millennials are known to be more active in participating in online activism than any other generation (156). It is important to define, as well, the definition of ‘digital media’ as this will determine the scope of media texts included in this study. Sarita Nayyar defines ‘digital media’ as products and services that are produced and created by the media, entertainment and information industries, and its subsectors. It also includes digital platforms, such as websites and mobile applications that enable users to generate their own digitized content, including text, audio, video, and images that can be accessed and consumed through different digital devices (i.e., smartphones, tablets, and laptops among others) (5).
With the gathered definitions, the terms online activism, cyberactivism, and participatory civics will be used interchangeably throughout the course of this study.
Similar to offline activism, there various forms of online activism that online users can engage in. Guobin Yang found that the most common forms of online activism include online petitions and hosting of campaign and fundraising websites, such as causes.com, gogetfunding.com, and indiegogo.com (34) wherein internet users may join and donate money to specific causes, such as earthquake and/or landslide survivors, cancer patients, or to nonprofit organizations. As previously mentioned, the website of the Parliamentary of the UK has a section specifically for petitions of its citizen. Government authorities will address petitions with 10,000 and above e-signature, whilst petitions with 100,000 e-signatures will be debated in the Parliamentary. There are also websites that are specifically designed and dedicated to be sources of “how to” knowledge about protests. netsquared.org and mobileactive.org are examples of websites where individuals can gain information and increase their knowledge on offline civic engagement (Earl and Kimport 226) and possibly guide citizens on how to conduct street protests. Social media websites have also been popular in recruiting members and aiding in mobilizing physical protests. In fact, Amnesty International (amnesty.org), a global movement of more than 7 million people, have been encouraging local groups to utilize social media websites, such as Facebook and Twitter, to recruit new members, gain more supporter for their cause, organize research studies, campaigns, and even physical protests. Jessalyn Keller also found in her study that personal blogs such as Tumblr have been used as a form of activism, especially for millennial women (264); and likewise, Askanius analyzed how YouTube has been used in various political protests since its inception (16). However, the act of hacking a website is considered to be the one of the most radical forms of online protest according to Yang (33).
But what exactly causes certain groups utilize online platforms? What makes cyberactivism appealing to engage in? Chase and Mulvenon found that in China, the mobilization of [street] protests and other activities have proven to be difficult and have discovered that the expression in cyberspace is easier to achieve than in the physical world. One could argue that social media websites have allowed online users to share their opinions, stories, and experiences on a more personal and detailed level and share it with a wider audience. Political and social organizations in China have embraced and utilized the opportunities offered by the internet to organize and communicate with each other and specially to draw support from a global network of activists and non-government organizations (Chase & Mulvenon 3).
According to Bart Cammaerts, the advent of Web 2.0 and broadband infrastructures have “increased opportunities for immediate real-time online interaction (3)” which means that recruiting potential members, expanding the organization’s networks, and sharing information from around the nation and/or the world has never been this easier and convenient. Moreover, social media sites may lower transaction costs of participation. Ads on digital platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube is considerably cheaper and efficient than television and radio ads. This in turn, may possibly increase recruitment rate and guarantee the retention of recruits and the organization itself. Social media websites may also increase the ability of social movements to organize across borders on a transnational level. Facebook groups, ads, and events may aid campaign organizers in organizing a street demonstration or a street theater, or even planning a boycott. Cassie Clark also supports these arguments and further adds that activists utilize and rely on digital platforms such as Facebook, Tumblr, and Twitter to boost the visibility of their texts and provide greater exposure both to like-minded individuals and the broader public (44).
Mobile phones, tablets, and social media sites played an extremely crucial role in organizing protests against the controversial burial of former president and dictator, Ferdinand E. Marcos. As an alumna of St. Scholastica’s College, Manila, I have witnessed how our alumni utilized the functions of a Facebook group to organize their own protest in front of the campus gates. This proves Cammaertes claim that there has been not only an extensive change in political communication and mobilization, but the use of social media and mobile devices significantly lowers the cost and increases the efficiency of mobilization and coordination (5). Zuckerman claims that practitioners of cyberactivism, have the need to to see their impact on the issues they are trying to influence (156). This is due to the fact that most of these participants are millennials and have grown up with participatory media, such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and blogs where they are used to being able to share their opinions and views with the world, and to seeing their influence in terms of how many people read, like, and share their thoughts.
Most modern feminist groups and individuals have embraced the use of digital spaces to conduct significant forms of feminist activism. Liu Ting, in her article, discussed how cyberactivism in feminist movements came about in Hong Kong and in China. She further explained how the internet facilitates and maintains these kinds of movements. The concept of women’s movement had a negative connotation in both China and Hong Kong from the 1980s to the late 1990s – the country did not support feminism, and even more surprising, women refused to have their names linked to the tag ‘feminist (268).’ Fortunately, women in both places still managed to challenge dominant discourses on women and gender issues by establishing groups, organizations, networks, and activities on their own initiative (97). In 2005, many found that the internet could be a possible space for the revival of the demand for women’s rights (98). Ting surveyed several women’s organizations from Hong Kong, Beijing, and Shaanxi that were established before the rise of the internet and found that these organizations have also created their own websites. The main objectives of these websites are to disseminate the concept, activities, and previous works of these organizations, to let more charities understand the advantages, needs, achievements, and work skills of the different organizations, and to seek for more cooperation opportunities and funding from other local and global organizations and individuals (101). Ting found that these websites were mainly established to expand the networks of these feminist groups. Similarly, in the Philippines, Gabriela’s website shows the organizations latest activities, achievements, protests, and inspirational talks, and volunteer activities. Evidently, these organizations have chosen to establish and to invest in websites because of its capability to reach audiences in a global scale.
