Memoirs Of A Geisha By Arthur Golden- Isu Log

Women in society have always been looked down upon, and not taken seriously for centuries. The coming-of-age novella House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, proves that statement correct. The novella is about a young girl named Esperanza who moves into a house for the first time, on a street named Mango street. The house is not what she envisioned, so she makes plans in her mind to move out and get her own place, far away, but she is still very innocent. While she’s on Mango Street, Esperanza experiences series of events, that force her to mature. In House on Mango Street, the theme that females are looked down upon, taken advantage of, and the ones to blame in society are shown through literary elements such as, conflict and characterization. The gender literary theory applies to this theme. This theme is also shown throughout multiple vignettes such as “Rafaela who drinks Coconut and Papaya Juice on Tuesdays”, “The Monkey Garden” and, “Red Clowns”.

I grew up reading magazines and gawking over waistlines and standards of beauty that I believed were normal. I can remember the first time I watched the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show. It was from a treadmill at the gym. I believe that I could achieve that body from hard work and dieting, but it took years to realize that could never happen. Those women are genetically blessed and they are born to have these types of careers. I believe that this trend of objectifying women is extremely harmful, and shows women that they can never achieve an unrealistic standard of beauty set by the media.

Historically in western drama, Asian women have been portrayed in a highly negative light. The Asian women in films like “Sayonara” and “The San Pebbles” and musicals like “Miss Saigon” are seen as people who are “submissive and silent.” A young American soldier is often involved in these plots, as most of these plots are war dramas. The Asian girl falls in love with the American because she sees him as a “savior” who will take her back home with him so she can fulfill what she thinks is the “American Dream”, meaning that she can go from “rags to riches.” On the contrary, the American falls in love with the Asian girl because he feels preference for submissiveness, which he finds more feminine and attractive. As well, the American is embodied with the “Christopher Columbus Syndrome”, and feels that he has to dominate her. This passive eastern femininity in relation to western male dominance is portrayed in these dramas.

By including marginalized and alienated characters of Manila’s subcultures (pimps, whores, sex workers, transvestites, sexual deviants), the novel comes very close to being pornographic in parts. The language and sexual situations are graphic, perverted, and offensive, so educators are cautioned to carefully consider the appropriateness of this novel for teaching purposes.

A number of the stories, graphic memoirs and poems we discussed in class have introduced us to women who have been trapped in some way in their lives. Henrik Ibsen’s A Dolls House (1879) and Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s “The Yellow Wallpaper” (1892) both demonstrate women being trapped by men in a patriarchal society in the nineteenth century. However, Joyce Carol Oates’ “Where are you going, where have you been?”(1974), Jamaica Kincaid’s short story “Girl” (1978) and Marjane Satrapi’s graphic novel Persepolis (2005) are about social norms and girls being sexualized at a young age in the 20th century.

In the novel, The House On Mango Street, women face numerous challenges in their lives. Women face abuse, objectification, and oppression. They are also subjects to the societal roles that hinders them from being free and successful. Cisneros utilizes metaphors to reveal the theme of society’s gender roles restricting the lives and sexuality of women.

Even after all the trouble women go through to look according to society’s norms, people still catch every small thing that is not perfect to society. According to Lois Tyson, “she is objectified…defined only by her difference from male norms and values, defined by what she (allegedly) lacks…” (92). Women are unmistakably different from men biologically; so why is it such a shock when she has a small part of her skin showing, just because it is her breast or any other ‘forbidden’ areas? If a woman shows her butt cheeks it is disgraceful, but if a man shows his butt cheeks, it is hot. It is the same body part just of difference sexes, yet society has labeled it differently for each sex. Women objectification should not be seen as her fault, because like every woman around her, she is doing what she has to to stay comfortable.

Regardless of race or gender people in today’s society have probably seen something on the media and have strived to be more like that image. Women objectification is very common like in Alabama’s sorority recruitment video, they only showed the prettiest of girls with the nicest body; the whole video did not tell of any offers or why an individual should come to their college, instead it only showed girls playing around in bikinis or minimal clothing (WKRGNews). Although this recruitment video was later taken down due to the controversy it caused, it shows that women objectification is out there and very common. Men are similar to women in the fact that they are also objectified. Objectifying men is seen as not as big of a problem than female objectification but it is equally important. Magic Mike XXL objectifies men by portraying Mark Wahlberg and other actors with great bodies by dancing and other classic chick flick scenes (WarnerBrosPicture). Actors in movies like Magic Mike XXL make the average man look plain disappointing as well as women in magazines or other movies. The average person in today's society can differentiate between flawless and average but none the less objectification of men and women occur frequently in the

