Esther Newton's Mother Camp Summary

They were born in great numbers and as a result became the most powerful group of consumers. Advertisers soon set the guidelines to what material commercial products every girl needed to obtain her status in society. Women’s roles on television gradually changed from perfect housewives to mystical genies and witches with power, but somehow they always subdued their power to please their men. In the background women were fighting for equal rights and equal pay, but the media portrayed these protests as isolated events and acts of extremists. The newscasts attempted to label feminists as women who protested against being exploited and “looked at” by exploiting themselves and secretly wanted men’s attention by these protests. Television did respond by developing a new “tougher” woman, but made her success dependent on her attractiveness and sexuality. The media’s simultaneous promotion and containment of the women’s movement left the young women of the seventies exposed to what Douglas refers to as social schizophrenia (9). Feminist were now rejecting cosmetics and other marketed ploys that contributed to the oppression of women, leaving industries that were primarily focused on women’s “needs” struggling to address this while maintaining their market. Mass media encouraged and exploited commercial androgyny with unisex fashions and Madison Avenue promoted a new “natural look” that was anything but natural. This look promoted a Lolita image that

Cecily Brown’s use of abstraction, nudity, male and female bodily manipulation, and erroticism come together to challenge subjects and movements that are historically male dominated.

tended to fall into certain binary patterns: female-to-male (FTM) crossdressing was typically empowering, benefitting the disguised heroine while raising enlightening questions about the constructedness of gender; male-to-female (MTF) crossdressing, conversely, spoke to cultural anxieties about effeminacy, seduction, and degeneration. (193)

Louise Halfe’s “Body Politics” challenges the qualities and behaviour of the idealized feminine woman by contrasting the stereotypical “city woman” with a more masculine “real woman.” The poem’s speaker describes her mother’s opinion of what it means to be a real woman, which is seen through “Mama said.” Throughout the poem, the speaker uses vivid imagery to create a stark contrast between the idealized feminine “city woman” and a “real woman” who does not conform to the feminine gender norm. To begin with, the title of the poem itself can be viewed as an obvious critique of the feminine ideal. By definition a body politic is a group of people “considered as a collective unit” (Merriam-Webster). This is significant because in Butler’s theory, she emphasizes that a person’s gender can vary depending on a given situation, and therefore women cannot be grouped together and defined exclusively by their feminine qualities. Instead, she argues that women should be viewed as individuals capable of possessing both masculine and feminine behaviour. This belief relates directly to the poem’s title, as Halfe is clearly making a statement on the manner in which patriarchal societies expect women to conform to a singular feminine ideal. Moreover, it illustrates how women’s bodies become a political site for the masculinist culture to impose feminine gender on. With consideration to the title’s reference to a homogeneous group of women, it is interesting that stanzas two through four all

Society is often seen to have different biases or perspectives on topics such as the role and perception of women. The short story, “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid, consists primarily of a catalog of commands and instructions, the purpose of which is to make sure that the mother’s daughter is constantly in check and not getting into any trouble. Jamaica Kincaid utilizes a wide range of techniques such as symbolism and diction in order to showcase the theme of how the depiction of women rely mainly on how they present themselves in the public and how they are so easily described as impure or filthy.

The book of Esther tells the faithfulness of one woman and her uncle. It is only one of two books that contain the heroism and bravery of a woman heroine. The story of Esther accomplishes two profound things, the first: “To demonstrate God’s providential care of his people, even those outside the land of Israel, and 2) to commend the observance of the feast of Purim by relating how it originated” (Breneman 289).Unlike the rest of the Bible the story of Esther does not directly state or talk about God, but instead shows God’s plans for all of our lives and how in all frightening moments of life, He remains faithful to those who trust and have faith in Him. “In spite of the omission of any name for deity, there is no other book in all the

These physical expressions through “processes of non-traditional literacy production, gender/race/sexuality articulation,” is presented in ways that outside of these spaces, would be “definitionally obscene,” much like the harassment and violence that transgender and gay individuals, along with drag queens, often encountered in 1980s hegemonic spaces (Gregory 28). “The irony is that the very real experience of difference, the heightened awareness that it brings, should help to create a disguise so immaculate that nothing remains but the in-joke of one 's private knowledge,” proving that successful gender performances are not innate nor natural, arguments that 1980s heteronormativity argued to justify oppressive power hierarchies (Hentzi 36). These performances exposed the truth of outside society’s discomfort and defensiveness of their beloved and seemingly meaningful gender, race, sexual, and class boundaries. This is because “if men can be women, blacks can be white, the poor can be rich, and gays or lesbians can be straight (and vice versa in each of these examples), then the necessity and inevitability of these boundaries become suspect,” and these boundaries can indeed be crossed and ceased (Schacht 148). 1980s balls ultimately could prove that “hierarchical borders that previously demarcated superiority and subordination would lose their omnipotent meaning” and these