In Jessalynn Keller’s study on girl’s blogs as spaces for modern feminist activism, she found that women, mostly college millennials, use blogs as a space for feminist activism. Using content analysis and in-depth interview, Keller discovered that these bloggers chose blogging as a form of modern activism because it is accessible to them in their everyday lives, hence making it more desirable to participate in feminism (265). She further discovered the blogging has been the top choice for these young women to influence and raise awareness on feminist issues that matter, such as discrimination in the workplace. A respondent explained that blogging has been their vehicle when they are physically unable to participate in street protests or when they are financially incapable of donating to a worthy feminist charity, and more importantly, these blogs have been a safe space for women around the world to make them feel secure and that they are not alone in their struggles.
Ni Una Menos, is a campaign that started in Argentina in 2015. It is a protest led by feminists and women against femicide or the killings of women because of her gender (UN Women, 2017). In Polly Terzian’s study of the Ni Una Menos movement, she found that the “micro-blogging” website and mobile application, Twitter, played an essential role in the mobilization of Ni Una Menos. What is more interesting to note is that in the first quarter of said year, organizers have tried to mobilize the campaign via Facebook, which was considered to be more popular in Argentina during that year (39), however, it was only when the campaign was disseminated through Twitter, in May 2015, that the hashtag #NiUnaMenos and the entire campaign went viral. And in just a month after, the first #NoUnaMenos street demonstration gathered more than 300,000 in front of the National Congress of Argentina and in other major cities around the country (Friedman & Tabbush 4). This shows that social media websites are not just merely repositories of the thoughts and opinions of individuals, but are also capable of avalanching into something that could possibly impact a nation, or even the world.
The internet facilitates the efforts of these feminist groups (and possibly other social and political group as well), to spread information about the different causes, increase the public’s awareness on certain socio-political issues, and also aid in organizing offline activism. Digital public spheres are constantly evolving, and have allowed users to also evolve from being spectators to being active participants, allowing users to engage in intellectual discourses and inflict change.
Like offline activism, however, scholars have debated and critiqued if online activism can, in fact, make an impact in our society and disturb the status quo. Although there is no denying the importance and the impact of the internet in civic engagement, there have been debates on whether or not online activism is to be considered as “real” civic engagement due to the lack of risk of violence and/or arrest. Malcom Gladwell challenges the concept of online activism and claims that it is not “real” activism. He asserts that activism, in order to be considered ‘real,’ requires the developed trust from face to face interactions to lead people to risk arrest or assault and to confront socially engrained norms and practices. Gladwell emphasizes that online activism merely increases participation by lessening “the level of motivation that participation requires (Gladwell, New Yorker).” This means that signing online petitions or sending donations via funding websites or through PayPal accounts do not count as real activism since it does not entail sacrifice or risk.
Borge, Cardenal, and Malipica (2012) echo Gladwell’s sentiments and argue that skilled internet users need not be motivated or interested in politics to participate in at least one online political activity (qtd in Jones 2). In fact, the term ‘slacktivism’ was first used in 1995 by Fred Clark and is used to refer to bottom up activities by young people to affect society on a small personal scale used and is used in a more negative sense to be
In “A Rose for Emily,” theme of male dominance and female submission is highlighted through the relationship that Miss Emily had with her father and through the expectations that the community held about how women had to be married in order to lead a normal life. Miss Emily’s father literally controlled her social life for as long as he was alive, never allowing any man to be with her, which caused her to be alone for a long time. The community, seeing that she was alone, judged her and thought she was strange for being alone. Oblivious to what anyone thought of her, Miss Emily eventually married a man that even death could not part from her, which remained a secret until she died.
Get original essayIn those times, women were either controlled by their fathers or their husbands because they were expected to be proper at all times, stay at home, be taken care of, and act like ladies. Miss Emily’s family was a prominent family in the community and her father was well known, but not always for good things. In fact, he was thought to be a maniac and was obsessed with Miss Emily’s social life. He never thought any man was good enough for her, which ended up hurting Miss Emily instead of helping her because not being with anyone made her get judged. In the story it says, “When her father died, it got about that the house was all that was left to her; and in a away people were glad. At last they could pity Miss Emily.” In other words, when her father died, she was just born, in a way, because people felt like her humanity was finally being exposed for being alone, lonely, and poor. This is important because it shows that without her father, a lady is considered lost.
Back then, the community would judge women for being alone and not having a companion, especially if they were older. If a lady was alone, something had to be wrong with her. In Miss Emily’s case, her father was the main reason she was alone, but the community made it worse by judging her for being alone. Aware of this pressure, Miss Emily began seeing Homer Barron, a loud and obnoxious man who the community did not approve of. In the story, the community says, “Poor Emily. Her kinsfolk should come to her.” This meant that she was ruining her family’s reputation by associating with Homer Barron. Still, it was the only attention that Miss Emily was getting from any man since her father died so she did not care what the community thought at that point.