Popular culture is often a reflection of society; both literature and the media have the capacity to cement ideas in the minds of readers and viewers. In many cases, the notions and stories glorified by the media refrain from sharing a true depiction of society and are narrow-minded in their focus. Recently, the feminist movement has denounced popular culture for its ignorance, fighting for a more realistic portrait to be painted by those with the power to reach millions. Specifically, both Roxane Gay’s Bad Feminist and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s “The Danger of a Single Story” share how the classic gender stereotypes seen in popular culture are unable to capture the full spectrum of stories that define society, and are limiting in their portrayals of women. Moreover, both authors share personal stories, reference prominent world figures, and cite relevant statistics in their works. Therefore, in both Bad Feminist and “The Danger of a Single Story”, Roxane Gay and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie appeal to readers pathos, logos, and ethos in order to construct the argument that the single story of women in popular culture is stereotypical and restrictive.

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

In Shortcomings, Adrian Tomine writes about Ben Tanaka’s relations with women, indirectly commenting on relationship between different races. An overarching theme through the novel is the gendered double standard that Ben holds when it comes to an Asian person's relations with white women versus white men. A double standard is defined by Merriam Webster as: “a set of principles that applies differently and usually more rigorously to one group of people or circumstances than to another; especially: a code of morals that applies more severe standards of sexual behavior to women than to men” (“Double Standard”). The second half of this definition is the most relevant part of our analysis of Ben. When Ben visits Miko in New York after she moves, he’s upset when he sees her on the arm of someone he assumes to be a white man despite having been with a white woman himself. This double standard that Tomine portrays reflects both Ben’s own perspectives and his inability to see past gender and race. Another important aspect to keep in mind is the use and danger of fetishization as talked about in Shortcomings. A fetish, according to Merriam-Webster, is: “An object or bodily part whose real or fantasized presence is psychologically necessary for sexual gratification and that is an object of fixation to the extent that it may interfere with complete sexual expression” (“Fetish”). The most important part of this definition is the second half, as Ben’s fixation on white women interferes with his sexual expression. Shortcomings emphasizes double standards and fetishizations through the repeated illustrations of women and through a comparison to Alice’s lesbian relationship to prove why Ben treats women in the book the way he does.

Discuss the interrelation of sex, violence, and politics in the film. In what ways are they related at different points in the film? Diary of a Shinjuku Thief is a deeply complex film: its plot is both non-linear and unclear, many of the film’s sequences are consistently amorphous; this is a movie, where the distinction between reality and the perceptions and imaginations of its characters, not always clearly defined. Indeed the film’s meaning, if there is one, is decidedly ambiguous.

The experimental investigation held by (Yamamiya, 2005-2008) observed 123 young college women’s behaviors before and after the exposure to these images. The results of the research indicated that relative to a control group, the exposure to thin and beautiful media images negatively influenced the state body image of participants with high internalization levels. In the study, Sex Roles by (Harper & Tiggemann, 2008), objectification theory by (Fredrickson & Roberts, Psychology of Women Quarterly, 1997) emphasizes that experiences of sexual objectification socialize women to engage in self-objectification. The study (Harper & Tiggemann, 2008) used an experimental investigation to examine the effects of media images on self-objectification of women. A total number of 90 Australian female undergraduates aged from 18 to 35 were randomly chosen to view images of a thin-ideal woman. Participants are reported with greater state self-objectification, weight-related appearance anxiety, negative mood and body dissatisfaction. The results demonstrate that self-objectification can be stimulated in women without direct focusing attention on their own

Outside Reading In-Class essay Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden tells the story of the maturation of a girl to a woman and her journey in life. In this case, the girl, Chiyo, is kidnapped and taken to Kyoto to become a geisha. The choices she made in her life after this life changing incident is portrayed perfectly by Alexander Elliot, as Chiyo or Sayuri [her geisha name] learns how to adapt to life and survive with a happy ending. Alexander Elliot states that, “HE [hero] actually earns self integration, balance, and spiritual health.” Sayuri has earned fame, status, and wealth but the most precious thing to her was her love for the Chairman.

In today’s society we let the media decide everything in our lives from what clothes we should wear, music we should listen to, and how we should look. One of the biggest problems that both men and women face is body shaming, because the media sets standards for young kids and young adults., they often times try and fit the description of “perfect” which leads these people to either be depressed because they do not look like people want them to look or harm themselves in order to achieve the desired look. The most common ways the media shames both men and women are by celebrities and how they are the “perfect” body, publishing magazines of what is the ideal man and woman, and by the people who believe being “too” fat is bad and being “too” skinny is bad.