A Response to Embroidery by Ray Bradbury Essays

Charlotte Perkins Gilman was a prominent American feminist, sociologist, novelist, writer of short stories, poetry, and nonfiction, and a lecturer for social reform. She served as a role model for future generations of feminists because of her unorthodox concepts and lifestyle. She also wrote many books, short stories, poems, and essays including Why Women Do Not Reform Their Dress. Gilman’s purpose in Why Women Do Not Reform Their Dress is to express her ideas on why women went through so much pain wearing the clothes they did, just to be acknowledged in certain social circles. Gilman explores the different ranges of imagery, detail, and diction to depict the need of women to be approved by society and the torment they put themselves through to do so.

While women have achieved equality along with political and social independence in many ways over the past century, contemporary feminist movements continue to blossom as gender expectations and stereotypes remain deeply embedded in our culture. Today and in the past, feminist notions about the social norms that limit women's possibilities have yearned for expression and have found this through various artistic outlets. The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, The Story of An Hour by Kate Chopin, and the 1944 Film Gaslight are three artistic works that relay feminist themes in a unique way. These three works differ in certain aspects, but all ultimately embody the same underlying theme of the oppression and liberation.

In many parts of the story, it’s shown that the author is comparing the men and women of that time. Her structure however, is interesting. She would talk about the men first, give them a few points why they had lived miserable, and then bring up bigger points to the women and why they had struggled. By doing this it created an illusion of one clearly worse than the other. Her argument is built the most on these sections as she strives to show the clear differences of the suffering, and also society’s view of the different genders. By setting up these few points in the structure of the essay, the author succeeds in setting up what would persuade the crowd the

The women of America have been fighting for equality for generations. Today, more men and women alike are participation in the feminist movement than ever before. Activists are still fighting to close the wage gap and end unrealistic societal expectations, among combating many other issues that the female population still faces. Though the fight is not over yet, society has come a long way. The feminist movement first sparked in the late 1840’s. Women such as Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton served as trailblazers for the Women’s Suffrage movement. The early suffragettes set the stage for many more changes to come for American society (“United States Suffrage”). Among the women who did their part to gain equality were Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Tillie Olsen, authors of the short stories “The Yellow Wallpaper” and “I Stand Here Ironing.” These works both act as semi-autobiographical documentations of the effects of patriarchal society on women’s mental, emotional and physical health. “The Yellow Wallpaper” and “I Stand Here Ironing” were written more than sixty years apart, but in what ways do they relate? The narrators of both of these stories come from very different backgrounds, but despite their differing circumstances, they are both familiar with the oppression and hardship that women have faced throughout history.

In the “Cut Piece”, the people who cut her clothes more and more are the viewers. Maybe at the beginning of the show, they did not even realize that they would do this. Maybe the one who finally cut off her bra straps was very shy and had trouble to go on the stage to cut a tiny piece of her dress. But people changed eventually. Those changes are unconscious and inevitable, which exactly exposed the essence of the unbalance between man and woman during the 1960s. People cannot deny, because that is what they did, it is sure and real, it is not an arranged performance but a real one with an actual reaction. This kind of form can give a bigger impact on the audience and touch them deeply. They would really think about the social issue and make some changes from

Women can often experience suppression in their daily lives due to people including husbands, co-workers, or peers. Many of these people will underestimate the capabilities of women and treat them in an unjust manner. The women in the novel initially symbolize a wrinkled piece of cloth. A person tramples on a smooth piece of cloth and wrinkles appear. Just like in the novel, the men overpower and show authority towards the women and cause them to become fearful and scared. But when someone comes around and irons this piece of cloth it can become smooth again. In the novel, there are people the women encounter that help them to find themselves and let go of these “wrinkles” signifying fear and being inferior. Instead they become a smooth

For centuries man has created this patriarchal society in which women have been treated as the lesser entity, having no sense of self-being or worth. These feelings led women to feel repressed in their everyday life. It was in the late nineteenth century when literary writers started to expose this female repression. Guy de Maupassant and Kate Chopin clearly express definitive examples of female repression in their stories, The Necklace and The Story of an Hour.

However Bennet and Royle contend that there is ‘no such thing as a feminist…or a sexist work in itself: it all depends on how it is read’. Taking this into account it is arguably an outlet to restructure the reader’s stereotyping, the high regards as well as the norms, historically associated with Women in myths and tales of this kind that Bennet and Royle claim

This is a young woman cutting her hair in preparation for participating in war. It shows her giving up her traditional view of a woman to take on the appearance of a man to do something she desires. It shows that one cannot be accepted unless he or she is of a certain gender. Some sociological themes and concepts illustrated in this photograph

The social constructs of masculinity and femininity have always been in flux. Due to the inherent social disparity between these titles, women by and large became the first to openly challenge the arguably inferior role that had been forced upon them, prompting the mass social discourse referred to as “the woman question”. At it’s core, the woman question asked society what a woman should be, and what should the ideal woman do with her life. This historical turning point resulted in two primary schools of thought; the traditionalist who believed a woman’s place was in the home, and her duty was to her husband, and the radicals who believed that a woman should be autonomous. In the short stories The Yellow Wallpaper and

In society, women were looked upon to be under the patriarchal control of men. People such as Donald Hall, writer of the book on Literary and Cultural Theory, explains his views on how “women have been denied social power and the right to various forms of self-expression (Hall 202).” Writers such as Kate Chopin and Charlotte Perkins Gilman, (authors of the “Awakening”/”The Story of an Hour” and “The Yellow-Wallpaper” respectively), have taken these patriarchal views and have incorporated them into various stories that portray the oppression that women face in these communities. Ultimately, their sole purpose of expressing such matters are to help identify how the patriarchal control of men evidently impacts how women can express themselves as individuals.

In his story, the surviving women were given better medical treatment and more attention after the bombing than the men, which seems unfair since it was America, the country that fights for equal rights, to do this. The men didn’t seem to happy about not receiving the treatment they deserved, but in the end, they all received an almost equal amount

In conclusion, Reading Lolita in Tehran helps you understand what life was really like at that time. You can’t grasp what really went on from reading a history book, but reading someone’s memoir on it helps you understand it and makes you realize how easy we have it. Women had so many restrictions while men could do what they want. Times have changed and life has become easier but things will never be what they want. All those women that protested made a significant difference for their daughters and granddaughters. If it wasn’t for them they would still be stuck hiding in their houses reading books they aren’t allowed to have and not getting an education they rightfully deserve. In the end, I see things will gradually improving till they can wear, read, sing, and do whatever they want just like everyone

The book is a meditation on clothing, and femininity, and power, and disempowerment, too, most especially the disempowerment of women in war.

Imagine a time where women were not allowed to have any form of self-expression. A time where husbands controlled the actions and emotions of their wives and women were seen as more of an accessory to their husbands than as their counterpart. These things were all common for women to experience back in the day; however, it was seen as taboo to discuss these issues. In both “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin and “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, the main characters are women who are being oppressed by their husbands, whether that be directly or indirectly. The theme of both of these stories revolves around women’s freedom of expression and women’s empowerment. These stories are unique in the sense that they had the audacity to write about such forbidden topics of discussion, and that they shed light and new insights into the dilemma. Both of these stories were revolutionary for their time periods and are historical pieces of fiction that helped spark a feminist movement.