The pressure that the community placed on Miss Emily and all women made her make decisions that shook the community once it was discovered. Miss Emily stayed confined in her home for the last forty years of her life. Once she died, the room that was locked up for forty years was opened and Homer Barron’s dead body was discovered, next to which was a long gray hair, one of Miss Emily’s. The pressure to have a man in her life pushed her to keep the only man she ever had, Homer Barron, even after he died. This explained the bad smell that was coming from her home earlier in the story.
Being a woman at that time came with certain societal expectations, the most significant of which was that a man usually defined a woman. In the beginning, Miss Emily’s father defined her and controlled her life. Later, Homer Barron defined her and controlled her life, even though he was dead. She lived for him and with him because he was the only man she was ever with. The community judged her when she was alive and will now continue to judge her after death because of her questionable decisions.
Epistemology is said to be the study of knowledge and the composition of knowledge. In relation, feminist epistemology questions how gender and identity influence knowledge as well as how it may vary based on our social assumptions and stereotypes made about gender roles. Many argue that gender does, in fact, influence knowledge as these assumptions have a profound impact on how we view an individual. Along with stereotypes and the effect that gender has, epistemic injustices often occur as a result, in many cases directed towards and disadvantaging women. As Fricker acknowledges, this kind of injustice develops as a result of the connection between social power and knowledge production, thus causing an altered level of credibility, and truth value. The following are examples of epistemic injustice which appear in the form of testimonial injustice, speaking for others, and “mansplaining”. In the following paper, I will be demonstrating how, often times what women say in comparison to men is taken to be far less significant, and considered to be less justified. I will use written works composed by Miranda Fricker, Linda Alcoff, and Rebecca Solnit as a way to support my argument regarding the great disadvantage that women experience in society when dealing with credibility. Furthermore, this is a topic of great relevance as it occurs in everyday society and is experienced by all women.
Get original essayIn order for society to put an end to this, we must all be aware and mindful of these preconceived notions. Miranda Fricker discusses the widespread issue of epistemic injustice that occurs daily in society, mainly focusing on the issue of testimonial injustice. This occurs when an individual receives a decreased level of credibility due to their identity or certain characteristics which they hold. Fricker classifies this form of injustice in saying that, “testimonial injustice occurs when prejudice causes a hearer to give a deflated level of credibility to a speaker’s word… puts someone at an unfair disadvantage when it comes to making sense of their social experiences” (Fricker, 1). What causes this kind of injustice to occur is when social power creates an imbalance in power dynamics, which then influences where certain individuals fit into the world on a hierarchal scale. Therefore, this type of social conception has a great impact on how individuals are interpreted and the amount of credibility they receive as a result of their identity. As Fricker explains, the power that identity has over how an individual is interpreted occurs unconsciously, in the form of a “collective social imagination” (Fricker, 14).
Identity plays a role regarding both the speaker and the hearer in a given situation, which is what occurs in the example of testimonial injustice. In this type of situation, the identity of the individual making the testimony has an impact on the level of credibility that they will receive and the truth value that stems from what they say. In many cases involving women, the evidence or testimony that they present is considered to be insufficient because of their gender which is incredibly problematic. This scenario demonstrates a clear form of injustice that occurs due to previously conceived notions which affect how the hearer perceives the speaker, and their capacity as a knower because of their gender. The hearer provides the individual speaking with either credibility excess, or credibility deficit, as a result of this social power imbalance which causes them to have a tainted view of the individual (Fricker, 17). Credibility excess is said to be when the speaker is given a greater amount of credibility than they deserve, and credibility deficit is when they receive less credibility than they would have. In many situations, women experience credibility deficit. As Fricker demonstrates, testimonial injustice rests on the concept of “identity-prejudicial credibility deficit” as it allows the social conception and stereotypical views of what it means to be either a man or a woman impact their capacity for knowledge.
Although some argue that identity power plays a large and important role in testimony, I disagree with this notion based on the grounds that an individuals’ gender should not be a factor which influences one’s credibility. While Fricker makes a rather compelling argument regarding the epistemic injustices which occur on a daily basis, Linda Alcoff also discusses this issue, however, in questioning whether it is ever valid to ‘speak for others’ (Alcoff, 7). Both of these writers discuss how greatly identity impacts what is being said in both the speaker and the hearer, as well as the fact that this is a societal issue as opposed to an individual problem. As Alcoff states, the particular “speaker and listener affect whether a claim is taken as true, well-reasoned, compelling argument, or a significant idea” (Alcoff, 13). Thus, meaning that, the identity of the individual on both sides is going to impact the message that is being conveyed and its importance. The reason behind why this is such an epistemic injustice is because as privileged individuals speak on behalf of the less privileged or those who are disadvantaged, this reinforces oppression towards those who are being spoken for. The reason for this being that an issue of representation takes place when someone speaks on behalf of another, therefore potentially having an impact on those who are being represented through either the truth value or capacity for knowledge. The way a certain message will be perceived by the hearer and the significance which it holds will revolve around who says it (Alcoff, 13). This is a great epistemic injustice due to the fact that what someone says about or for another is always going to influence that individual’s experience. This often is directed towards women as men in many situations feel the need to represent and speak on behalf of women and explain either their needs, goals, situation and who they are. Unfortunately, what men say is very commonly considered to have much more significance or meaning behind it in comparison to women. This is an issue because men should not feel the need to represent and speak on behalf of women when they have not endured the same kind of experiences or fully understand what some women have dealt with. These epistemic injustices which occur have a great impact on all women in society, as they appear in many various forms, and occur on a daily basis. These injustices are an important issue to recognize as they influence society in how women are viewed and treated.
