Representation of Women and Femininity in She and Arabian Nights

Gender roles have been a hotly debated topic in the most recent years, especially the role of women in society. Women have had set expectations that they are believed to conform to, which is shown in many pieces of film and literature. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald describes the life of a man in the upper class in the 1920’s, as well as women in the 1920’s. The movie The Princess Bride, written by William Goldman, visually explains the treatment and expectations of women, and especially focuses on the “damsel in distress” stereotype.. Roxane Gay’s “Bad Feminist” explains the stereotypes against women and ways women can come together and fight these constraints. Based on these sources, societal expectations take away from each individual’s identity, forcing women to conform to society's standards. In order to fight against these expectations, women have banded together and formed movements against these standards.

The first aspect both stories have in common is the fact that both of the women are oppressed by a man in their life.“The

Women’s roles in movies have changed dramatically throughout the years. As a result of the changing societal norms, women have experienced more transition in their roles than any other class. During the period of classical Hollywood cinema, both society and the film industry preached that women should be dependent on men and remain in home in order to guarantee stability in the community and the family. Women did not have predominated roles in movies such as being the heroin. The 1940’s film Gilda wasn’t an exception. In Gilda, the female character mainly had two different stereotypes. The female character was first stereotyped as a sex object and the second stereotyped as a scorned woman who has to be punished.

In Western genre, women are repeatedly portrayed as either the helpless damsel in distress or the wild saloon girl. Most Western movies have elements of a gunfight,rivalry, redemption, and/or romance written into the script. A large percentage of the stereotypes of the American West comes from these exaggerated characters and storylines. Very rarely do western films present a strong female lead. When they do, there is frequently a subplot of romance written into it. Few Western genre and cinema portray the true nature of what women in the West were like.

From a plethora of many authors and compilations over many centuries comes the fourteenth century The Thousand and One Nights, a Middle Eastern frame story during which there are as many as four implanted stories. In the outermost frame of this tale, a king who is betray by his wife vows to take a new wife each night and kill her the next morning in order to prevent further unfaithfulness. The main inner frame are stories from one of his wives which she continues each night to keep the king interested and thus postpone her death. Through these stories, the reader can examine the role of men and women in this time, specifically how women function in conjunction to men in the text. The reader may assume the men are superior while the woman are inferior, but through close reading of the text, the reader will discover that women in the text are only treated subordinately by men in the story but are revealed to the reader as the more powerful of the sexes. Authors reveal the power of women by their prowess at trickery or “women’s cunning” (The Thousand 1181), and their ability to force the actions of male counterparts. The reader can examine men’s attempt to stifle this power, which further acknowledges the women’s merit, through the excessively frequent occurring instances of men treating the women as insignificant, as well as instances when women are turned to ungulate animals, such

The first night's story in Arabian Nights is that of the Merchant and the Demon. Told by Shahrazad, the story offers a remarkable parallel to her own situation as she faces immanent death. Thus, the story of the Merchant and the Demon is told as a parable within the frame story, presenting a poignant analogy for Shahrazad's own situation. The Merchant and the Demon is a short tale but one filled with themes such as power, guilt, justice, and moral responsibility. Through the clever analogy with her own situation, Shahrazad also explores the theme of creative problem solving in tricky situations. Moreover, the story illustrates the core differences between pre-Islamic and Islamic values in Arabian society. Because the theme of gender roles and norms are not present within the Merchant and the Demon, the story shows how sexism is simply a form of general political and social oppression.

In the novel A Thousand Splendid Suns, gender roles play a major role in how characters think about themselves and others. Men are raised to believe that they are responsible to suppress women’s independence and autonomy, and women often internalize a sense of inferiority and/or subservience. The results of these conditions often include men’s violence against women, and a general mistrust between the two genders. In this novel, Rasheed demonstrates this type of behavior to be true. Rasheed is a single shoemaker whose first wife and son died many years ago. He becomes the suitor for the young 15-year-old mariam. He is a very traditional and strict older gentleman, which some difficult situations for Mariam to deal with in her life. Rasheed tries to exhibit excessive dominance in their marriage and instructs Mariam to be obedient, subordinate, and compliant with every single one of his demands.

