Essay on Mistreatment: a Vicious Cycle in Women's History

In society in the 1950’s the average woman played an inferior role to men. Men considered themselves superior to women and often expected women to cater to their wishes. Females were expected to adjust their feelings , thoughts and actions to accommodate men's beliefs. The “do not speak unless spoken to” rule was common for women. They were expected to obey their husbands and fathers without hesitation. In order to be judged as respectable, they would have to remain sexually pure until marriage. After a minimum amount of schooling, women had to find a suitable young man to marry. In some instances a woman’s parents would orchestrate an arranged marriage to benefit their social status or income. Being put in such a position deteriorated a woman’s power. Today, women have fewer guidelines to abide by. First, women

When the audience thinks about the stereotypical wedding, they would expect happy, excited and perhaps nervous atmosphere, lots of bright, warm colors and people around with smiles on their faces talking about the fabulous ceremony and the two families being joined. This is why the situation is very confusing for the audience – it happens rather seldom, or does not happen at all, that the bride is cruelly beaten up during her own wedding, the whole thing does not meet the audience’s expectations regarding ‘a wedding’. This also effectively gets the audience to want-to- watch to look for an explanation – why did this happen? How did the situation get so bad that the bride is killed on her own wedding…?

“Domestic violence can be defined as a pattern of behavior in any relationship that is used to gain or maintain power and control over an intimate partner.” (Indiana Coalition Against Domestic Violence). Abuse can range from verbal to physical to mental, etc. Today, an average of one in three women will experience domestic abuse from a partner they are intimate with. On average, one out of every five women were domestically abused by their husband during the nineteenth century according to a study done by the Scottish government, in which they surveyed five thousand homes. However, domestic abuse was not discussed then as it is now. During that time period, it was barely considered a crime, so it is likely that the percentages were even higher then than now. Emily Brontë addresses the prevalent issue of domestic abuse during the nineteenth century through the marriage of Heathcliff and Isabella in her acclaimed novel Wuthering Heights.

Didion’s continuous derogative tone towards the Las Vegas wedding scene places her above the newlyweds of the absurd weddings. She differentiates herself and the implausible and bizarre captivating wedding scene that’s unlike any other. She describes the Las Vegas wedding an illegitimate ‘expectations’ for brides and grooms. The use of quotations surrounding the word ‘expectation’ sarcastically details her anecdotes. She even goes as far as to describe the Las Vegas wedding as a children’s game. After noticing “actual wedding parties”, Didion judges the weddings on the basis of her expectations and builds skepticism of the wedding industry. She criticized a young pregnant bride that outspokenly said, ‘“It was just as nice as I hoped and dreamed it would be’”. Sadly society has diverted away from tradition and has been blindsided by business and industries that take advantage of insensible and oblivious citizens.

Feminism has not changed today, but its focus has changed. Many women today have good education and employment opportunities just like men, as the early feminist fought for them. Now, after getting all these, men are now discriminating them and at times abusing them in order to undermine their hard work and potentiality. Men are doing all they can to undermine the success women have been able to acquired, however, today’s feminism is struggling to protect women and girls from domestic violence, sexual harassment, and rape as well as discrimination.

As a comparison between tribal and western communities, a brief story is shown about a marriage in Canada. This marriage is the man’s second but the woman’s first, although she already has two children. This part of the film shows the man and woman getting ready for their wedding and talking of how they knew it was the right time to get married. Their wedding marks a right of passage separating them from the dating world and bringing them into the married world. Like the Nyinba tribe, a gift is given in the wedding ceremony to show this but instead of coins they exchange rings.

Throughout history the role of women in Asia has changed drastically. In many areas, such as China, women were not treated socially, politically, economically, or culturally equal. China was a patriarchal society meaning that men had more power than women; this was mainly to do their Confucian beliefs. Politically, the literacy rates were much higher in males than in females; due to the fact that women were not allowed to receive an education. Additionally, a common tradition practiced by wealthy females was footbinding. Footbinding limited the physical abilities of women, ultimately making them dependent on males. Furthermore, economically, women could not own or inherit property as men could. Nonetheless, China was not the only Asian country where women were treated differently. The

For example, immigrant weddings were an important part of social life unlike the trend of elopement in American marriages (Ewen 235). According to Ewen, "weddings were large, festive affairs in which the ties between the couple, the two families and the larger community were sanctified" (235). Since weddings in America were much more expensive, many Italian and Jewish daughters and mothers went without paying for food, rent, or other pleasures in order to fund a wedding. Many went into debt as well, but they found it "worth the sacrifice" (Ewen, 237). This attitude permeated other social events such as christenings, bar mitzvahs, holidays, and funerals.