The social phenomenon commonly known as “mansplaining” is an example of the effect that these injustices have on the community, as it is quite prominent in today’s society. Mansplaining is discussed by Rebecca Solnit, in Men Explain Things to Me, where she defines this term as when men feel the need to explain something to women or clarify what things mean, despite the fact that they may not be fully educated on the topic themselves. This practice often conveys the feeling of men knowing what they are talking about, whereas women do not, thus leaving women feeling condescended and patronized. Solnit does not limit the victims of this to only women, however, does insist that every woman has experienced it at some point, even when it is “uninvited and unwanted”. This phenomenon of mansplaining once again demonstrates this common societal ideal that men hold a greater amount of knowledge in comparison to women and that what they say is considered to be more credible. This remains a great issue as it has instilled a lack of confidence in many women with regards to their knowledge level in relation to men. In addition, these gender stereotypes which assume what men say to be more legitimate has created an over-confidence which has been deeply rooted in society’s beliefs. While often times men only hold a passing level of knowledge regarding a topic, they still feel the need to explain things to women as a result of these assumptions.
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Get custom essayTherefore, after analyzing Miranda Fricker, Linda Alcoff, and Rebecca Solnit’s arguments in relation to epistemic injustices, I conclude by arguing that these issues are of great relevance in today’s society. They not only affect each individual woman through their own experience, but, they also impact all women as a whole. In my opinion, gender should not play a role when it comes to knowledge and credibility as it creates the potential for biases to occur in relation to the individual’s identity. Gender stereotypes often disadvantage women as what they say is considered to be far less significant and considered to be less justified in comparison to men. In order to put an end to these epistemic injustices from occurring, individuals must be more mindful of what they are saying, and how they view individuals. We must as a society recognize the stereotypes and prejudices which we hold based on gender, in order to disregard assumptions that are made and ensure an accurate level of credibility is given to each individual.
In ‘Macbeth’, Shakespeare shows three types of female characters, which will now be looked at in further detail, starting off with Lady Macbeth. Though her name, Lady Macbeth, would suggest that she should be just as her name says, a lady, an accessory to Macbeth himself, her characterisation, as one of the protagonists, defies the definition of the traditional female gender role defined by Tyson (2006) as she is neither emotional nor submissive. She describes a scene of infanticide (I would […] have plucked my nipple from his boneless gums, and dashed the brains out […]) showing that she dislikes children, unlike the typical women whose main aim it should be to raise children and care for the family. Lady Macbeth exudes dominance throughout the play and makes her power be heard.
Get original essayFurthermore, she openly rejects her femininity through the words “Come […] unsex me here […] Come to my woman’s breasts, and take my milk for gall […]”. To make her worthy of murder, she asks spirits to “unsex me here,” implying that being a woman means she cannot be powerful. This is the first example of Lady Macbeth purposefully rejecting her femaleness to gain power. Lady Macduff acts as a counterpart to Lady Macbeth. She is written as the stereotypical female character, who is submissive and puts her family above all else. Even though she does voice minor criticism relating to her husband’s actions (“His flight was madness. When our actions do not, our fears do make us traitors. ”), women were supposed to accept whatever choices their husbands made and not criticise them, it is all made up for when his intention for leaving is discovered. Through the critique Lady Macduff differentiates herself from Lady Macbeth because she appeals to Macduff’s morale as opposed to Lady Macbeth, whose words are meant to drive her husband to commit heinous crimes. Lady Macduff is a prime example of female stereotype as she is portrayed as weak, powerless and submissive to the actions of men, which ultimately leads to her death when attacked by murderers hired by Macbeth. She maintains a close relationship with her husband, even though she voices criticism and concern whenever he leaves his family to go about his obligations. This close relationship leaves Macduff in agony upon discovering her death, as well as seeking revenge.
Macbeth on the other hand seems to almost completely ignore the suicide of his wife, which shows that Lady Macbeth’s death did not come as a loss to him. Other characters who do not fit the female stereotype are the Three Witches who are described as having manly features in appearance. Banquo depicts the Witches as “withered” hags (“What are these so withered and so wild in their attire […]”). They appear to him like unearthly outsiders – ones that do not belong in the realm of humans. Their gender is undecidable to him because they have beards (“You should be women, And yet your beards forbid me to interpret / That you are so. ”). They practice witchcraft, which, in Shakespearean times was a hot topic, as King James VI of Scotland was convinced about the existence of witchcraft and believed it posed a threat to him. This fear lead to witch trials in 1591 and in 1597 he published the “Demonology”, his study of witchcraft, which was later published in London after his ascent to the throne in 1603 (Levin 2016). Shakespeare uses a connection between gender and power to portray Lady Macbeth in a more masculine way than is expected from a female character in that era. Even though at times, the reader is lead to believe that she is nothing but the naïve and harmless wife of Macbeth her character is full of greed and envy, and she will do just about anything to accomplish whatever she has her mind set on. Using the traditionally female means of achieving goals, namely deception and manipulation, she tries to manipulate Macbeth to commit murder and succeeds by mocking his masculinity, when he first hesitates to commit homicide. Lady Macbeth’s actions show that women have the power to be just as driven and cruel as men. Her questioning his manhood is what ultimately drives him to murder just to prove himself to her, even though he would most likely never have committed these crimes without her psychological force. Shakespeare makes the reader overthink the pre-existing views of what is typically masculine and feminine by portraying Lady Macbeth the way she is. Lady Macbeth is determined to achieve her goals but fails to withstand the consequences of her actions. She has recurring nightmares in which she tries to wash imaginary blood from her hands, even though never having committed murder herself.
