Morland's Critique Of A Vegetarian

Mothers, fathers, daughters, sons, aunts, uncles, grandparents, pimps, prostitutes, straight people, gay people, lesbian people, Europeans, Asians, Indians, and Africans all have once thing in common: they are products of sexuality. Sexuality is the most common activity in the world, yet is considered taboo and “out of the norm” in modern society. Throughout history, people have been harassed, discriminated against, and shunned for their “sexuality”. One person who knows this all too well is activist and author, Angela Davis. From her experiences, Davis has analyzed the weakness of global society in order to propose intellectual theories on how to change the perspective of sexuality. This research paper will explore the discussions of

This article is an examination, of theories of sexual stratification that focuses on the analytical critiques of the sexual field and theory of sexual capital. Within the article, it explains how most sociological theorists believe that the use of market metaphors is key to studying the logic of sexual action. However, this article attempts to explain that the study of social organization of sexual desire should not be based on market metaphors due to inadequacies seen when the sexual field was closely observed. Therefore, this article suggests that the inadequacies can be fixed if sexual action is studied through a specific field that correlates both the sexual field and sexual capital.. Throughout the article, one will see the different

Intercourse, one of Andrea Dworkin’s most revealing novels on sexuality in an exploitive ethos, poetically argues that male hegemony and female inequality are manifested in the somatic action of heterosexual intercourse, a “sexed world of dominance and submission”. This world, simply titled, “Amerika” is, the world that exists within the contemporary American. In “Amerika,” sex is healthy and enjoying it is morally right [59]. It is furthermore, distinctly regarded in the context of vaginal penetration by man. In which women are

In The Vegetarian by Han Kang, what appears to be one insubordinate South Korean woman’s choice to not eat meat, becomes a much larger issue revolving around what is normal, and just how far others should be allowed to impose their own views of reality onto another person’s life. Yeong-hye’s unusual ways, while strange to the mainstream culture’s expectations, present their own rationality in her mind. She sees it as a way to oppose the violent tendencies of human nature, in order to find her own peace in life. Kang takes this idea to the farthest extent with the philosophical question, should a person be allowed to choose to die because their life is just that, their own life? The unique perspective of this novel comes from a South Korean author, which helps to develop her questions based a childhood trauma in her country. This tragedy leads to her novel’s exploration of the idea of what is normal, the impossibility of understanding another individual’s idea of normal, and is it rational to commit suicide if it is connected to one’s idea of normal. All these questions are connected through Yeong-hye’s choice to be a vegetarian, and are presented to the reader to form their own views throughout the novel.

An extremely interesting, but ever-contradictory sociological study of sexual relationsis presented in the Kathy Peiss book Cheap Amusements . The reason I say that it is ever-contradictory is that the arguments are presented for both the benefit of cheap amusements for a woman s place in society and for the reinforcement of her place. In one breath, Peiss says that mixed-sex fun could be a source of autonomy and pleasure as well as a cause of [a woman s] continuing oppression. The following arguments will show that, based on the events and circumstances described in Cheap Amusements , the changes in the

Sexual transgression and sexual exploration is one of the most highly talked about topics in today’s society. The path to sexual liberation within society begins with experimentation and exploration, followed by personal acceptance, and finally, although not always, societal acceptance. Although we have come a long way on the path of acceptance of different sexual transgressions, the stories of Kate Chopin’s The Awakening, Tennessee Williams’ “Vieux Carre,” and Lyle Saxon’s “The Centaur Plays Croquet” show that this type of acceptance has not always been the case. Each story plays an integral role when looking at the steps on the path to societal acceptance. Chopin 's story dives deep into the area of experimentation and exploration, whereas Saxon 's story looks more at the areas of personal acceptance, and Williams ' story lies more along the area of societal acceptance, and whether or not acceptance is always the end result.

Through poetry, Rafael Campo is able to express his experiences as a homosexual medical doctor who primarily treats gay patients that suffer from AIDS. His poem, “The Abdominal Exam”, illustrates one of the hardest aspects of his practice: diagnosing a patient with an aggressive and incurable disease. In this poem the reader watches an examination take place, which unfolds a harsh truth as a patient sits with his lover as the doctor probes his ailing body. The speaker is sympathetic and emotional as he shares his inner thoughts during the sequence of his inquiry. Paying attention to the use of imagery and particular language used in the poem clarifies a deeper understanding of its overall significance, as well as how the general form of

The Traffic in Women: The “Political economy” of sex by Gayle Rubin is an exploration of the origin of women’s oppression. Rubin’s main objective is to arrive at a more fully developed definition of the sex/gender system, otherwise referred to as “mode of reproduction” and/or “patriarchy”. She further develops her definition through the analysis of the work of Levi-Strauss and Freud from a marxist perspective. Rubin provides the following preliminary definition of the sex/gender system “A set of arrangements by which a society transforms biological sexuality into products of human activity, and in which these transformed sexual needs are satisfied.” (159) She attempts to add to her definition of the sex/gender system through the analysis of the overlapping work of Claude Levi- Strauss and Sigmund Freud. Despite implications with their work, Rubin believes that both Levi-Strauss and Freud provide conceptual tools in describing the sex/gender system. Rubin looks at a Marxist analysis of sex oppression, as well as, Engels theory of society which integrates both sex and sexuality. Furthermore she incorporates aspects of each theory addressed into her own working definition of the sex/gender system. By shifting between Marxist, structuralist and psychoanalyst explanations of sex oppression, Rubin is able to construct a multi-dimensional definition of the sex/gender system that is not only inclusive but also provides a basis of which to build from.

