Feminism In One Tree Hill

In the literary works, Little Women, The Color Purple, and Woman Hollering Creek, the characters of Marmee, Nettie, and Cleófilas embody identities that exemplify their differing cultures. However, all three women experience similar impediments on their identities through the existence of patriarchal dominance in their cultures, which functions to limit their ability to move outside of restrictive gender roles. In Little Women, Marmee epitomizes the ideal republican WASP mother, who is inhibited by her culture to remain in the domestic realm. Her duty as a republican mother is to place an emphasis on education, sacrifice her needs for the greater good of the country, promote Christian values, and instill a robust work ethic on her daughters.

On December 14th, 2000, Miss Congeniality (directed by Donald Petrie) was released, making 212.8 million dollars during its run in theaters. Sandra Bullock, the leading actress of the movie, played a character by the name of Gracie Hart. Bullock’s character is an FBI agent that must go undercover to protect the contestants of the Miss United States Pageant. The contestants were being threatened by a notorious criminal who happened to be the pageant host, Kathy Morningside, played by Candice Bergen. The stereotypical topic Miss Congeniality addresses is women not being good enough to do a man’s job; though the feminist defense in the movie proves the stereotype wrong. It would seem as though Miss Congeniality struggles with an ideological conflict by suggesting that being a feminist is acceptable, yet a woman must stay out of the work traditionally done by men. The conflicted opinions in Miss Congeniality are easily recognized by men and women being represented in film differently, misogyny in the workplace, the juxtaposition of feminism and misogyny, and the future with a continuation of struggles from both sides.

The show reinforces the classical gender roles that female stereotypes continue to thrive in the media we consume every day. Women in this show is objectified and mostly portrayed as just beautiful with little education. (Gender Stereotypes in Mass media, 2014).

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood explores how societies, such as Gilead, exist as a result of complacency as the novel serves as a cautionary tale to future societies. Through ‘The Historical Notes’, Atwood explores the continuation of patriarchy and how the female voice is constantly undermined by the male gaze. Dominick Grace’s analysis of ‘The Historical Notes’ ‘questions … the authenticity’ of Offred’s account as it relies purely on the reliability of memories, which are subjective.

Sesame Workshop’s decision to incorporate a transgender Muppet on the show mirrors the gradual changes that have progressively taken place within the framework of feminism. The Eastern Kentucky University Women and Gender Studies Program defined the evolution of feminism as: “Historically, feminism has evolved from the critical examination of inequality between the sexes with a more nuanced focus on the social and performative constructions of gender and sexuality” (2017). In other words, the feminist establishment has transformed along with time to reflect the changes in society. Which perfectly makes sense! In order, for progress to occur, you must move along with the times, and Sesame Street has done that. Thus, the show will continue to positively influence hundreds of American youth because they know that social-evolution is the key to success!

The empowerment and the continual push for equal status for women has become widely popular and successful in recent history. Women have stepped out of traditional roles of the housewife, the mother and the submissive doormat to more assertive natures. Many controversial issues surround women’s crusade of freedoms including the widely debated right to choose what she does with her body, referring to an abortion. In 1927 Ernest Hemingway wrote a short story titled, “Hills Like White Elephants” that expressed a feminist movement focusing on this issue. Through the character’s development and ability to come to her own decision despite her boyfriend’s constant pressure suggests a shift towards a powerful feminist theme in a society dominated by men. The story, “Hills Like White Elephants,” reflects how men and women are compared with power and dominance regarding their stereotypical behavior in relation to gender norms; however, this story portrays how a woman steps out of the expectations and takes a stance for what she wants.

Martin Luther King Jr. once said “our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.” However, I will not be silent. Sexism is a thing of the past, present, and future. Women have never been seen as equal to men. This idea and concept affect how women carry out their lives. Women may act different or speak different just based on society's thoughts about their gender. In To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee and in today’s society it is clear that because of women’s perceived “weakness”, men now dominate women legally, physically and financially.