The guilt she feels is what drives her to suicide in the end. Lady Macbeth presents herself as her husband’s collaborator, rather than as a being with her own self-interests. Because her identity is based upon her conceptions of manliness, she serves to block Macbeth’s exits from the world of men, when she should be offering alternatives to it. In Women’s Worlds in Shakespeare Plays, Irene G. Dash writes of a Lady Macbeth torn between ideals of morality and power. Lady Macbeth desires to renounce her sex and powerlessness and in the process has to renounce morality, which she ultimately cannot follow through on. In the beginning of the play, she believes that she the strong figure in her union. However, she is only attempting to deny the double standard that she’s been subjected to: the subservient and obedient woman versus the creature of morality, taking a stand for what is right. Lady Macbeth finds the classical concept of femininity repulsive but cannot deny womanhood without denying morality as well.
Unfortunately, neither of her desires can carry through: she in unable to commit the initial murder herself because the sleeping king reminds her of her father. In this, she exhibits tenderness as well as a moral code. Still, in the beginning of the work she appears to be a strong, masculine figure, but, by the end of the play, resorts to mothering her husband, who, after the desired gaining power, no longer needs to regard her. As Dash says, “Lady Macbeth’s tragedy [is the] futility of her attempt to move into the wale world, and, having adopted her moral standards, her ever-increasing isolation from him” (Dash 161-171). Dash believes that she was written as a sympathetic character, whose staccato-like appearance in the play shows the tragedy of invisibility to the men around her. However, because of the societal tendency to immediately dehumanize a woman who desiring power over motherhood, many of her important scenes are cut and she is turned to a villain, and Macbeth into a hero (Dash 179).
The scene after Duncan’s murder is a perfect example of this. Previously, the audience saw a strong woman in command of herself and her husband, stepping, without flinching, over the lines of morality. In this scene, she faints several times, and is simply waved away by the men surrounding her. This was due to the fact that what the director had created was an evil woman that the audience could not identify with. I agree with Dash in that Shakespeare created a sympathetic character in Lady Macbeth. She was not at all a stock villain–it was not Shakespeare’s norm to create monsters out of people. By writing a woman who was attempting to break out of her role, Shakespeare was opening up a discussion of what women, and ultimately, people are capable of. Although power may be alluring, no human can forget his or her nature as a creature of morality. Therefore, feminist critical theory helps us to understand Lady Macbeth’s character better due to Shakespeare’s deliberate attempt of portraying her as a female possessing male attributes in a patriarchal society.
Barbara Kruger. That is a name that many people recognize in today’s society. Kruger is a contemporary artist who focuses mainly around feminism. She specializes in techniques of production, visual formats, and verbal style. Kruger creates photographs and puts a sentence over the top of the image. Most of the time, The sentences have bold, white letters, surrounded by a bright red box. Barbara utilizes the techniques of advertising and propaganda to campaign for gender equality. Her work shows up all over; billboards, books, museums, and much more. Her goal is to communicate with a mass audience. Kruger rejects advertising alliances with commercial interests and propaganda’s dependence on governmental authority. Most of her work remains untitled but are referred to as the text inside the image. Kruger has been featured in many many books, podcasts,and documentaries, and has even released a few of her own. She is one of the most successful contemporary artists today. Barbara Kruger’s art work plays a huge role in today’s fight for gender equality.
Get original essayAn example of Kruger’s work would be You are not Yourself. This image was created in 1981 and shows a woman examining herself in a mirror that seems to have been stuck and shattered by a bullet. The text drifts from Kruger’s signature red box and the letters are zigzagged around the image to match the broken mirror. This image suggests that the existence of women in society is inherently fragmented. It also implies the women are forced to adopt specific roles and are held to expectations that society has created. This leads on to the point that when a woman is finally has time to look at herself in the mirror, she finds that she is “not herself”. She is the person that society wants her to be. Kruger uses this image to encourage the viewer to consider and question their own subjectivity.
A second example of Kruger’s work would be Your Body is a Battleground, created in 1989. During the year 1989, there were several protests about the new anti abortion laws that were going against the 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision She created this image for the Women’s March on Washington in support for reproductive freedom. Not only was this a pro-choice image, but Kruger created it to tell the story of a woman’s struggles in society. In this image, Kruger took a woman’s face and split it down the middle. One side is in positive exposure, while the other is in negative exposure. The text above the image is centered straight down the center.
The last example of Kruger’s work would be Your Comfort is My Silence. This image was also created in 1981. Kruger uses her signature mark of the power of words and images to attract the attention of the audience. It shows a man with his pointer finger in front of his mouth, hushing the viewer. The text has a white box around it, however over the words “Your” and “silence”, there is a red box that portrays as a sticker above the original text. This image shows females as submissive and males as dominant, and speaks the female point of view. This brings attention to gender identities.
