Analysis Of Twenty-Something Women And The Paradox Of Sexual Freedom By Leslie Bell

A number of the stories, graphic memoirs and poems we discussed in class have introduced us to women who have been trapped in some way in their lives. Henrik Ibsen’s A Dolls House (1879) and Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” (1892) both demonstrate women being trapped by men in a patriarchal society in the nineteenth century. However, Joyce Carol Oates’ “Where are you going, where have you been?”(1974), Jamaica Kincaid’s short story “Girl” (1978) and Marjane Satrapi’s graphic novel Persepolis (2005) are about social norms and girls being sexualized at a young age in the 20th century.

A livable world is defined from the society you participate in everyday life. We as people make laws and regulations for situations that may or may not happen. This is because humans are imperfect and full of flaws. Laws and regulations are the guidelines for properly living in a society that dictates to the mass instead of hearing individual concern. Then again what is it meant to be “imperfect”? Who designates the description behind being perfect? This is what I believe is “the norm” or normal way of life of a society.

In a society in which sex only seems to be a part of growing up, a girl gives in to her desire and later questions if it was really what she wanted or was she just letting herself because of the society and environment that she lives in. Daniel Evans wrote a story named “Virgins” which revolves around two girls named Erica and Jasmine, and their friend Michael. These three friends live in a society where having sex is not something uncommon and more like expected, but Erica believes and does otherwise, as she remains a virgin because she claims that men are not to be trusted. However; at the end, Erica gives in and has sex with Michael’s brother, Don, and later on attempts to have sex with Michael, realizing he was the one she wanted all along.

Teenage rebellion is typically portrayed in stories, films, and other genres as a testosterone-based phenomenon. There is an overplayed need for one to acknowledge a boy’s rebellion against his father, his life direction, the “system,” in an effort to become a man, or rather an adult. However, rarely is the female addressed in such a scenario. What happens when little girls grow up? Do they rebel? Do they, in a sudden overpowering rush of estrogen, deny what has been taught to them from birth and shed their former youthful façades? Do they turn on their mothers? In Sharon Olds’ poem, “The Possessive,” the reader is finally introduced to the female version of the popular coming-of-age theme as a simple

Bev Marshall’s short story Saturday Confessions is a coming-of-age story. The theme is about the inner struggle to understand burgeoning sexual maturity within the confines of the morality one has learned. The two forces often run opposite. The story is set in a church, underscoring the turmoil of a young girl named Layla Jay. The author teaches us through Layla Jay that children will experience strife regarding their new feelings associated with puberty and the morals they are taught by society or religion. Marshall’s tale illustrates that children will move from the lessons learned in childhood to becoming teenager; moreover, they may not understand the changes that are occurring, inevitably experiment and act on those new feelings despite what they learned at church.

This story speaks of a young teenage woman who, amid the civil rights’ movement and sexual revolution of the 1960s, is rebelling against the conservative morals and values of the 1950s and exploring her individuality and sexuality with a sense of egotism and inexperience that eventually gets her into harm’s way. Looking back, the Civil Rights movement may have been the most emotionally charged movement of the 1960s (Anderson). No other movement in United States history defines a change in culture better than the movement of the 1960s. Issues such as women’s rights, war, civil rights and the sexual revolution greatly influenced the American youth. Conservative family morals and values that predominated the 1950s were beginning to be questioned. Oates

The book describes how complex societal dictation dominated the lives of women and left no room for growth as a unique individual with a passion other than homemaking. It called upon women to take a stand against these so called norms and “seek new opportunities for themselves” (“Betty Friedan”). It instantly became sensation and “continues to be regarded as one of the most influential nonfiction books of the 20th century” (Michals). It struck a nerve with all women alike, leading to a “feminist explosion” (Kaplan) because of the recognition of themselves in Friedan’s work (Parry) and the familiarity shared between the women created a sense of community. It also brought public awareness to the glamorized domestication of