What were some of the factors that contributed to the abuse that has occurred in the military and continues to occur? The answer is the way leadership implemented the change of allowing women to serve in the military. When tailhook happened it was 1991 and women had just been allowed to serve their countries. However the high ranking members of the military failed to lead by example. The military was changing and that was met by resistance from the existing male members of the organization. The military failed to handle the inertia that was caused by change resistance. Failing to handle and investigate reports of sexual abuse and misconduct when women and men reported the incidences led to the acceptance for the followers to continue the sexual

Many different groups of people have struggled, fought, and endured countless amounts of inequality and scrutiny based on a characteristic that they were born with. Characteristic that are irreversible such as skin color, sexuality, and gender are some of the most common reasons as to why individuals have been ostracized. More specifically women in the late 18th century were constantly striving for equality not only for themselves but for future generations as well. According to Eric Foner, author of “Give me Liberty” an American history textbook, in the late 1700’s “Most men considered women to be naturally submissive and irrational…” (Foner, 247).

A wedding in the Igbo culture is not just about the husband and wife but also about the two families and confessing everything they have ever done. Before the wedding, the families have many traditions that are carried out. In the novel, one thing that the families do, is have the bride sit in the middle of a circle and ask her questions about her life. Njide, Uchendu’s oldest daughter asks her sister’s groom the questions and says,”Remember that if you do not answer truthfully you will suffer or even die at childbirth”(Achebe 132). This shows that in the Igbo culture, honesty plays a major role in the marriage. According to the Igbo people, if you do not tell the truth when they ask you a question, you will suffer greatly or even die while giving birth. Showing honesty is not just about telling the truth. The Igbo people can also show honesty by,”when the groom and his father explain the reason for their visit, the bride’s father asks her if she knows her groom and her confirmation shows she accepts the marriage proposal”(Michael Widjaja). When the bride accepts the marriage proposal, she is showing her honesty to her father by her accepting who her groom really

In traditional Chinese culture, women were inferior to men. They were not allowed to make any decisions concerning their families. Their only purpose in life was to stay home and take care of the households. "A woman's duties are to cook the five grains, heat the wine, look after her parents-in-law, make clothes, and that's all! ...she must follow the `three submissions.' When she is young, she must submit to her parents. After her marriage, she must submit to her husband. When she is widowed, she must submit to her son. These are the rules of propriety." ("The Mother Of Mencius", p.34) That's the principle that was followed in traditional China. Some of the examples of this are discussed in this

After the beginning of the patriarchal society, women become the object of oppression, which men tend to blame their mistakes and weaknesses to women. In the fifteenth and eighteenth centuries, during the rise of the "witch hunting" wave, about one hundred thousand "witch" was executed. The whole wave is not only violent and cruel, but also reflects the inferior of female under the patriarchal system. In China, even though there’s no such event like that, but the social system was apparently patriarchal. Women were more like a maidservants in a family. For the emperor, his wives were more than three thousands. Women were clearly the lowest class of the society. As a result, the influence which patriarchal had was a tragedy of the

At first glance the treatment of women in an Igbo marriage is appalling, the woman may be beat if she is out of line, she raises the children, does the housework and even some farm work without hesitation. For the Igbo clan, a marriage is the union between a man and as many women as he desires and can afford to buy. A marriage is done for the purpose of having numerous children and love between man and wife is not even a requirement. The wife is given the option to leave if she is unhappy and despite the fact that the choice to leave or to stay seems obvious, the pros seem to outweigh the cons for an Igbo woman.

It’s a typical example under the rigorous feudalism that demonstrates the ancient China traditional arranged marriage, which was programmed by family, and primary required equal status. As the children, people had no right to choose the spouse who shared whole life with. At that time, marriage was purposeful, it’s turned into effective tool to consolidate and strengthen the clan family. As a result, two unfamiliar young who have no emotion foundation were tied together, and become the sacrifice of arranged marriage.