Barbara Kruger played, and still does, a huge role in the gender equality movement. Her work brings attention to and exposes issues on gender inequalities combined with other issues such as consumption, money, war, and many others. Kruger once said, “I work with pictures and words because they have the ability to determine who we are, what we want to be, and what we become”.
The novel Fight Club, by Chuck Palahniuk, tells the story of a nameless protagonist enveloped in a consumer-driven society. A stereotypical American driven by consumption and possessions, he finds himself living day-to-day as a cog in the machine of a corporate society. Plagued by insomnia and his detachment to the world, the narrator must split his personality, thereby creating a powerful alter ego with which to attack society. With 20th century America as a backdrop, Palahniuk writes a powerful critique of the effects of a feminized, capitalistic society on the mind of this nameless narrator.
Get original essayThe narrator in Palahniuk's Fight Club is one of millions of cogs in corporate America. A recall campaign coordinator of a nameless company, he describes himself as an average, middle class American. Traveling for work, he constantly wakes up to what he refers to as a "single serving" life. "I go to the hotel tiny soap, tiny shampoos, single-serving butter, tiny mouthwash and a single-use toothbrush" (Palahniuk 28).
He later describes his obsession with consumer culture, saying: “You buy furniture. You tell yourself, this is the last sofa I will ever need in my life. Buy the sofa, then for a couple years you're satisfied that no matter what goes wrong, at least you've got your sofa issue handled. Then the right set of dishes. Then the perfect bed. The drapes. The rug. Then you're trapped in your lovely nest, and the things you used to own, now they own you” (44).
Further, the narrator makes it clear he isn't the only one with an ingrained nesting instinct. When detailing his consumer-driven life, he states "the people I know who used to sit in the bathroom with pornography, now they sit in the bathroom with their IKEA furniture catalogue" (43). As a product-driven society has become the new American norm, Palahniuk shows us the replacement of stereotypical male activities replaced with domestic, "nesting instincts".
In her critical analysis of the film version of the novel, "Hurt So Good: Fight Club, Masculine Violence, and the Crisis of Capitalism", Lynn M. Ta suggests this description of American culture exhibits "an anxiety about masturbatory commercialism by locating the cause of the narrator's seeming loss of masculinity in the proliferation of consumer culture, thereby making participation in capitalism, once considered an entrepreneurial and male endeavor, a feminine activity" (Ta 273). We see in this critique the bonds between an encroaching feminized culture and a capitalistic society. This capitalistic culture, then, can be seen as the root of the loss of traditional male values, replacing them with domestic, feminine, commercial values.
In "Fight Club: Historicizing the Rhetoric of Masculinity, Violence, and Sentimentality", Suzanne Clark puts forth the theory that the idea of the "domestic, consuming individual (object of middle-class desire) is feminine" (Clark 413). It is this domestic, feminine world that we see our narrator fighting against. The novel, then, reasserts the masculine identity which is threatened by the feminization of an increasingly consumerist American culture. This said, Palahniuk's nameless protagonist, in an effort to regain his lost masculinity, must create Tyler Durden, his alter ego.
Tyler is everything the narrator is not. A radical anarchist, Tyler revolts against anything driven by capitalism. When creating "Fight Club" (and later Project Mayhem) Tyler gives an impassioned speech, explaining: “Advertising has these people chasing cars and clothes they don't need. Generations have been working in jobs they hate, just so they can buy what they don't really need. We don't have a great war in our generation, or a great depression, but we have a great war of the spirit. We have a great revolution against the culture. The great depression is our lives" (Palahniuk 149).
With no great war or depression, "Tyler registers the lack of purpose his generation experiences, and his tirade not only condemns the capitalist cycle to which they are enslaved it is the ideal of liberalism that has disillusioned men into thinking that masculinity and success are attainable through personal effort" (Ta 274).
Entwined with the disgust of capitalism is Tyler's revolt against all things feminine. This revolt is evident in the fear of castration that runs throughout the novel. From the beginning of the novel, we see the narrator attempting to cure his insomnia through a self-help group for men with testicular cancer. Through "Remaining Men Together", the narrator "is able to find comfort among other men who have also experienced a sense of masculine loss" (Ta 270). However, as Ta explains, the narrator's loss is merely psychological. "Therefore, the narrator's, fear of castration is alleviated in the presence of men who have undergone actual castration" (Ta 270).
In creating Tyler, the narrator seeks to recover this lost masculinity caused by a capitalistic society. He splits into "a sadistic (and masculine) Tyler who criticizes and punishes a masochistic (and feminine) self" (Ta 266). Throughout the novel, we see the narrator and his alter ego revolt against the feminized corporate world. As the narrator expresses a fear of castration through his attendance at "Remaining Men Together", his alter ego, Tyler expresses a similar fear of castration. Tyler, working as a movie projectionist splices penis images into family films. Often discussing his estranged father, Tyler says "he starts a new family in a new town about ever six years" (Palahniuk 50). When his dad suggests he marry, Tyler responds "I'm a thirty-year-old boy, and I'm wondering if another woman is really the answer I need" (Palahniuk 51).
