Charles Plant, in his Globe and Mail essay presents this conundrum: “as a grandpa-to-be, I have opinions on what my grandchild is named – if not any influence”, writing about his own, then later his daughter’s, struggles with naming their respective children. Plant goes into detail about our decidedly patriarchal naming system, and whether or not grandparents have any influence in the all-important tradition of the naming of a child. Stripped down to its most basic concepts, this essay is about one of the most prevalent forms of sexism: the tradition of naming all of our children after their paternal surname. Plant believes that children should carry their mother’s surname, though he concedes that mothers in turn carry their own paternal surname, revolutions must start from somewhere. He also highlights the fact that male sons often carry their father’s given and surname, often stylized as “Junior” or “the Second” and so on. He believes, and I agree, that this is an inherently sexist notion, and is one more step backwards from achieving …show more content…
Why is it only boys who are named after their father and called “Senior,” “Junior” and so on? Why not girls? Couldn’t a girl be named after her father? And more oddly, why aren’t girls named after their mother?” Other than the fact that I consider naming a child after oneself slightly pretentious, I believe that it also lessens a person’s self-identity, because not only do you share something that is meant to be unique (as one can be in a world of seven billion people), but you also have to live with expectations and responsibilities that come with the name. What if the person named William Campbell Quinn the Fifth decides not to have children? You have just defied the tradition set out by four generations before you. This is not a burden someone should have to bear, the burden of expectations from the day you were
He was also quoted in saying, “I believe that women can do more than just cook and clean.” and promised to tackle the issue, stupidly following the progressive nonsense of equal right, and calling for more government control
As soon as children are born, their journey through losing their personal identity begins. They are given names like Equality, Liberty, or Union, names that at first glance seem to cause no harm. The rulers give these names in an attempt to showcase the positive outcomes of collectivism. In
Women were still somewhat viewed as inferior to males, however, maternal blood was accounted for in cases where her relatives were more closely related to the highest levels of elites. In this, the sources reference how even though women of higher nobility were somewhat relevant, their names still corresponded with the paternal line. She uses the Carolingian dynasty, including Charlemagne, as a prime example of this naming custom. He would have two daughters with his second wife, Fastrada and name them, “Hiltrudis after his paternal aunt and Theodrada after his cousin (paternal lineage).”7 In addition, Bouchard continues to reference other naming patterns from different royal families. Similarly, the Robertians/Capetians practiced naming their daughters for themselves rather than their wives. King Robert I had a daughter named Adela and her name was “based on a 907 charter of Charles the Simple.”8 Bouchard concludes these naming customs as normal patterns, and evidently, kings named their daughters after their own. Naming patterns differed between each royal family, as there was no proper bylaw stating who or what she needed to be named after. Moreover, she continues to expand on the roles of women through the migration of their names in the upper nobility. Bouchard presents the migration of names changing over time by picking unusual names, thus
In the beginning of the lecture when he is addressing autonomy, he states that women have overcome most of the issues he listed. However, in several countries, women haven't overcome those issues. He also doesn't give men as much credit as they probably deserve. He says that he aims to explain in his book that "it isn't scary and you can understand it." The way he says it sounds to me like he thinks men aren't smart enough to understand it, so he's going to dumb it down for them. The issue, I believe, is not that they're too dumb to understand it, it's that they're not open to understanding it. I understand he was probably trying to make a joke, but it's not great to say things like that when he's trying to get men to support something. I do like that he puts a lot of emphasis on how supporting feminism could benefit men because I don't think that a whole book explaining why feminism is good for only women would be effective in trying to convince men that they should support
Sexism has been used for generations as a tool to discriminate against women. Many women of past times were invisible and overlooked by men, this was to be a symbol of their submerged status. However, not all women from the past were treated unfairly, for instance Native American women had just as much rights as the men. In “The Intimately Oppressed” of A People’s History Of The United Sates, Howard Zinn emphasizes this and the many injustices women faced throughout history. After reading Zinn’s chapter, it would be hard to dismiss the certainty that women were undeniably overlooked. Thus, for men what was more important was for the women to have the position of child-bearers. Women were at times treated with respect, but it would be a misjudgment to say that women were treated equally.
