Margaret Atwood Rape Fantasies Analysis

First of all, Margaret Atwood is well known for writing fiction with strong female characters that critics categorize her as feminist. Her initial works, ”The Edible Woman”, “Dancing Girls”, “The Robber Bride”, and “The Handmaid’s Tale” are some of examples of her works that are categorize as feminist. Those novels of strong woman describe, “The main characters variously indulge in self-invention, self-mythologising, role-playing, and self-division, while identity is presented as unstable and duplicitous throughout the novels” (McCarthy 3). Atwood has that unique style to describe her characters. She elucidates the woman as their own self to invent their life and their environment through the entire novel. Atwood has a twisted technique for giving her work a jubilant name when the words describe the opposite. One example of that is her short story collection, “Dancing Girls”, Atwood, “bears a surprisingly joyful title for a series of narratives shot through with anxiety and fear, with images of death, deformity, lifelessness and contained rage” (Murray 1). Atwood has an incredible way to write stories where the characters go through gruesome obstacles or experiences that define

“The Longest War” by Rebecca Solnit convinces readers that the violence against women are in the content of the United States and the world. Solnit presented information that is regarding violence and rape statistical and personal views of gender and the inequality of male violence toward comparing women’s violence to men or women. She uses numerical facts ad provides statements of how this affects the way women perceive their surroundings. Solnit clearly makes a strong frequency and violence of rape by listing the details of rape and violence eight times within the first paragraph of the text. She uses many examples of how rape is a gendered issue and how many victims that fall prey to violence which lends us toward an engaging need to

A very real, and very common, problem in America is rape—more so the lack of knowledge about rape. This causes many problems for victims of sexual assault. In Speak, by Laurie Halse Anderson, the story of Melinda directly reflects the world today because most kids are not properly educated about rape and many teens in Melinda’s position can’t find a voice to tell their story.

The taboo towards speaking out about the issue is implemented with the line “Rape is a coward hiding its face in the makeup of silence…grows best in the shadows of taboo” exploring the idea that the silence around the issue is perpetuating the continual of rape. This personification highlights the harm implemented on victims when rape is ignored, making the act of rape culture to worsen as perpetrators believe they can get away with

A few stories from her book consist of young females, as young as fourteen, and their treacherous journey through adolescence with the title of “slut” weighing on their shoulders, when in reality it may not have been true or consensual sexual relations. Continued in her book, there are cases where women are asked about their sexual relationships and gynecology records when filing a lawsuit against people or companies for sexual harassment from males and payment inequality. When men were surveyed, 92% said that the double standards, that they themselves live up to, are unfair, but 65% said that if a woman they liked had slept with ten to twenty men the previous year, that they would not take them

This national best seller can relate to the opinions expressed by Peggy Reeves Sanday in The Socio-Cultural Context of Rape. Sandy investigates the characteristics of a rape-prone, and rape-free society. Jon Krakauer was interviewed by NPR books, where he stated, “The upshot was most rapists walked away without any punishment, any accountability” (NPR 1). The response from Krakauer correlates to Sanday’s research in The Socio-Cultural Context of Rape. Reeves Sanday writings examine, “When men discovered that they could rape, they proceeded to do it” (Reeves Sanday

Sexuality has an inherent connection to human nature. Yet, even in regards to something so natural, societies throughout times have imposed expectations and gender roles upon it. Ultimately, these come to oppress women, and confine them within the limits that the world has set for them. However, society is constantly evolving, and within the past 200 years, the role of women has changed. These changes in society can be seen within the intricacies of literature in each era. Specifically, through analyzing The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne and The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, one can observe the dynamics of society in regards to the role of women through the lens of the theme of sexuality. In both novels, the confinement and oppression of women can be visibly seen as a result of these gender roles. Yet, from the time The Scarlet Letter was published to the time The Bell Jar was written, the place of women in society ultimately changed as well. Hence when evaluating the gender roles that are derived from sexuality, the difference between the portrayals of women’s oppression in each novel becomes apparent, and shows how the subjugation of women has evolved. The guiding question of this investigation is to what extent does the theme of sexuality reflect the expectations for women in society at the time each novel was written. The essay will explore how the literary elements that form each novel demonstrate each author’s independent vision which questions the

Looking back at her tragic series of sexual assaults, Samentha Moore reminisces on her habitual inexorable feelings of “self-conscious and blaming” (source 5). Moore experienced her first two traumatic assaults before college; she was left vacant, aloof and disconsolate after the police disdainfully responded to her assaults. Around the time, she experienced her third assault in college, Moore was discourage to report it ands was left miserable and unable to desert her pain, loneliness and self- punishment. Her agony later developed into an eating disorder; Moore thought maybe if she “made myself (herself) less attractive it (the rape) wouldn’t happen again” (source 5).