Thus, by splicing shots of penises into family films, Ta suggests he is "figuratively cutting off his own penis and inserting it into the family unit as a means of reasserting patriarchal authority in an otherwise matriarchal society" (270). Later in the novel, Tyler sees a dildo on Marla's dresser. "Don't be afraid. It's not a threat to you," Marla says. Tyler's fear of castration includes this fake penis that threatens to outperform him, again stealing his masculinity (Palahniuk 61).
Lastly, at the end of the novel, the narrator, attempting to stop the chaos that Tyler has created tries to turn himself in. At this point, one of the members of Project Mayhem says "You know the drill, Mr. Durden. You said it yourself. You said, if anyone ever tries to shut down the club, even you, then we have to get him by the nuts" (Palahniuk 187). This time, the narrator leaves himself with no option but to physically lose his masculinity if he tries to retreat from his newly-created male world.
Returning to the creation of "Fight Club", Suzanne Clark suggests "the real danger is an imbalance in the gender wars created by feminism, and Fight Club the self-help group that will let men be men again" (Clark 413). Through the feminization of an increasingly capitalistic society, Tyler (and by extension the narrator), must create Fight Club in an effort to regain their lost masculinity. "What you see at fight club is a generation of men raised by women," the narrator observes (Palahniuk 50). This comment reflects the narrator's own childhood in a family with an absent father. With no male role model, he (and the other men in Fight Club) turn to more feminized, domestic activities in the matriarchal culture.
In "Oedipal Obsession", Paul Kennett explores the oedipal complex found in the narrator. He states "The narrator considers his crisis of identification to be a crisis of masculinity, and becomes swept up in alter-ego Tyler Durden's obsessive quest to achieve identification through the classic Oedipal complex" (Kennett 48). If this is the case, his participation in Fight Club and self-violence can be seen as rooted in the Oedipal complex, in which he looks to the created Tyler Durden to provide him with a meaningful identity.
Ta, however, looks toward Freud and the condition of dissociated identity in her analysis of the narrator. She notes that the disempowered male narrator seeks release in a brute, regressive Tyler, suggesting that "violence is not only symptomatic, but also constitutive, of this condition of dissociated identity" (Ta 265). Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID) is, according to Freud, a psychological condition found to be the result of severe childhood trauma or abuse. During the process of mental dissociation, the individual fails to make mental connections between his/herself and their alternate personality. In the case of Fight Club, the narrator must split his personality in order to survive.
Ta suggests the narrator is a mirror of Freud's "melancholic sadomasochist who, registering the loss of a love-object, undergoes self-division and splits into a tyrannical superego that punishes a submissive ego that in turn grows to enjoy the punishment" (Ta 266). As a cog in the corporate machine, the narrator feels victimized by a culture that has stolen his masculinity and thus feels he must protect this masculinity through his unconscious creation of Tyler.
It is here, Ta suggests, that Freud's theory of melancholia provides a framework for understanding the narrator's participation in a feminized society while resisting the castrating culture it promotes. Freud states that mourning is the state in which an individual reacts to the loss of a loved person or idea. The person must go through a period of grieving, usually overcoming his/her grief and returning to his pre-loss condition. However, the melancholic subject faces a a different loss. Freud writes:
The object has not perhaps actually died, but has become lost as an object of love. in yet other cases one feels justified in concluding that a loss of the kind has been experienced, but one cannot see clearly what has been lost, and may the more readily suppose that the patient too cannot consciously perceive what it is he has lost . . . this would suggest that melancholia is in some way related to an unconscious loss of a love-object, in contradistinction to mourning, in which there is nothing unconscious about the loss (155).
In simpler terms, the narrator suffers the loss of a love-object (masculinity) but is not completely aware of his loss. His alter ego, however, is created for the purpose of reclaiming the love-object. As a result of his loss of masculinity, the narrator experiences symptoms matching those of the melancholic. He suffers from depression, sleeplessness, detached from the outside world and begins to punish himself. Most importantly, however, is the experience of a split in personality.
With this understanding, Ta explains that the narrator "embodies Freud's description of the melancholic condition" (Ta 273). She continues to explain that it is in his quest to cure his insomnia that leads to the creation of Tyler. "Tyler, then, represents the divided melancholic self invented to punish the ego (the narrator)" (Ta 273).
This theory, combined with the struggle of a capitalistic society, is seen through the stark contrast between the narrator and his other self. In contrast to the narrator's material filled condo, Tyler's abandoned house on Paper Street is described as "three stories and a basement" (Palahniuk 57). "Everywhere there are rusted nails to step on or nag your elbow on. . . there's no lock on the front door from when police or whoever kicked in the door. . . there's nine layers of wallpaper swelling on the dining-room walls" (Palahniuk 57). Tyler's house represents his own primitive masculinity.
Fight Club, and later Project Mayhem, represent the narrator's quest to break free from a capitalist society while reclaiming his masculinity. "When Tyler invented Project Mayhem, Tyler said the goal of Project Mayhem had nothing to do with other people. Tyler didn't care if other people got hurt or not. The goal was to teach each man in the project that he had the power to control history. We, each of us, can take control of the world" ( 122). Fed up with being drones in a capitalistic society which keeps their power to a minimum, Tyler and the narrator fight against the machine the only way they know how; by destroying society's rules.
In the culminating scenes of the chaos of Project Mayhem, Tyler calls for the castration of the Seattle Police Commissioner. When face-to-face with the commissioner, Tyler speaks out against the evils of a capitalistic society. "The people you're trying to step on, we're everyone you depend on. We're the people who do your laundry and cook your food and serve your dinner. We are cooks and taxi drivers and we know everything about you.