“Well that 's a good observation. John is a very common name. So many great men are named John. My father being one of them. I’m John Junior and my father is John Senior. It is a name with power my mother will always say.”
Billie Holiday was a well known jazz singer who was born in Pennsylvania on April 7, 1915. She was also known as Elanora Fagon in which unfortunately had fallen victim in her life towards the addiction of heroin. In conjunction with her addiction, she developed a criminal record due to her numerous arrests relating to her drug abuse and prostitution. She eventually checked herself into an institution to help break her addiction. However, at the young age of forty-four she died from congestion of the lungs which had stemmed from having heart failure. Billie’s life was filled with trials and tribulations. Throughout her life she had dealt with racism, sexism, and poverty. Billie dropped out of school in the fifth grade to run errands in a brothel, and then at the age of twelve she was arrested for prostitution. Around 1930 she started singing in local clubs. One of her most popular and intense songs was ‘Strange Fruit’ written in 1939.
“Chrysanthemums” by John Steinbeck is a story about a woman named Elisa whose only place to work and be happy is in a garden. Elisa’s actions and emotions reflect on her life struggles as a woman trying to succeed and grow in a male dominated society but always failing. Elisa is at her strongest most happy point in the garden. Throughout the story there is a large sense of sexism and feminism.
An expecting couple awaits to discover the gender of their baby. The nurse announces that it’s a girl. The couple is extremely excited, but do they truly grasp the weight of what this implies? Gender is not simply a physical trait, as it affects nearly every aspect of a person’s life. Stereotypes repress the potential in all men and women. The same stereotypes are found throughout literature such as Medea by Euripides, Chaucer’s “The Wife of Bath’s Tale”, “Sonnets” by Shakespeare, “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and Frederick Waterman’s “The Best Man Wins”. A common thread between these pieces is that power can be gained by those who are suppressed by defying gender stereotypes and social hierarchies.
Most of his ideas are very stereotypical for men, but he does not realize a lot what men want is really no different from what women want and need as
Christian Grey in 2015 film Fifty Shades of Grey, originally a novel by E. L. James, is the man of all women’s dreams. Young, good-looking, successful, wealthy, well-mannered, charismatic, fit, and sexy. He takes consent in a sexual relationship extremely seriously, so much so that he creates a whole legal contract for a woman to sign before engaging in sexual activities. For Anastasia, the film’s female protagonist, he escorts her on his private helicopter, gives her the most extravagant presents, and even pays for her birth control pills. How generous of him. On top of all that, he’s hot, so the audience exits the cinema applauding how Christian Grey is extremely attractive and perfect. His blatant disrespect for mutual consent and partner’s
In the Namesake, the new parents are faced with a decision to name their son. A tradition where the Grandmother on the Mothers’ side names the baby. Ashima’s Grandmother was sending word about the baby’s name from India. After not hearing from the Grandmother, a proper name
society. When he compares woman in his speech he is saying women must obey a certain way and live under rules of others.
A name is not just what you’re called, it is who you are. It is what you stand for and ultimately defines you as a person. Growing up, I used to think my name did not fit me and that nothing that my name stood for had anything to do with me. Now that I am older, I understand the real meaning of my name and how the traits that are connected with my name relate to the person that I have become and continue to develop into. My name represents who I am and who I plan to be.
Sex and gender categories, such as “men,” “women,” “masculine” and “feminine,” have been in place for generations. They are socially constructed categories and expectations assigned to children at birth, in order to regulate and shape them into this “ideal” heterosexual being. Men are expected to embrace masculine qualities, while women are required to be feminine and submissive to the male authority. Monique Wittig’s article, “One is Not Born a Woman” observes how the class of “women” is not “natural,” but is created by the society and framed by the male ideology, as a way of producing a clear gender difference between men and women. J. M Coetzee reinforces Wittig’s beliefs by sharing similar ideas of hegemonic masculinity and male dominance