The City of Ladies has been regarded as the first book to speak out for women. Around the time of the book being written women were being portrayed as objects that are not equal to men. Christine picked up a book by Matheolus, a 13th-century writer. In the book, Matheolus was writing about marriage. He said that women make men's lives miserable. Christine felt distraught at being a woman. After thinking that, three women appeared next to Christine. Each woman represents a virtue. The three virtues tell Christine that she must build a city for the best women. The book continues teaching Christine about feminism and why men slander women. The City of Ladies can compare very well to A Thousand and One Nights. In A Thousand and One Nights, Sultan Shahrayar finds out that his wife is unfaithful, he kills her he also swears that he will marry a different woman every night. When the sun rises he will kill her. One of his wives, Scheherazade, told him half a story each night so that he lets her live to the next night, so she can complete the story. A lot of these stories had feminist and feminism theme in them, similar to The City of Ladies. By the end of the one thousand and one nights, Sultan Shahrayar’s idea about women changed. He respected women and thought they were equal to men.

Throughout history women have been depicted and treated as an inferior to the male all aspects of life. It is without debate, that to this day, like many other countries, the United States of America is a patriarchal society, valuing men over women and using various tactics to oppress women by constructing gender roles. These gender roles are thrust upon people before birth and are reinforced through society within the media. This object here is to provide an overview of the portrayal of women in magazines from the late 1800’s to present day. As the years progress, so do the number of women’s rights. While women are still fighting for equality, the birth of feminism has done much to close the gender gap. Mass media, magazines in particular, facilitated in fostering a stereotype which became the standard, and continues to be, used by society. A society that continues to oppress and suppress its women. However, as the mass media has the capability to demystify, or to bring down and/or destroy a particular group or person, they also have the ability of mystification, or emulating a person or group into society’s graces. I plan to review how women were portrayed since this country’s inception with an analysis of how gender equality might be possible today.

The Role of Women in The Thousand and One Nights and Shikibu’s The Tale of Genji

These characters have many things in common, but when they have to stand up to each other it is as simple as one fighting for her life while the other only had to tell stories to win a game. Both women are very intelligent in convincing others to do as they say or command, the Wife of Bath convinces all her husbands to obey her, while Shahrazad convinces the King to listen to her stories and fall in love with her. They both are strong willed in getting what they want, from living their life to having the husband of their dreams. Shahrazad does not quite play up to the Wife of Bath in her sense of experience with men, but sizes up to her desire to control the King or a “lover,” as described in the Wife of Baths tale. Their roles in both stories are significant to each other because they show different sides to each characteristic they share. Shahrazad having a much more demanding role in surviving and saving her community, while the Wife of Bath has a relaxed and patient role in manipulation or desiring control. Each women expresses a power to control whom they love, explaining a common theme in both stories. If they did not control those they loved Sharazad would die and the Wife of Bath would become broke and

A&P by John Updike and Araby by James Joyce are two short stories that have multiple differences and similarities. A&P is about a teenager and his lust for young ladies and Araby is about a young boy who had a crush on a older girl. I will be comparing and contrasting the portrayal of women, love and epiphany in the two short stories A&P and Araby.

Men have always been and most likely are the leaders of their families. Men are always supposed to be strong and fend for themselves, and always take care of the women and the children. In this case though, things are rather switched around. In the Arabian Nights, women play a very empowering role. It seems that in most cases the women are equal to the men and play the same roles as the men in Arabian Nights. The stories in Arabian Nights give a different insight as to what was going on during this time. The women were not valued as much as they should have been, they were often punished for not being as womanly as the man would like them to be.

     Edith Wharton's The House of Mirth is an affront to the false social values of fashionable New York society.  The heroine is Lily Bart, a woman who is destroyed by the very society that produces her.  Lily is well-born but poor.  The story traces the decline of Lily as she moves through a series of living residences, from houses to hotel lodgings.  Lily lives in a New York society where appearances are all.  Women have a decorative function in such an environment, and even her name, Lily, suggests she is a flower of femininity, i.e. an object of decoration as well as of desirability to the male element.  We see this is very true once Lily's bloom fades, as it were, a time when she

Since the 1940’s, movies have predominately portrayed women as sex symbols. Beginning in the 1940’s and continuing though the 1980’s, women did not have major roles in movies. When they did have a leading role the women was either pretreated as unintelligent and beautiful, or as conniving and beautiful: But she was always beautiful. Before the 1990’s, men alone, wrote and directed all the movies, and the movies were written for men. In comparison, movies of the 90’s are not only written and directed by women, but leading roles are also held by older and unattractive women. In this paper I will show the variations and growth of women’s roles in movies from the 1940’s though the 1990’s.