Attitudes towards different issues in society derive from the prevailing beliefs in such a society. Every trending issue in society helps shape the attitudes that people develop and greatly influences their behavior. Every society has prejudged perceptions and the prejudged perception always relates to the cognitive associations because individuals already has a fixed mode in minds. This prejudgment and reaction is often informed by the various experiences that the society may have undergone through in the earlier instances of occurrence of specific events. Leslie Bell, the author of “Selections from Hard to Get: Twenty-Something Women and the Paradox of Sexual Freedom,” largely focuses on female sexuality detailing the often confusing situations that twenty-something ladies have to contend with, with regards to their sexual freedom. She argues that female sexuality remains a persistently emotional issue and that the emotions have enhanced the hard stances taken in the female sexuality debate are largely fueled by the religious and social beliefs that prevail in most societies. In “The Power of Context,” Malcolm Gladwell brings about the possible causations factors of crime in modern societies and it details some of the factors, which can influence the way people likely to react to specific cases in crime commission. He explains the power of context idea as means to deduce why specific cases lead to specific reactions from the members of the involved society. Both two

To do so, Levy turns to the experiences of several young women whom she interviews. From her interpretations of these experiences, Levy reaches the conclusion that these women’s sexual nature revolves around their need

Sexuality has an inherent connection to human nature. Yet, even in regards to something so natural, societies throughout times have imposed expectations and gender roles upon it. Ultimately, these come to oppress women, and confine them within the limits that the world has set for them. However, society is constantly evolving, and within the past 200 years, the role of women has changed. These changes in society can be seen within the intricacies of literature in each era. Specifically, through analyzing The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne and The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, one can observe the dynamics of society in regards to the role of women through the lens of the theme of sexuality. In both novels, the confinement and oppression of women can be visibly seen as a result of these gender roles. Yet, from the time The Scarlet Letter was published to the time The Bell Jar was written, the place of women in society ultimately changed as well. Hence when evaluating the gender roles that are derived from sexuality, the difference between the portrayals of women’s oppression in each novel becomes apparent, and shows how the subjugation of women has evolved. The guiding question of this investigation is to what extent does the theme of sexuality reflect the expectations for women in society at the time each novel was written. The essay will explore how the literary elements that form each novel demonstrate each author’s independent vision which questions the

The Purity Myth: How America’s Obsession with Virginity is Hurting Young Women is a book by Jessica Valenti which contains research that shows that there is a prevalent false notion promoted within the United States that a woman's worth is dictated by whether or not she is sexually active. She argues that the country’s intense focus on chastity is damaging to young women and claims that girls remain virgins until they are married. She accomplishes this by putting into context the historical question of purity, modern abstinence-only education, pornography, and public punishments for those who dare to have sex. The Purity Myth presents a revolutionary argument that girls and women are overly valued for their sexuality, as well as solutions

In Jamaica Kincaid’s short story “Girl,” the narration of a mother lecturing her daughter with sharp, commanding diction and unusual syntax, both affect the evolution of a scornful tone, that her daughter’s behavior will eventually lead her to a life of promiscuity that will affect the way people perceive her and respect her within her social circle. As well as the fact that it emphasizes expectations for young women to conform to a certain feminine ideal of domesticity as a social norm during this time and the danger of female sexuality.

Over the past 200 years sexual liberation and freedom have become topics of discussions prevalent within western culture and society. With the recent exploration of sexuality a new concept of sexual and gender identity has emerged and is being analyzed in various fields of study. The ideology behind what defines gender and how society explains sex beyond biology has changed at a rapid pace. In response various attempts to create specific and catch all definitions of growing gender and sexual minorities has been on going. This has resulted in the concept of gender becoming a multi- layered shifting hypothesis to which society is adapting. Since the 19th-century, philosophers and theorists have continued to scrutinize gender beyond biological and social interpretation. Margaret Atwood 's The Handmaid 's Tale captures the limitations and social implications forced upon a set gender based on societal expectations. Gender is a social construct that limits the individual to the restrictions and traditions of a society, or if it’s an individually formed self-identification of sex and sexuality that is formed autonomously. Evidence of gender establishment can be seen within literary works and supported by various schools of gender and sexuality theory.

This construction reinforces control over young women’s sexual expression. Faus highlights how it forces women to partake in this patriarchal culture where women’s bodies are under control

In Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar and Alice Munro’s Lives of Girls and Women, Esther and Del try to take control of their sexuality and their sexual lives. These two female protagonists attempt to gain sexual confidence by quietly rejecting the societal images of women. They are able to seduce men and pilot their own sexual lives. These women are also able to ignore the popular beliefs about marriage and motherhood, thus freeing them from the traditional, restrictive female sexual roles. By rejecting the popular notions of womanhood, sexuality, and marriage, Esther and Del become the mistresses of their sexuality and sexual