Power Dynamic Between Joan And Roger's Episode 'Babylon'

Throughout history, women have been regarded as of lesser value than men particularly in the public sphere. This is the result of gender stratification. Gender stratification refers to the issue of sexism, “or the belief that one sex is superior to the other” (Carl et al., 2012, p. 78). The theory that men are superior to women is essential to sexism. Sexism has always had negative consequences for women. It has caused some women to avoid pursuing successful careers typically described as “masculine”—perhaps to avoid the social impression that they are less desirable as spouses or mothers, or even less “feminine.”

When a man came into power, it was because of his merits and hard work. When a women came into power, it was pure luck or because of a man. Patriarchy was a societal issue in the early nineteenth century and is still prevalent today in the twenty-first century with men holding the authority over women on average in life. Patriarchy is defined as a society arranged to make sure that final social and political power disproportionately rests with males. Given the traditional gender roles set in America’s early nineteenth century patriarchy, both men and women's attitudes towards sexuality were thoroughly twisted and used to oppress women while valuing men, and slavery magnified the patriarchy’s worst aspects like sexual violence.

Inequality between different groups of people within the United States is concerning for many sociologists and society in general. One of the main inequalities throughout the United States is gender inequality. Gender inequity is found in all past and present societies. It takes the form of patriarchy. From the patriarchal point of view, gender inequality can be traced back to biological differences in early societies (“Steven Goldberg on Patriarchy” 2006). This inequality is present in society through many different forms, including job segregation, the gender pay gap, and a great difference in women’s political representation (Joan Acker, 1989).

When she speaks to him about looking at the stars at night, for example, her language is forward, nearly pornographic. She kneels before him in a posture of sexual

During the early history in America women were deprived of some of the many rights given to the male citizens. It has almost been a century since women were awarded the right to vote in the United States. It’s been half a century after the Equal Pay Act was established. “The Equal Pay act led to a reduction in the wage gap, but wage differences based on sex persist” (Korgen & Giraffe, 2015). Sadly, there is still a lot of prejudice towards women in the workplace. Bigotry towards women in the workplace has been dominant through the years. Many perceive women as being weak and not able to effectively provide their leadership duties in their workplaces due to their emotions (weaker sex). Positions in leadership are often given

Even some that had effected a majority of her life such as Joan’s love for Gerold that impacted her life the hardest, and made a lasting effect on her. She knew that her love for Gerold was going to cause problems for her when she became a man and even before when she was still a girl. In the later part of her life when she was serving Pope Leo Joan was offered the role of nomenclator. She knew that there was a choice t0 make, her perfect life or a life with Gerold. Joan knew where her heart lay and accepted her role, “She was being offered the opportunity of a lifetime. But accepting it would also mean the end of any hope of a life with Gerold. Torn by opposing desires, Joan did not trust herself to speak” (323). Joan had known that her affection for Gerold would conflict with her desires. She had been smart enough to accept the fact that is wasn't meant to be. Even when Joan became pope the obstacle of their love had not vanished. They both still had feeling for each other. During Joan’s papacy there was a flood and Joan and Gerold were trapped in a building and could not get out until a search party rescued them. Joan had rescued Gerold and attempted to keep him warm enough to live. They both ended up sleeping with each other. After the events of the flood, Gerold had kept out of Joan’s sight: “Since their parting on the day of the flood, Gerold had not seen Joan. The

Her most discernible feature is the fact that she has been married five times. In those marriages, she admits that the husbands she preferred were the ones that were rich and old. Using intimacy, or the lack of it, as her power, her husbands would give her what she wanted (usually money) to satisfy his need for intimacy. Within these marriages, she falls into the stereotype of greedy and manipulative. Her marriages were for the money and she would receive more money when she decided to be creative and tease or guilt-trip them. However, just because she uses her sexual lifestyle to earn more money, does not make her lustful. Instead, it makes her cunning because she understands what she needs to do to make men dance to her tune and she makes it her strength. She becomes a master at using sex as a bargaining tool and is proud of it. The societal niceties of her era that say the amount of marriages she has and how she manipulates her significant other is disgraceful, but she is not ashamed of it. She is more than a pretty face and a stereotype. She is a proud woman and with the desire to live a comfy lifestyle, she stays unwavering to the slander she must face. Her character is brought to life written in between the lines. Behind her obvious characteristics holds depths and reasoning a real person could empathize

