Scientism Vs Free Will

The women’s liberation movement (or feminism as it is now known) of the 1960s and 1970s touched every home, business, and school (WA, 705). The movement even touched the sports and entertainment industries, in fact, “There are few areas of contemporary life untouched by feminism” (WA, 717). The word feminism in the early 1960’s wasn’t often used and when it was it was used with condescension or hatred. However, in the late sixties that changed thanks to a new group of women. This new diverse group of women included the: young, old, heterosexual, lesbians, working class, and even the privileged. This diverse group came together and collectively created the second wave of feminism.

As a young person, I don’t really notice how quickly the world changes and advances around me, because I’m changing and growing right along with it. Lillian Boxfish, the elderly title character in the novel Lillian Boxfish Takes A Walk by Kathleen Rooney, does. Her age, a focal point in the novel, allows Lillian to view the world as she remembers it, while at times preventing her from appreciating as it is. On New Year’s Eve in 1985, Lillian decides to ring in the new by remembering the old with a walk around her beloved New York City. As she walks, she thinks of the city as she once knew it and sees the city it has become, reliving memories both good and bad. In particular, Lillian is struck by how easily the city embraces new culture and ideas and forgets the legacy of what came before. Through Lillian’s journey, I learned that while it’s important to appreciate the past, you cannot neglect the present.

She learns that in New York, people are quick to exclude those who resemble any sort of dissimilarity to themselves. When she gets lost and tries asking strangers for help, she notes that, “...a lot of them kept on walking, shaking their heads; those who did stop didn’t look at you first. They gazed off down the block, their faces closed. But as soon as they realized you weren’t trying to hustle them or panhandle money, they warmed right up” (Walls 246). This demonstrates how the many homeless men and women that reside on the streets are almost always ignored and avoided.

In her essay she relates the rise of feminist consciousness in the 1960s to numerous changes in American society, especially the rise of other protest movements. Echols said, “On September 7, 1968, the sixties came to that most apple-pie of American institutions, the Miss America Pageant” (Echols, 308). The reason she said this was because one hundred women’s liberation activists descended upon Atlantic City to protest the pageant’s promotion of physical attractiveness as the primary measure of women’s worth. From there, the protestors set up a “Freedom Trash Can” and filled it with high-heeled shoes, bras, girdles, hair curlers, false eyelashes, typing books, and representative copies of Cosmopolitan, Playboy, and Ladies Home Journal. They wanted to burn the contents but couldn’t because of the laws for bonfires on the boardwalk. Also, word had been leaked to the press that there would be a symbolic bra-burning. However, there were no bras burnt that day. But the image of the bra-burning, militant feminists remains part of our popular mythology about the women’s liberation movement. The Miss America demonstration represents an important moment in the history of the sixties as well as the women’s movement (Echols, 309-310).

“We shall overcome,” said one. “I am woman, hear me roar,” said another. Posters encompassed the streets of New York. Marching in the crowd with others advocating for equality, I became a part of history. The Women’s March on Washington and other cities proved my grandmother correct in what she once told me, “Women will change the world.”

On September 7th, 1968, hundreds of women gathered on the Atlantic City Boardwalk, carrying signs and singing songs that all had the main theme of protesting the Miss America Pageant. Later, they threw items of women’s oppression in what they called a freedom trash can. While the women who were apart of the Miss America Protest worked to defy society’s oppression and standards, they also marked one of the first explorations in the feminist movement. This certain protest helped to pave the way for many more women to come and impacted many of the basic ideas of fighting society’s norms.

Topics of great social impact have been dealt with in many different ways and in many different mediums. Beginning with the first women’s movement in the 1850’s, the role of women in society has been constantly written about, protested, and debated. Two women writers who have had the most impact in the on-going women’s movement are Kate Chopin and Charlotte Perkins Gilman. The Awakening and The Yellow Wallpaper are two of feminist literature’s cornerstones and have become prolific parts of American literature. Themes of entrapment by social dictates, circumstance, and the desire for personal independence reside within each work and bond the two together.

In the 21st century women all over the United States have been able to become free spirits who express their own emotions and sexual desires; in The Awakening that was far from the case. Edna Pontellier, the protagonist of our story, begins with being a women who has followed all the rules of a housewife, in a Creole society, but slowly begins to change and ‘awakens’ her inner self. Edna’s sexual desires and hope for freedom begin to manifest her as a whole and turn her into a new person. As Ellen Cantarow stated in her article, “She's imprisoned as a possession, a display of her husband's wealth. But if The Awakening is about imprisonment, it's also about the possibilities of freedom” (Sex, Race, and Criticism: Thoughts of a White Feminist

A barrier seen through the Progressive Era was Gender Equality and Power. A woman 's treatment before that time, according to the magazine article “Woman’s Home Companion” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, was identical to slaves. The women of the late 19th century to the early 20h century had, “... not only no voice in the management of the country, but she had no control of her property, earned or inherited;no control of her own children; no control of even her own person...” Gilman even goes further saying, “If that is not a condition of slavery, it bears a close resemblance to it.” Indeed it does. It is shown that these women were being restricted of their natural human rights, trapped and maybe even confined in the shadow and power of men. But, this does not last very long. These women become bold and outspoken and lead a revolt that will change America forever. They will lead the Woman Suffrage Movement.