Paul B. Preciado advances the intriguing “pleasure of multiplicity” notion in his gender-bending academic text Testo Junkie: “The Unique Pleasure of writing in English, French, Spanish, of wandering from one language to another like being in transit between masculinity, femininity, and transsexuality (Preciado 133). Preciado’s fluidity and liminality open a gateway to discuss “social bodies,” that is, a shift from viewing the human body exclusively as a biological entity to viewing it as an entity dictated by the hegemonic social and cultural practices (Shilling). In a highly socialized space, the human body becomes a ‘social text’ because it is spoken, and hence memorialized, inscribed and archived, by the legal structures of society. As Clarice

Prosser (1998) enters the gender-identity conversation with a rather counter-intuitive project. At a time when poststructuralism is busily deconstructing the sex/gender linkage in ways that transcend the materiality of the subject, Prosser wants to bring the “ontological” trans body back into the dialogue by charting the arc of the changing body within transgender narratives. Only by mapping these transitions in this frame can he describe a complex transsexual experience that breaks free from the political binaries used by essentialists and poststructuralists, such as “literal/deliteralizing, subversive/hegemonic” (16). If the former has been guilty of a dogmatic reliance on a narrow understanding of biology to describe transsexuals, Prosser argues, then the former is equally guilty of deconstructing gender to the point of reducing the material body to an inconvenient concept (13).

This binary relationship manifests itself in Levy’s work in another way, as well. Toward the very end of the book Levy claims she has no complaint against women who do gain genuine sexual pleasure from “their vaginas waxed, their breasts enlarged” (Levy, 198). On one hand, Levy recognizes that sexuality is personal and that everyone’s own experiences and preferences are unique. Yet at the same time, by drawing the line between “authentic” and “fake”, she must impersonally interpret these experiences in order to classify them as “problematic”. This desire to judge yet not judge women’s sexual nature represents an underlying tension within the book that threatens to unravel her arguments.

Timothy Perrine Siddharth Kharbanda 11/14/2014 Singers Utilitarian Case for Vegetarianism SECTION-I (EXPLANATION OF THE ARGUMENT) In this essay, I will be considering Peter Singer’s Utilitarian Argument/Theory for Vegetarianism. For Singer ‘Utilitarian’ word means “The morally right act whose consequences maximize the total balance of pleasure (interest satisfaction) minus pain (interest frustration) when considering all beings affected” Singer explains that the suffering of livestock animals is a real and great evil and directs individuals to become vegetarian (or vegan if they can) on the grounds that this will undermine the economics of industrial farming and thereby reduce the amount of animal suffering in the world.

In his novel The Hours, Michael Cunningham creates a dazzling fabric of queer references managing to intertwine the lives of three different women into one smooth narrative. In this essay, I will discuss what makes The Hours queer literature, how the novel has contributed to the queer genre, the cultural significance of the novel, and I will discuss several points made in Jeanette McVicker’s critical article “Gaps and Absences in The Hours.” My aim, however, is not to say that Michael Cunningham’s The Hours is strictly a queer novel, but to highlight what makes the novel queer and to discuss Cunningham’s idea of sexual orientation as a fluid entity.

In Foucault and Queer Theory Spargo defines queer theory as a nebulous group of cultural criticism and analysis of social power structures relating to sexuality . It is these power structures and aspects of culture that are responsible for the discourse that creates and informs ones understanding of gender, race, and sexuality. However these aspects of identity do not exist separately from one another, but are constructed in tandem throughout history. These layers of identity inform each other in a way that is difficult if not impossible to separate. They do not act independently with an additive effect but intersect constructing their own unique set of experiences and perspectives. In this paper I will be exploring queer theory

In one of Ensler’s frequent “Vagina Fact” interludes, she poses the important topic of genital mutilation. She explains that it first started in the nineteenth century when orgasms were treated as “‘medical problems’”. In order to fix this supposed medical problem, doctors needed to put an end to the source of orgasms- masturbation. They would do so with chastity belts in the form of “‘sewing the vagina’” closed to ensure that women could no longer reach their clitoris. Another tactic during this time was to amputate the clitoris or to surgically remove the ovaries. The last time these procedures were conducted in America occurred in 1948 “‘-on a five-year-old girl’” (53-54). In “‘some countries’”, like Africa, genital mutilation is still being practiced, only there, they use “‘[knives], razors, or glass shards’” to cut off the clitoris of nearly “‘30 million girls’” every ten years that pass (55). Ensler then goes into the harrowing topic of rape in her story “The Little Coochie Snorcher That Could” in which a woman looks back on the sexual experiences that she lived during her childhood. At ten years old, she recalls a vivid memory of being raped by her fathers best friend. This recurring memory leaves her constantly thinking that her “coochie snorcher is a site for mishaps, a bad luck-zone” (65-66). In her new edition, Ensler gives spotlight to new and