In Susan Douglas’s “Enlightened Sexism,” she describes a new and progressive warrior woman that uses her femininity and sexuality to appear strong. This woman is pageant-queen beautiful, has a voluptuous scantily clad body, yet is girly in a way that fights gender normatives and dismantles the patriarchy. Warrior women have no need for relationships, and always knows what to say. Melissa McBride’s depiction of character “Carol Peletier” in “The Walking Dead” defies these standards of what a warrior woman needs to be in order to be successful. In the first episode of the series, she is a shaky and abused housewife; at the current point in the series, Carol most recently hid a machine gun in her coat sleeve and massacres a group of enemy gang

These women are portrayed as strong and smart and independent. Rory is valedictorian of her senior class and gets into both Harvard and Yale, eventually attending Yale. She becomes an active member of the Daughters of the American Revolution, where she hosts parties and fundraisers and is in charge of a lot of important events. She also becomes editor of the Yale Daily News. Both of these are positions of power and leadership. Lorelai starts off as the manager of a successful inn and eventually becomes co-owner of her own inn, the Dragonfly, which she buys with her best friend Sookie St. James (another woman). There are actually a lot of women who own their own businesses in this show; Miss Patty owns her own dance studio, Mrs. Kim owns Kim’s Antiques, Gypsy owns the local auto shop (and works as a mechanic), just to name a few. This is significant because it isn’t often on television shows that women are shown as businesswomen or business owners, but this show has a whole host of them. Any woman watching Gilmore Girls is presented with a list of successful women characters that should make them feel inspired and

South Park has been around for a while now. Since it was aired for the first time on 13th August 1997, the show has constantly pushed the boundaries taking on everything, leaving out nothing. The reception among the wider population and the media had a wide range from “shocking” to “excellent”. One of the aspects of this success story is that, because of its provocative tone the show has managed to stay in the limelight. Public debate was evolving around certain episodes, bringing more and more attention to the show. As it was constantly picking up contemporary themes, topics or events, expectations were growing and “ 'How will South Park deal with x ' has become a common catch phrase” (Johnson-Woods 257). Another

To demonstrate how this show has managed to weave positive feminist ideals into every aspect of the show, it is not hard to find examples in almost every episode. Truly one of the strongest example of this takes place is the episode “The Pawnee Ranger,” where Leslie fights the discriminating policies of the “males only” Pawnee Rangers, which is led by her boss Ron Swanson. They proceed to fight over their rivaling youth camp organizations, with Ron's spartan Pawnee Rangers, who learn to appreciate fishing, camping, and complete silence, up against Leslie's supportive and indulgent Pawnee Goddesses, who practice arts and crafts and self confidence building exercises. This episode, while still remaining to be very funny, also shows the importance of gender equality, depicting the value in teaching young girls to be self confident, independent thinkers who understand and appreciate working together with boys.

The portrayal of women in this episode of Modern Family has somewhat a negative tone. The female stereotypes are shown strongly in several ways which increases the inequality gap between men and women. Three women are especially portrayed in the episode, whereas two are mothers. They are both viewed in the kitchen, either cooking food or packing up groceries which show the audience that the norms about women as “housemakers”, are true. Another example shown of this norm is when one of the mothers are unable to handle the TV-remote and her husband makes fun of her inability to use technology. The third girl is showed as very sensitive as she cries over being deceived by the little boy, Mani. The mother of Mani tells her that she must find her

To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, is an ideal display of feminism that takes place during the period of depression in the south. It portrayed the two kinds of women found in the south during this time, the women who were pro the feminist movement, and the average Southern women. Sadly some women mistakenly rebelled against the ideals of society, by just being themselves. Men and women were to conduct themselves as ladies and gentlemen, were men were expected to dress in suit and ties and women were expected to wear dresses and be courteous. Since southern towns were so sheltered from the liberal views of the rest of the world they had no chose but to abide by these gender roles.

I chose the first episode of the very popular television program The Event. I viewed the first episode on Netflix, October 20, 2011. This program originally aired on NBC, September 10, 2010, and is titled “I Haven’t Told You Everything”. This program has a total of twenty two series to date and is classified as an action-adventure drama. After viewing a picture of the main characters with the synopsis of this program, I noticed immediately that this was a male dominated show. The picture shows seven people standing together and merely two of the seven are female. The premise of the story is about a man searching for his missing fiancé. The story line was a prime example of the gender male

Mrs. Morris functions in “Big Boy” as a tool for Hake when his masculinity is threatened by Lawyer Hedgepath and also as a contrast character to make Hake realize the extent of his mistake of sending Big Boy away. In the beginning, Hake falsely believes that he and Hedgepath are both on the same level of power and masculinity, but as he realizes the truth, Hake attempts to level the field by using Mrs. Morris for his own agenda. Also, Mrs. Morris’ physical characteristics, personality, and behavior resemble those that are heavily expected of a man which makes him look feminine in comparison. The decline in Hake’s patriarchal role results in a loss of power and identity since the “patriarchal ideology has a pervasive, deeply rooted influence on the way [people] think, speak, see [them]selves, and view the world in which [they] live” ("feminist criticism"). This leads to Hake finally feeling the emotional impact of losing his last child.