I decided to look at the sexual behavior of bonobos because they are known for their frequent sexual behavior. Though they are not one of the types of great apes mentioned in the book, a bonobo is nonetheless a great ape that belongs in the same genus as the common chimpanzee. Furuichi et al. observed bonobos in their naturalistic habitat in Wamba, Democratic Republic

The term second-wave feminism refers mostly to the radical feminism of the women’s liberation movement of the late 1960s and early 1970s. We start our presentation of second-wave feminism with the first harbinger of a new feminism and the most publicized event in the United States: the protests associated with the Miss America Pageants in 1968 and 1969 (Freeman, 1975; (as cited by Three Waves of Feminism, 2015). Inspired by the tactics of the more activist parts of liberal feminism, radical second-wave feminists also used performance (e.g., underground or Guerilla Theater) to shed light on what was now termed “women’s oppression.”Redstockings, the New York Radical Feminists, and other significant feminist groups joined the 1969 protest to show how women in pageant competitions were paraded like cattle, highlighting the underlying assumption that the way women look is more important than what they do, what they think, or even whether they think at all (Freeman, 1975; (as cited by Three Waves of Feminism, 2015). Marching down the Atlantic City boardwalk and close to the event itself, feminists staged several types of theatrical activism: crowning a sheep Miss America and throwing “oppressive” gender artifacts, such as bras, girdles, false eyelashes, high heels,and makeup,

Post-war America observed dramatic reformations such as the onset of idealism (1920's), hyper-patriotism (after World War I), and the subsequent modernization of the nation. The orthodox Victorian age ideals held by the Southern Belle had flamboyantly disconnected themselves from Americans as people took great pride in observing the ideals of America. Unfortunately for Dubois, she embodies the many women who were alienated and dissociated by this transition. Williams’ work offers an insight into the dissent that stems from the failure of society to bridge the gap between individuals caught in the mesh of social transitions through the lens of a woman estranged by her own; moreover, Williams relays the incumbency upon society to embrace hybridity in order to integrate individuals ensnared by societal

A summery July moon shines bright above as Elise walks along Manhattan’s theater district. The avenue is heavily congested with private vehicles, taxis and buses. Elise rapidly blinks her eyes against the glare of red, yellow, and green lights reflecting off the vehicles and storefronts. She rushes toward the subway stairs to escape the incessant sounds of honking and shouting as sleek, fashionable club-goers and restaurant and theater patrons spill out onto the sidewalk.

November 24, 1922 12pm.: Ever since I cut my hair I’ve never felt so free. I refuse to wear the corsets that I have been obligated to use since childhood. You cannot believe how relived I am to not have to wear those tight close fitting undergarments. So instead I have started wearing loose dresses that I feel more comfortable in. My mother always told me that men liked women with a slim waist and emphasized breast and with my new look no man will want to marry me. Of course she is livid. Not only at the fact that I cut the “beautiful long cascade of never ending long dark hair” as she says, but mostly because I’m rebelling against society’s norm. I’ve decided that it is time to take a stand for my rights and fight for my independence. I refuse to comply too these social norms. The submissive woman, restricted from freedom due to her traditional modest, accustomed, womanly gender roles. I will not be that woman. I will be the change. I’ve seen my mother, grandmother do it for years and I’ve had it. We have been repressed, and made slaves of the household generating a perspective that all we have to offer is pleasing our men and doing chores. But these social conventions will finally come to an end. Thanks too many women who have decided to be the change for today’s society. The Voting right for women has already commenced. And I can’t find the words to describe how incredibly joyful I am that now we have the right to vote. As of now we have a whole new sector of power and

All societies behave in a different way towards two sexes and distinguish two genders. Through innumerable indications, we are taught that men and women are different. In everyday life, it is commonly assumed that men are more aggressive than women. Statistics indicate that males are more likely than females to commit such crimes as murder, armed robbery, and aggravated assault which are the result of feeling aggressive. In addition men describe themselves as being aggressive to a greater extent than do women and show greater potential for acting aggressively. All of these assumptions lead us to a certain question: Why are human males more aggressive than females? Actually, there are two