Raunch culture, the over-sexualiation of woman, is on the rise as we so vividly see both in the movie “Mean Girls” and Ariel Levy’s, a well-known journalist and author’s, article titled Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture”. The movie “Mean Girls” tells the story of a highschool girl, Cady Heron, who moves to the country and to her first public school. She discovers that the best way to survive is to try to blend in with the norms that society provides. In her case, she befriends a group of girls who only focus on their sexual appearances, and belittling the others around them to feel more powerful and feminine in their own eyes. This theme closely relates to Ariel Levy’s article where she awes at the change of our society with statements such as, “Its stars who kept talking about “strong women” and “empowerment,” who were dressed in alternating soft-porn styles-- as massage parlor geishas, dominatrixes, yodeling Heidis in alpine bustiers”.

The Feminine Mystique is a first person narrative about the struggles of feminism. It highlights the problems of women in the 1950s to the 1960s and challenges gender roles. The book includes several first person interviews and discusses the Second Wave of feminism. It introduces the idea of the sexulization of women being used in consumerism and the lack of sexual education in school during the time. The Feminine Mystique is a useful resource because it is considered the groundbreaking book about feminism and lists issues that women have had to deal with from the 1960s until now. The book could be used to argue the struggles that women have faced and continue to face.

Both “homage to my hips” by Lucille Clifton and “Barbie doll” by Marge Piercy are free verse and deliver different perspectives on the significance of woman's power. Clifton's poem empowers women to never be controlled by another person. Whereas Piercy's poem is a cautionary tale about a female giving their power to others and allowing an idea of perfection to create a self-conscious prisoner that wears them down until they voluntarily sacrifice their life. From our text we know that “Piercy engages with social myths that she believes inform the behavior of women”. (Kelly 238) These poems were written respectively in 1973 and 1980 but continue to remain relevant 37+ years later or the equivalent of an entire generation.

The American patriarchal society has set standards for what it means to be a man or a woman. In an excerpt from Ariel Levy’s book entitled Female Chauvinist Pigs, she argues that some women are attaining success in a male-dominated society by taking on what is perceived as “male” behavior as she highlights the increased participation of women in “raunch culture.” Raunch culture seems to be appealing to some women because they are able to use it for self-advancement by promoting their sexuality through the acceptance of or participation in activities such as stripping and pornography, according to Levy. The issue of women oppression is far more complex than what Levy claims; raunch culture does not bring

Judith Butler’s essay, “Performative Acts and Gender Constitution: An Essay in Phenomenology and Feminist Theory” calls for a new way to view sex and gender. Butler argues that “gender identity is a performative accomplishment compelled by social sanction and taboo”. In this case, gender is not constituted by what one is, but rather what one does; the performative acts constitute gender. In other words, gender is not the starting place; it is an identity repeatedly constructed throughout time. Butler is trying to show us a feminist perspective of sex and gender. She attempts to follow Beauvoir’s path in a fight against society norms.

A Drag Queen is a homosexual man who wears female attire to entertain a crowd. Some of them are participating in the Drag Queen story hour to make children aware that there are different types of people. The Drag Queen story hour allows Drag Queens to read children's books to toddlers. Currently, it is available in New York, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and North New Jersey. This program is funded by government taxes.

There are few reality television shows that represent males that perform in drag. RuPaul’s Drag Race (RPDR) is probably the only one. RPDR is an American reality competition show that premiered in February of 2009. When it first started many could have viewed it as a “cheap knockoff of America’s Next Top Model,” a show which had started six years ago (Lambe). Only 3.6% of people on television are gay, so imagine how little of that percentage are drag queens (Kidd). The show is now the highest-rated show on Logo TV. I want to argue that RuPaul’s Drag Race trains its audience by educating them on the acceptance of drag culture exhibited in the show and exposes them to the diversity in drag culture that can impact their views of how they

From Shakespeare to the Stonewall march, the art of drag or female impersonation has always had its place in popular culture. After centuries of actors performing and perfecting this craft, drag and female impersonation has found its way into the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer (LGBTQ) communities. In New York City during the 1950’s, the LGBTQ communities embraced drag, and female impersonation in underground competitions and celebrations called balls. Here gay men and transgender people would dress in elaborate costumes, and couture outfits in order to live fantasies of superstardom, to win locally renowned titles such as: Butch queen, Realness, or Eleganza. Until the 1980’s, drag remained an underground “gay” performance art style, and was viewed as weird or abnormal by the greater public. In 1983 a gay man named RuPaul Andre Charles emerged in the Atlanta City punk scene, originally as a member of a grunge group called Wee Wee Pole. The group played around with many different looks, but became known in the scene for their “genderfuck” look.