I Am Woman, Hear Me Roar !

Women have fought throughout history in order to achieve different roles as well as to acquire recognition, independence, equality and respect. It has not been easy since they have had many barriers to overcome; their role in the family as wives, mothers and daughters; their role in society fighting for their rights, being heard and treated as men; their role as career women, not only receiving an education but also being able to work.

“A woman is like a tea bag; you never know how strong it is until it is in hot water.” The imagery created by Eleanor Roosevelt emphasizes the emotional strength of a woman, which may often be overshadowed by her physical inferiority, as compared to her male counterpart. The hot water is a representation of the hostile or conflicting situation that women encounter on a daily basis. This would come in the form of emotional obstacles and mental tribulations, as they have to oppose many of society’s wishes before they can achieve their dreams. Although women may appear fragile, docile, and porous to the desires of men, their course of action as they overcome their adversity would prove their character to be strong, willful, and self-reliant. Authors Mary E. Wilkins Freeman, in “The England Nun,” and Nella Larsen, in “Sanctuary,” portray protagonists that exhibit characteristics of strong-will and independence that resist the social confinements of their time. In both cases, the protagonists have to overcome the obstacle that is classified as an internal conflict; therefore, their ultimate decision presents their strong mental

It gives the idea you have to be thin to be beautiful. Although, the thinness often resembles being unhealthy. The ultrathin image that Barbie contributes to these young minds is a negative body image and unhealthy eating patterns (Dittmar, Halliwell, & Ive, 2006). “In an exposure experiment three main questions were addressed: Do images of Barbie have an immediate negative impact on girls’ body image? Does exposure to images of a doll with more realistic body proportions result in the same detrimental effects?

Sandra Cisneros addresses poverty and unrealistic expectations of women through the lens of adolescent girls, using their youthful perception of a Barbie Doll. Through Barbie’s image of ideal beauty, Cisneros foregrounds the struggles that women, especially those in poverty, face in their attempts to amount to the unrealistic standards of female beauty. Cisneros’s main argument through her short story “Barbie-Q” is that it is impossible to expect women to meet this manifest of beauty, and somewhere along the way of escaping and covering their imperfections they become damaged.

Millions of women have gone along with this fantasy and have been entranced by the unrealistic standards of appearance and false qualities of life. Sadly, more and more women have accepted these standards as their own and have even resorted to changing who they are to become what they believe to be real. This may be a major contributing factor to the rise of women seeking breast implants and or plastic surgery. Yet there could be a further explanation and meaning behind Barbie.

Picture yourself as the ‘perfect’ woman. Embodying every woman’s dream. You are undeniably gorgeous, weighing in at 100 pounds, standing 6 feet tall and holding nearly 150 careers (barbiemedia.com). Yes, this is the beloved, ever so ‘inspirational’ childhood toy, the perfectly perfect Barbie Doll. Barbie is America’s most beloved toy, considering young girls between the ages of three and eleven own at least 10 Barbie’s throughout their childhood (‘Life in Plastic’). As creator of the Barbie Doll once said, “My whole philosophy of Barbie was that through the doll, the little girl could be anything she wanted to be. Barbie always represented that a woman has choices,” (Handler). However, Barbie has proved to serve the opposite effect and

Sandra Cisneros’s short story, “Barbie-Q”, describes the life of a young girl never identified by name and the less-fortunate life she and her family lead. The child explains how new toys are a rare find, but she loves Barbies. While entailing the family’s trip to the local flea market, she and her sister find Barbie dolls with water and smoke damaged. The main girl states the flaws of the Barbie, but counters with the positivity of having any dolls to play with. Through this struggle, however, the girl learns to cope with the gender roles and standards set by her peers and neighbors, particularly for women. Cisneros writes with these ideas in relation to her own childhood, motivated by the social standards of gender roles and body image in relation to the Barbie.

In today’s generation no matter what gender a person is, they have expectations of society to act like either a “women” or “man”. Back in the day when our parents were growing up it wasn’t the same social standers. Girls didn’t have to deal with such high expectations. Adults usually can’t relate to our situation. In the two essays, Mary Piper’s, “Saplings in the Storm” and Sandra Cisneros “Barbie-Q”, gave a better perspective of girls going through adolescents. During this stage in their life they have to deal with social norms, which pressures girls to compare themselves to others and strive to be an unrealistic model of femininity. This emotional battle to blend in leads to metal distress while not allowing adolescent girl be themselves

The oppression of women and girls in the developing world is this era’s most pervasive human rights violation. In the world today, being a girl means being sentenced to a life of poverty, abuse, exploitation and deprivation. Denied the most basic human rights, millions of girls and women are deprived of education, security, and most importantly, a voice. And yet, despite the cruel circumstances they endure, girls and women constantly strive to rise above their oppression. Marina Nemat, author of the memoir, Prisoner of Tehran and Meena Hasina from Nicholas D. Kristoff’s Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide are testaments of the bravery and willpower of women.

Throughout history and to this day women haven’t been able to have complete power over their bodies. The media show how women are being raped and abused by men and not getting the justice they deserve for what has happened to them, but instead the women have to carry on living their lives in shame and some of these women don’t even survive or commit suicide after they have been raped, not being able to handle their traumatic experience. However, as time has passed some of these women have begun to take control of these situations and of their bodies even if they have gone through severe moment in their lives. In this essay we will be looking at the poem “The Girl” by Sharon Olds and a modern version of “The Tale of Little Red Riding Hood”

Throughout history women have been handed a subservient role to her male counterpoint. Females in the late 19th and early 20th century were treated like a second-class citizen, and were thought of as being the weaker sex. It was the women’s job to stay home to cook and raise the children. While these are still prevalent issues, it is also true that things has gotten better for some women in recent years. Works like “The Doll House” by Henrik Ibsen and “Trifles” by Susan Glaspell have helped advance the idea of what roles women should play in society. In each play there are strong, female protagonists who, despite being oppressed by the societal rules against women, learn to rebel and fight for what they believe is right. While there are

a. Girls, this is a question for you. How many of you have had Barbie dolls growing up? (Have time to answer)

Also, because Barbie’s body proportions are so extreme, she would have to walk on her hands and knees. Her bust is so big and her feet are so small she would just topple forward trying to walk normally (Page, n.d.). Knowing this, why are children still given this doll, if it portrays such an unrealistic body type that young girls are going to learn to strive for?

The definition of beauty is complex, everyone has their own definition of what beauty holds. There are advertisements on how a woman should look and many follow onto those beliefs. Women are too skinny, one part is too small, another part is too big, the perfect woman’s beauty that our society created is impossible and not achievable. Models that appear on