Connection Assignment

For a long time, men and women have been dealing with the controversy of gender roles. In modern day, the battle for gender equality has been more known. In the story “Guys Suffer from Oppressive Gender Roles Too”, the author Julie Zeilinger explains how males are held to a more macho standard, but do have prevalent emotions. If we were to let go of these rigid rules about what is manly, there would be no standard for any gender. If that was reality, men shouldn’t have to feel humiliated about staying home, and if their companion makes more money than they do. Zeilinger talks about how males detach themselves from some emotions, and live a “life nub to a true range of human emotion” so they can meet this masculinity standard. However if males

Over the course of many years, women have struggled to expand their roles and rights in society, hoping to one day achieve complete equality with their male counterparts. Two women, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Judy (Syfers) Brady, both recognized the patriarchal society in which women had to endure. They despised the way it heaped inequality and servitude upon women, and decided to assert their opinion on the issue in order to change the perceptions and imposed limitations on women. In Stanton’s speech, “Declaration of Sentiments”, and in Brady’s article, “I Want a Wife”, both women attempt to convince their audiences that females deserve complete equality with men by stating the submissive situations and obligations women find themselves immersed in. This is done to get their female audiences to reevaluate how they have been treated and give them a second chance at attaining equality. Both women employ various rhetorical techniques in their arguments to strengthen, as well as compel other women to oppose the ‘domesticated’ image of women. Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Judy (Syfers) Brady expressed their views in pursuance of forging a path to a revamped lifestyle for women.

I have chosen to focus this paper on the portrayal of gender stereotypes and expectations as seen in the book Ethan Frome written by author Edith Wharton. Before I proceed with this topic, allow me to highlight the ingenious writing style of the author and her subtle discussion of unhappiness, which opened the door to adultery in the marriages of both Wharton and her main character in the book Ethan Frome.

In the 19th century, “Godey’s magazine” described the ideal of true womanhood behavior is piety, purity, submissiveness, and domesticity. “A young lady may excel in speaking French and Italian; may repeat a few passages from the volume of extracts; play like a professor, and sing like a siren; Though the arts; which merely embellish life, must claim admiration, when a man of sense comes to marry, it is a companion whom he wants, and not an artist. It is not merely a creature who can paint and play, and sing, and draw, and dress, and

The protagonist’s marriage with her spouse, John, exposes stereotypical roles of both male and females, and the subordination of women in that era. John’s assumption of superior wisdom assures

The House on Mango Street, by Sandra Cisneros tells the story of Esperanza Cordero growing up in the Puerto Rican community of Chicago in the form of short stories and poetry. Esperanza longs to own a house that she idealizes as happiness. She strives for a better life outside of the stereotypical gender roles that have suppressed the woman she grew up around. Female genders roles is a strong theme in the novel.

Both the Victorian Era and 1950s and 1960s America featured inflexible expectations of a wife and her views on marriage. Grant Allen, a Victorian essayist, in “Plain Words on the Women Question” in 1889, wrote, “We ought frankly to recognize that most women must be wives and mothers: that most women should therefore be trained, physically, morally, socially, and mentally, in the way best fitting for them to be wives and mothers” (Broadview Anthology 628). Essentially, Allen holds the belief that all women are meant to serve as an asset to men, to complement men. Additionally, his use of the word “train” connotes that women should be disciplined to fit this role, which betrays the lack of equality between the sexes. He further argues that it goes against nature for women to desire more than motherhood and wifehood. He chastises women who attempt to oppose their “duty,” “instead of boasting of their sexlessness as a matter of pride, they ought to keep it in the dark, and to be ashamed of it” (628). In other words, to be feminine is to mother children and to marry a man. Deviating from this neatly structured plan for a woman’s obligation is to become unfeminine.

The two novels that I chose to discuss in this paper is the novel “Ethan Frome” by Wharton and “So long, See You Tomorrow by Maxwell. The author, Edith Wharton allows the symbols in the book to convey her reoccurring theme in this novel. Throughout history, relationships have evolved and gone through dramatic changes based on the social norms at the time. This is because all three of those characteristics were expected of relationships in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, but by now all of them seem to be purely optional. In the past, marriage and romantic relationships were handled with a certain amount of formality. Society today seems to operate in a totally different way. Men and women spend time together without being

By using phrases such as “must arrange” (229) and “make sure” (229) Brady is inferring what the men think is right in their consciousness. The women who are reading the article are drawn in because they recognize what the men think is right in society and can sense the sarcastic tone. One of the most substantial quotes in the reading sends a message to the public eye: “My God, who wouldn’t want a wife?” (230). Brady listed the jobs that women are required throughout the whole reading and then ended the entire article with the strong use of pathos. Brady grabbed the audience by making them indignant and emotionally involved in the

Social and psychological expectations of men are set by society. The expectations of men range from the way they act, to the way they treat others, as well as the type of atmosphere they create. As a result, some women become victims of men’s striving to reach these expectations. In Sandra Cisneros’s novella, The House on Mango Street, Cisneros demonstrates society’s expectations of men.

This marital relationship is constantly evidence as a major issue for the feminist movement. These female characters are so often made up to rely on their husbands. They are constantly seen as dumb, ditzy, and mentally unhinged, or struggling with staying in reality all of the time (Hall). They are given some weak characteristics that puts them at the mercy of a man. The Feminist Literary Theory allows for this issue to be turned around.

Women and men have always been depicted as socially, physically, and overall different; men are superior and women inferior. In both “Letters” by John and Abigail Adams and “I Want A Wife” by Judy Brady, women are belittled and thought of to be of very little importance. John makes it sound like the county and its needs are more important than his wife Abigail. Brady talks about how a woman, a wife is thought of by their spouse or husband; that they are easily replaceable. “It is very true, as you observe they have been duped by Dunmore.

In many literary works women are constantly oppressed by their husbands but always show respect toward them. For instance, men in literature usually play the stereotypical role of a husband that is dangerously violent toward their wives, possessive and controlling over his wife, the financial provider, and the obligation of having children. These gender stereotypes can be demonstrated by these three different literary works: A Streetcar named Desire, Desiree’s Baby, and As I lay dying. Although many literary works have been more liberal over the decades, commonly held notions of what it means to be a man usually harms women in many aspects.

In the Essay written by Judy Brady, “I Want a Wife”, she discusses her annoyance and frustration with currently perceived gender roles. She begins by telling us that she is a wife and also a mother. With this information, she allows us to understand her perspective in the rest of the essay. One might even say the things she talks about, she has personally lived. Another part that sets up the rest of her essay is the fact that she mentions her thought began with an encounter with a male friend of hers. She makes it a point to express that he is recently divorced and that his children reside with their mother. He says that he is seeking another wife. This leads Judy to reflect on how; she too, would like a wife.

In today’s society, the imagery of men and women are portrayed in their different personalities. The ideal male is always characterized as being competent, stable, tough,