HOW IS THE POWER EXPRESSED
Feminists must be careful not to use such male-biased frameworks and linguistic conventions, because their controlling assumptions produce androcentric knowledge, as exemplified by Rosaldo and Lamphere’s (1974) finding of universal male dominance due to their use of male-biased data, binary categorizations of women’s and men’s activities, and overgeneralizing cross-cultural methodology in validity of Veblen’s (1899) Most characters in this volume of play is not only present in monolithically ideal cultural gender roles, but also provide evidence of individual variations in behaviors. The Medea’s further show diversity in gender ideologies. Feminists contest monolithic constructions of a polis culture’s gender ideology,
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Different discussion on power is particularly helpful in delineating meanings of power. What kinds of power are relevant to a study of gender? The distinction between “power over” and “power to” is useful here, “power over” being the ability to cause someone else to do something not in their own interest, while “power to” constitutes autonomy. These ways to understand power are fundamentally different, and conflating them is the source of much confusion about power (Wylie 1992). Kent describes the “absence of power” (meaning the absence of “power over”), and provides a typology of symmetrical and asymmetrical power in gender relationships. Sweely notes power in social relations, access to knowledge, and access to the supernatural. Power can also be multi-centered. Woodhouse-Beyer implies that power is the ability to send “messages” affecting “beliefs, emotions, and perceptions of indigenous populations”—thus power is perceived in the hands of the women mediators of a creolized culture. These play demonstrate that power is not given or taken once and for all; it needs to be maintained, and must be negotiated. Several characters acknowledge or imply that power cannot be reified as a “possession,” but that it is contingent and shifting. Power may be manipulated through control of …show more content…
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Men and women have been subject to certain stereotypes throughout the ages. The gender roles of different societies transcend age, race, and location and affect us all. The Odyssey by Homer, Macbeth by William Shakespeare, and The Lottery by Shirley Jackson explore the phenomenon of gender biases that many, if not all, societies deal with. At one point or another, it may become true that when men or women cross the threshold of prescribed gender roles, they are often belittled or ridiculed.
Through Women’s Eyes by Ellen Carol DuBois and Lynn Dumenil addresses American History from 1865 until present day. The third edition of this textbook includes visual and primary sources over several centuries. I used this textbook in a history course, “Women in the United States, 1890 – Present;” I found the textbook to be engaging, helpful, and useful throughout the course. The way in which in the information was presented allowed me to learn, assess, and analyze the difficulties women faced.
The feminist school has various goals when being used to scrutinize a piece of literature. As Gillespie points out, historically texts were written by males with primarily male protagonists, and thus, the male sentiment is most dominantly expressed in many works of literature. The lessened representation of women in literature is usually confined to typical stereotypes of the historical period. This can be seen in Shakespeare’s play Hamlet, and this will be further explored and discussed. Through the feminist lens, women’s presence and portrayal in the play, as well as the common stereotypes about women in Shakespearean society, can be studied carefully, despite the centuries that have passed between the play’s conception and the present. Additionally, as stated in Literary Theories: A Sampling of Critical Lenses,
Dictionary.refrence.com states that power is the delegated authority; authority granted to a person or persons in aparticular office or capacity. An individual's power is dependent on their class, race, gender and their roles in society. Authors show power through text in many different ways. In The Crucible Arthur Miller shows how men have more access to power than women, especially the lower class. Women have less power than men, regardless of their partner's status because women are thought of to be less capable, and lower than men.
Archaeology is the excavation, study, and analysis of physical art, of ancient civilizations for anthropological purposes. Sometimes, that purpose is specifically for analyzing gender activities and roles within a culture. Gender roles, as a social costruct, are not defined explicitly by biological sex. Thus, in different civilizations, time periods, and parts of the world, culture has defined the relationship between men and women differently. Anthropologists and archaeologists value gender analysis because it outlines the relationships between genders, which actively helps to fill in the blanks about ancient civilizations.
For centuries, society has taught its men and women to behave in a clear way and to expect certain things from each other. Due to this, women have been placed second, below men, the submissive gender. Women have been taught to aspire to marriage, to not be too smart, to live their life according to society who tells them how to please a man. In fact, when women saw this degradation of themselves they decided to create a movement known as feminism, the social, economic and political equality of the sexes. Due to this standard of society passed through generations, an average reader would interpret Joan Murray’s “Play-by-Play” to be a poem about older women lustfully longing after younger men and fulfilling their purpose. However, if one were to delve deeper into Murray’s poem, it could be argued that she is taking a satirical approach to the way men objectify women. Marilyn French once said, “The same men who are blind and deaf to feminism are acutely sensitive to what threatens their dominance and privilege.” In looking at the symbols, diction, and tone in Murray’s poem, one can plainly see her disdain towards the societal standard and objectification of women.