Jacobs’ narrative is open and honest in its depiction of sexual harassment, describing the nature of the abuse and the tortured emotional state it leaves its victims in. Though the narrative tells of a girl’s life over one hundred and fifty years ago, it remains timely in its reminder that many suffering women do not have the ability to safely end the harassment they face every day, and yet, they continue to endure the consequential

The topic I chose to address within my creative media project was over the issue titled “little rapes” presented to me through Heather R. Hlavka’s article “Normalizing Sexual Violence: Young Women Account for Harassment and Abuse”. I chose to address this topic because despite the severity and the reoccurrence of this type of violence only a few victims reported their experience to authorities or to people who can help. Andrea Nelson and Pamela Oliver state (under certain rules), “…any girl who permits herself to be persuaded into sexual activity is weak and to blame, as is a girl who voluntarily enters a situation where she can be raped.” The justifications of these acts need to be stopped and solutions for these sexual acts are long overdue.

Sexual abuse, specifically from a male, generates many negative consequences, especially to the victims involved. Male violence occurs all over the United States and has been steadily rising (Hooks 117). In Bell Hooks’ article, “Feminist Move to End Violence”, she discusses the reason why male violence is occurring. She explains, “While male supremacy encourages the use of abusive force to maintain male domination of women, it is the Western philosophical notion of hierarchical rule and coercive authority that is the root cause of violence against women, of adult violence against children, of all violence between those who dominate and those who are dominated” (Hooks 118). Due to the relevance of male violence today, feminist writers have been addressing this issue and its impact in their novels.

Trauma is physical or mental damage that leaves the victim with lifelong distress, often leading to a poorer quality in life. In “Excerpts from Hard To Get: Twenty-Something Women and the Paradox of Sexual Freedom” by Leslie Bell, the twenty-something women experience psychological trauma when faced with the ambiguity in their pertaining to understanding the fulfillment of sexual relations. In “When I Woke Up Tuesday, It Was Friday,” Marta Stout, the psychoanalytic author, uses anecdotes from her patients to exemplify the trauma experienced by them. The trauma experienced by the patients of both works affects self-perception to whatever extent they permit it. Jayanthi, the bad girl, faced many traumatic events during her years of sexual experimentation

Patricia Lockwood’s The Rape Joke is a risky composition- not because it discloses information about Lockwood’s personal rape experience, but because it does so from a comedic stance, ridiculing the unfortunate event and the events leading up to and after it. While the creation of the poem was prompted due to the sexual assault she experienced, the content and subject are not centered around the incident or the assaulter but around rape culture and the sociological concept of victim blaming, from both society and oneself. There is no such thing as a rape joke-the joke is the incredulous ways society has guided people to respond to it.

Sexual violence against women is not a new phenomenon; it is as old as history. Sexual violence entails any unintentional sexual act in which the victim is coerced, threatened, or compelled to engage against their will (Taylor & Quayle, 2003). This is a matter that has historically attracted a great deal of attention from scholars and authorities owing to its growing prevalence and disastrous consequences to the victim, including physical, sexual, and psychological harm. The attention has even been greater in recent times since the phenomenon has taken a new form. With advancements in information and communication technologies (ICTs), new ways of perpetrating sexual violence against women have emerged (Eneman, Gillespie & Bernd, 2010).

The future conditions of the woman’s potential marital worth were much poorer than any punishment the violator could have received. Once a woman was raped, her virginity was no longer available for her husband to have. “‘Virginity is the ornament of morals, the sanctity of the sexes, the peace of families and the source of the greatest friendships.’ Its existence was a precondition for marriage. To publicly breach it was to compromise honor, rank, even life; a ‘deflowered’ girl inevitably became a ‘lost’ girl. . . ‘The ravishing of virginity was the worst rape of all.’” (Cite Book 1) An innocent woman had now completely lost her worth to society and her own dignity due to a man’s egocentric and merciless actions.