Hard To Get By Leslie Bell: Summary

In Sylvia Plath's novel The Bell Jar, Esther Greenwood seems incapable of healthy relationships with other women. She is trapped in a patriarchal society with rigid expectations of womanhood. The cost of transgressing social norms is isolation, institutionalization and a lost identity as woman. The struggle for an individual identity under this regime is enough to drive a person to the verge of suicide. Given the oppressive system under which she must operate, Esther Greenwood's problems with women stem from her conflict between individuality and conformity.

The next requirement for being a “true woman” was submissiveness. According to society men were superior to women by “God’s appointment.” If they acted otherwise they “tampered with the order of the Universe” (Welter 105). A “true woman” would not question this idea because she already understands her place. Grace Greenwood explained to the women of the Nineteenth Century, “True feminine genius is ever timid, doubtful, and clingingly dependant; a perpetual childhood.” Even in the case of an abusive husband, women were sometimes told to stay quiet

Women haven’t always had the freedom that they have today. Women were supposed to live a certain life even though sometimes they didn’t want to. They had to tend to their husbands at all time, stay home and do housework while still taking care of their children or being pregnant. Women were abused physically, emotionally, and psychologically. Although women were perceived to act and present themselves in a certain way, some young women went against the cult of the true woman hood not only to be different, but to escape he physical, emotional, and psychological abuse that they will or have encountered. In novels, The Bell Jar, by Sylvia Path and Lucy, by Jamaica Kincaid both young women have the similarity to rebel against the cult of true

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.

Some women dared to go against the grain regardless of the way that society would view them, they chose to pursue their own desires, rather than feign propriety. A Church

A person’s past history is the foundation of who the person presently is as an adult. The way a person is raised and the environment they live in shapes his or her identity or atleast contribute in learning the sense of self. The experience a person goes through can leave a positive or negative impact on the person and influence the person’s character or identity as a person. In Leslie’s Bell essay, “Selection from Hard to Get Twenty-Something Women and the Paradox of Sexual Freedom,” speaks about stories of women’s sexual experience with men and depending on how and why the women have sex with, Bell labels them as “The Good Girl” or “The Bad Girl.” The ‘bad girl’ as she described to be is Jayanthi who was in a committed relationship where

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

Frank Heywood, a female crossdresser, proves that women can do the same work as men. However, she can only succeed in doing so by rejecting her birth gender. Instead of doing housework and aspiring to marriage, Frank states that her work “must be father, mother, wife and children to me” (p. 302). She claimed that by giving up her womanhood, “I could go about unquestioned. No man insulted me, and when I asked for work, I was not offered outrage…I resolved to carve out for myself a place in the world as a man, and let death alone reveal my secret and prove what a woman can do” (p. 366-67). While Mrs. Bludgett is beaten, Flora is trapped in a loveless marriage, and Laura is abducted, Frank is free to work and do as she pleases. Her success in doing so proves Blake’s point that “gender” is a socially constructed and ridiculous concept. Blake succeeds in portraying the constant battles of women and through her examples of heartless treatment and behaviors from men. It’s important to note that Frank is the only women who truly succeeds in beating the

Since the beginning of recorded history, our world has put certain expectations and rules on female and males alike. Whether it be in the workplace, at home, or in society. There is a list of unwritten rules that every person should abide by if they want to fit in to their culture. For women in America, filling this quota is a lot harder than it seems. The Western woman is under the influence of unrealistic expectations regarding the media, this is true, but it is more complicated than that. Scholars have noticed a trend in the guidelines for women, from the stories in the bible to today’s modern media. The woman is to be a sexual being, a vixen, a wild child; while at the same time remaining reserved, submissive and pure. This phenomenon

As MacKinnon states, “so long as sexual inequality remains unequal and sexual, attempts to value sexuality as women’s, possessive as if women possess it, will remain part of limiting women to it, to what women are now defined as being” (MacKinnon). Men must relinquish some of their control. Women must expand their roles in society outside of motherhood and being sexual objects. Unfortunately, even when a woman is successful, unfortunate aspects like a stroke can cause a woman to be reliant on men and lead him to take advantage of them (women) such as what happened with Maud. Furthermore, sadly even when a woman is actively and willingly being promiscuous, she is still subject to male’s dominance and superiority over her as what happened to Marie. Society is in a continuous state of oppression over women because not only men, but also women make justifications that which enables the injustices to persist. Overcoming women’s submissions, subjectivity, and lack of control is easier said than done. Although society has made major gains over the past few decades on women’s rights, unfortunately we are still likely decades, perhaps centuries away from being equal regarding gender and biological

The pleasures and rights of a woman’s sexual freedom, and doing it safely was my activism project main objective. I endeavored to educate woman concerning these issue in a fun and comfortable atmosphere. This topic can be simultaneously controversial and exciting.

What individuals as a rule don't see, however, is the misfortune regarding human potential when ladies don't make it to the highest point of their fields. Gender balance is a complex mosaic; A photo that can't be finished without comprehension and investigating the local, national, and demographic components of this issue. Therefore, we can't approach these issues without completely peeling back and investigating every layer. It is essential for everyone to reassess how we measure, screen and view the status of ladies, so an adequate decision regarding both the advancement that has as of now been made toward accomplishing full sexual orientation balance and the difficulties and deterrents that lie ahead.” Gender inequality seems to evoke a certain sense of resistance from both men and women, who argue against “radical feminism” and suggest that women nowadays are empowered to follow whatever career path they choose and succeed on their merits.” (Feminist) Therefore, woman must remain true to the cause and resist accepting the false idea that females have made it to the end of the line and men must create a new perception of today’s woman that is honest, fair, and

Helen, I concur with what you have said about Virginia reasoning that women in today’s society face many drawbacks in their daily life and are trying to overcome them. Women today feel the same type of pressure that Virginia and women from the 1930s experienced, but with a more intense approach. Women look upon their idols (actors/actresses, models, singers, dancer, etc.) and attempt to copy them on everything they have or do. This leads to drugs, surgery, anorexia and other health damaging effects. The reason behind this is that a woman’s inner mind full of desires overshadows the mind that thinks logically. As this happens, women choose what they want compared to what they need in order to survive. But, if women

Although the subjection of women arose the same way as slavery and other forms of oppression, it differs from the fact that it does not occur by the rule of force but rather, by voluntary acceptance (Mill, 1995, pg.16). As mentioned earlier, women were “conditioned” to believe that it was their duty to be obedient to men; that it was natural to live their lives for them. In a way, a woman’s obedience to man

It is known that woman don’t get the same freedom that men do when it comes to sexual expression, women are expected to participate in fewer sexual behaviors and to