Women have been oppressed since the beginning of time, they were only expected to have children and become a caretaker. “Domestic work is almost always the sole responsibility of wives(Citation).” Judith Lorber would deconstruct this idea of “women's work” by arguing that the entire point of a gender system is to sustain gender inequality. Lorber anticipates a society structured for equality, where no gender, social class group, or racial-ethnic are entitled to monopolize positions of power. Men are
Andrew J. Bacevich believes that our political system is simply trashed. In The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism, he argues that the country’s founding principle, freedom has become confused with appetite. Turning America’s traditional quest for liberty and freedom into an obsession with consumption, by the U.S. public for the economic power of the elites, the never-ending search for more. He states that in order to accommodate this hunger, we are finding pandering politicians creating an informal domain of supply, maintaining it through continuous endless wars. The Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism, Bacevich conservative principles and his anger rage at the Bush Administration’s reckless militancy. Dedicating and referring to the memory of his son, Army First Lieutenant Andrew Bacevich, Jr., whom unimpeachable credentials and activism against the war did not stop his son from being deployed to Iraq 2007. Bacevich identifies three major crises he believes is plaguing the United States: military inefficacy, greed, and political incompetence.
Power: a motive to work, a motive to listen, a motive to kill. Power can make people do anything. Those who have it control those below them. But this is not the case for the women in Those in power (the men) try to make the women believe they have power over each other.
In “Gender: A Useful Category of Historical Analysis,” Joan W. Scott provides many angles to explore the relevancy of gender. The first thing that needs to be examined is her argument. The main argument that Joan W. Scott is trying to make is how beneficial to history using gender as a category for analysis would turn out. Another factor that needs to be made in assessing her article is how she presents her argument and findings. Scott formats her article with a beginning, middle, and end. She begins by defining “gender,” and how that term has been used in general. She goes on to describe some of the theories that have analyzed gender. The next part that she explains is how, of late, politics has been coincided with the analysis of gender. Finally, she ends her paper by providing her bottom-line opinion about the analysis and approach of gender.
This essay explores how hegemonic masculinity becomes undermined by representations of femininity. Masculinity is a social construct reconstituting ideas of male dominance over women rather than representations of the self. R.W. Connell explains hegemonic masculinity as: “The configuration of gender practice which embodies the currently accepted answer to the legitimacy of patriarchy, which guarantees the dominant position of men and the subordination of women” (qtd in Maria Schippers, 87). Connell implies hegemonic masculinity is a social construct that has to achieve a currently accepted “gender practice”. This will show in my discussion on William Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus (1594) & Aphra Behn’s
The concept of power is present within various realms of all organizations. Power, however, is not something that should necessarily be looked at negatively. There are justifiable types of power that may be important to criminal justice organizations. The main role of power in criminal justice administration should be to gain compliance from subordinates of all types, and turn that power over time into acceptable forms of authority (Stojkovic et al., 2008). It is for this reason that power is an important attribute in criminal justice agencies.
Often times humans need to have superiority in their lives in order to maintain calmness. People refer to their superiority as the power they have other another person, which brings stereotypes into our society. Men, women, children, beauty, sexuality all can play a role into why one may think why they have the power over others. In Shakespeare's Othello, power is heavily examined through multiple characters and relationships. As well as Much Ado About Nothing illuminates the power and superiority of characters. Furthermore, Say Yes, by Tobias Wolff, and My Last Duchess, by Robert Browning, relate in which they illuminate the power and stereotypes of societies. In relation, all four texts illustrates the power in certain roles and characters, which can relate to conflict. Overall, posing the question of gender roles and how they are perceived in each of the four texts.
Gender performativity is related to performance and shares elements with it, but it has no subject. She explains, “The action of gender requires a performance that is repeated. This repetition is at once a reenactment and reexperiencing of a set of meanings already socially established” (178). Performativity creates a fictional reality in which gender and its roles are determined according to a men/women binary distinction. According to her, the category of Women from which the feminist struggle arises is different from this political, hierarchical myth based on
can be seen that in the real world the system is composed of of various types of