We control every part of your life" (Palahniuk 166). Seen in this example, Tyler's organizations have quickly turned into anarchy and chaos. Ta notes the irony in Tyler's organizations, saying "Fight Club, and later Project Mayhem, reproduce the same effects of capitalism by creating the illusion of freedom through demands for self-regulation and self punishment these individuals seek relief from an oppressive capitalistic order through means that are equally conforming and repressive" (Ta 267).
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Get custom essayThe organizations, with their strict demands and seemingly endless lists of rules, mimic the oppressive capitalistic society that the narrator has come to revolt against. In addition to five hundred dollars for personal burial money, "the applicant has to arrive with the following: Two black shirts. Two pairs of trousers. One pair of heavy black shoes. Two pair of black socks and two pair of plain underwear. One heavy black coat. One white towel one white plastic mixing bowl" (Palahniuk 128). Further, as the narrator notices, the men are each trained in teams, each with a job, and no one asking questions. This new "society" is equally, if not more, repressive than the capitalist society they are trying to escape.
Webster's Machiavellian antagonist Ferdinand demonstrates a decline into insanity in 'The Duchess of Malfi' through displaying signs of uncontrollable emotions, fixations on his sister and incestuous desires, and the development of lycanthropy.
Get original essayFerdinand's explosive fits of rage and his passionate plotting against the Duchess when he discovers her secret marriage reflect a man without control over his own behavior. One example of this can be found when he plans to dip her children in 'sulphur/ and 'light them like a match'. In this scene Ferdinand delivers numerous lengthy monologues in which he describes murdering the Duchess and her children, whereas the Cardinal speaks only one or two lines at a time; the contrast between the two of them highlights Ferdinand's uncontrollable passion and anger, whereas the Cardinal is shown to be much more in control of his emotions despite holding the same anger at the Duchess' betrayal of the brothers. Later in this scene Ferdinand addresses his incestuous desires for his twin sister; he displays a literal loss of control of his thoughts when he asks the Cardinal to distract him or his 'imagination will carry (him) to see her in the shameful act of sin'. By asking the Cardinal to do this Ferdinand displays how his subconscious is angry with his sister being intimate with another man rather than the revelation of her pregnancy and bastard children, as he cannot help but imagine his sister in a sexual light.
In the 2016 Cambridge interpretation of the play, the actor who played Ferdinand displayed numerous physical losses of control regarding the Duchess, such as flinching to touch her and even kissing her corpse, which could tell the audience that his mental state is now controlling him and he in fact has no control over his actions.Ferdinand's anger in this conversation is directed at the Duchess' sexual activity, which insinuates that he is jealous of her lover rather than angry at her betrayal. This is further demonstrated when he imagines who she has slept with physically as a 'strong-thighed bargeman', Ferdinand's fixation on who her lover is physically rather than socially or emotionally reflects how he is fixated on the physical element of his sister's relationship. Ferdinand's inability to accept that his incestuous desires are his own flaw rather than the Duchess' is shown through his decision to murder her and her children, rather than face his own personal and mental issues with incest. By blaming the Duchess for his own issues Ferdinand displays arrogance and a lack of personal awareness, this could also have been influenced by the patriarchy that 'The Duchess of Malfi' was written during, which could lead to women being blamed for men's wrongs.
In Renaissance England when 'The Duchess of Malfi' was written, werewolves held connotations of an unbalanced relationship between a human's body and mind. Contemporary audiences of the play during the Jacobean era were more likely to have believed lycanthropy to be a real illness and have more belief in the supernatural, however modern audiences are more likely to see Ferdinand's 'transformation' into a wolf as a more comical element in the play. Although lycanthropy was sometimes believed to be a literal transformation from man into wold, it was also commonly referring to someone who was deluded enough to believe that they were capable of such transformations. Although Ferdinand is related to wolves and animal imagery frequently throughout the narrative, such as when he calls the Duchess' children 'cubs' and the Cardinal refers to his anger at the Duchess as 'beastly', he is not diagnosed with 'A very pestilent disease, my lord... The call it lycanthropia' until the final act.
However, if we assume that Ferdinand's lycanthropy is induced by 'melancholy', otherwise known as depression, as was said to be it's cause at the time, it can be argued that his illness began after the Duchess' murder in Act Four, when he says, 'I bade thee, when i was distracted of my wits... Go kill my dearest friend'. Although he ordered Bosola to murder his sister, he gets angry after, claiming that he was out of his mind when he ordered Bosola to do so; his language here suggests that his madness has already begun prior to her death.
Ferdinand's delusions reach a climax in Act Five before his death; the doctor mentions seeing'the duke, 'bout midnight...with a leg of a man upon his shoulder; and he howl'd fearfully; said he was a wolf; only the difference was, a wolf's skin was hairy on the outside, his on the inside'. The doctor's description of Ferdinand here not only demonstrates the height of his delusions; claiming he is literally a wolf and digging up corpses from graveyards, but also reiterates Ferdinand's foul character by calling him 'hairy' on the inside. The description of Ferdinand's insides being 'hairy' suggests to the audience that his mind and inner personality was always corrupt, possibly insinuating that his insanity was present from the start of the narrative, but has only grown with the development of the narrative.