Joan is constructed to have power, when in reality she has just as much power as Annie or Viv does. During Viv’s examination, Doctor McNaughton tries to overpower Sister Miller and take over. As she says that he can not do so and that

Often, the patriarchy is viewed as something enforced by men in order to retain their own power and sense of supremacy. However, many social scientists acknowledge the female elders in communities serve frequently as some of the most stringent enforcers of the patriarchy. In The House of Bernarda Alba and Death of a Salesman, the playwrights explore how their female characters use gender stereotypes to hold onto power or achieve stability. In both plays, Bernarda Alba and Linda Loman utilize patriarchal notions of gender performativity and roles tactically in order to achieve their objectives. Yet, at the same time, in both of these plays, moments of challenge to the traditional structures do occur. In House of Bernarda Alba, Lorca utilizes Adela’s challenges to patriarchal ideas to create the central conflict, whereas, in Death of Salesman, Linda

Updike’s description of Joan’s, the mother, behavior as all of her kids are finally home, makes the reader sympathize with Richard, the father. One example is, “Joan came and went, in and out of the house, calmer than she should have been, praising his struggles with the lock as if this were one more and not the last of their chain of shared chores” (723). It is clear that Joan, characteristically more outspoken the Richard. When the two of them get into a disagreement, Joan is portrayed as more vocal and straight forward which causes readers to want to support Richard as he begins to wrap up his life at their home. Another example of Joan’s bluntness is during Richard and her conversation about how and when to tell the children about their

From Joan’s character, first “I” letter, in beginning movie, Mr. Clark introduces myself and feeling like dominant. Joan’s seem dislike him but don’t action anything that denote she think first and

Throughout many decades women have been struggling to be equal to men, both at home and in the work place. Women have come a long way and are certainly fighting to gain that equality, but gender roles are very important in our society. They have become important in life from birth, and society continues to push these gender roles. The treatment of the male gender is very different from that of the female, and this issue has become very important to me, as a woman. As children we learn and adapt to specific gender roles, and as we grow they become more evident and more important to our role in a society. There is a lot of discrimination against the female gender. Carol Gilligan argued that

Social and institutional contexts for sex discrimination in American life have included the workplace, occupations, wages, income, housing, banking, health care, toys, school, education, employment, consumer marketplace, military, media, religious organizations, and home. Despite a century of social change stimulated by the feminist movement, gender inequality persists.

The concept of gender denotes the distinction between culturally driven and created roles of masculinity and femininity. These specific and normalized attitudes and behaviors transcend and effect how differently men and women live their lives. Based on society’s continual re-enforcement of such gender stereotypes, we see an on-going dilemma of gender inequality. Though some may argue that men experience gender inequality, this seems to exist on a much more invasive level for women. As of recently, the awareness of gender inequality in the workplace has increased. With the fight for equal pay and equal respect, society is already making strides towards the equality of women. With that being said, one aspect of gender inequality that seems

Joan is able to provide the reader with a vivid description of the anxieties and ordeals of being a female throughout childhood and adolescence. She starts out with the simple desire to love and be loved, to find acceptance. These desires are not gender specific, as both males and females strive to be love and be loved and find acceptance. The difference is how women and men actually find these. Due to constant victimization by others a pattern of outsiders becomes Joan’s guard and vengeance. Joan's early misery and resentment causes her to see life as her enemy. Because Joan is made to feel as though she is an object, as many women in her time as well as our own feel too, Joan learns to use idealization as a weapon that will reach her emotionally unreachable mother: Joan claims to defy every effort to make her reduce out of a fear of assimilation and loss of autonomy: "I wasn't going to let myself be diminished, neutralized. I wouldn't ever let her make me over in her image, thin and beautiful" (Atwood, 85-6). This in her mind would be surcoming to the gender stereotype that woman not only should fit into, but had to fit into. It was her own way of rebelling against what a woman should be and being herself. Whether this was the correct way to go about it, her reasons were her reasons and that is what is important to her. Unfortunately this only caused a vicious circle. The more she rebelled against the gender norm for her