Sex Freedom And Misogyny Analysis

The fight against sexism is not a new fight. Women have been fighting for equal rights, as well as fighting for their lives, culture, and values to be just as important as men's. On August 18, 1920, women were granted the right to vote; but this was only the beginning. From then to now, the role of women in society has significantly changed due to women standing up for their rights at protests and rallies, as well as on social media. While “The Good Wife’s Guide” focused on the promotion of the traditional gender role of women and defined appropriate emotions for women, “The Revolt of ‘Mother,’” by Mary E. Wilkins Freeman, represents the start of the resistance of the traditional gender role of women that we see in society today.

While reading “Gender,” an essay by Jack Halberstam, the topic of sexism was brought to the forefront of my mind. It has been brought up more often in conversation in the modern era, issues such as how a few cruel insults pertain to female reproductive anatomy and, in a sense, degrade females and ultimately identify them, as well as femininity, as inherently “bad”. Such a thought stemmed from how Halberstam touches on the “problematic stabilization of the meaning of ‘women’ and ‘female’”: meaning there is no room for argument when it comes to your gender—you’re either a girl or not. You either fit into a strict mold, or you do not.

Western women have traditionally been perceived as the inferior sex, or the domestic partner, subjected wholly to the private sphere, and stripped of legal rights and standing. Meanwhile, men are depicted as the breadwinner, the strong, masculine and dominant partner, who belongs primarily to the public sphere. These historic gender norms have been deeply imbedded within Australia’s social foundation, and although society has gradually shifted away from these roles, evidence suggests that this gender inequality still riddles the modern day workplace. Liberal feminist groups have embraced this issue, and have classified it as being a true barrier to achieving the ultimate gender equality goal. Consequently, these liberal feminists along

For years girls and women all around the world have been victims of rape culture and misogynistic views. Everywhere males are told that they are not in the wrong if a girl is dressed a certain way because she is “asking for it”. This is shown through public figures, social media and is even an issue in third world countries. Our society has deemed it socially acceptable to blame women for being rape victims if they aren’t dressed according to mankind’s standards.

For centuries, the role of women in society has been carefully defined by a patriarchal sociological system. Up until the 1960's it was considered a woman's national duty to reproduce and her primary function in life. To consciously limit the number of children that they had meant not only were women going against their natural function, but failing in that national duty (Currie & Adamson, 1977). Women have had to fight for the right to vote, which only occurred in Australia in 1902 (Currie & Adamson, 1977), and were denied the right to education, especially tertiary education. Even after this right was won, there were still fears being voiced about the bad effects on girls at school from bending over desks and being strained by thinking

To quote Beyoncé Knowles-Carter, an influential modern feminist, in her song ‘Flawless’ she defines a feminist as “a person who believes in the social, political and economic equality of the sexes”

The documentaries Dream World 3 and Killing Us Softly 4 examine the exploitation of women within the media. The media, such as advertisement and the music video industry, relies heavily on the seductive image of female sexuality. Evident in not only every genre of music, but also every form of advertisement, the videos and advertisements expose and, subsequently sexualize the female body. Such sexualization inevitable leads to

Each day, violence is pushed on children, teenagers, and adults. Yet we as a society continue to overlook the issue. We fail to ask ourselves the important questions. Why are there so many mass shootings, why are there so many unjustified murders, or why are men using masculinity as an excuse to become more aggressive towards woman sexually, and also towards men who don’t display what our modern cultures and movies tell us is manly? I believe that we don’t ask these questions not because we don’t want to hear the answers, instead because glorified ferocity has become a normal part of our everyday lives. So much so, that we think it’s just the way life is. After watching Tough Guise 2 it becomes clear that although violent action is the end result, our true problem lies within the horrible messages our movies present to us.

Sexual assault and violence is increasing due to advertisements misinforming people into believing that such behavior is acceptable. “In the 1960’s Kilbourne found that she received more recognition for her looks rather than her intelligence” (Grean and Lidinisky, 490). Perhaps this is why Kilbourne wrote her book, Deadly Persuasion, analyzing this problem. Kilbourne found herself in the environment bubble the media is creating where the objective analysis of people is acceptable. Kilbourne’s book is an attempt to bring awareness towards how much harm the media’s portrayal of people is generating. Kilbourne’s book is mainly targeted towards women, and is trying to spur them towards action in an attempt to change the world and, more

One of many examples, an under representation of woman in institution of power, a misogyny, is that of Australia’s first woman Prime Minister Julia Gillard. In the course of her employment, the prime minister was harassed just because she was a woman, in ways that that did not apply to her male colleagues. She was a victim of gruesome and mean comments, and much of this abuse came via email and social media. She was vilified and denigrated by the Federal Opposition, the Media and by many ordinary citizens. She was not even accorded the respect of being addressed by her last name, especially in the media. No other previous ministers were subjected to this disrespect. These virulent attacks on her questioned her integrity and had a huge impact

Ms Gillard expressed her concern towards this trend while addressing the effect of these sexist comments. ' 'I don 't want to see a message like that sent to young girls, ' ' Ms Gillard said. ' 'I want young girls and women to be able to feel like they can be included in public life and not have to face [what] I faced. ' '

The article, How Far has Australia Come In Terms Of Gender Equality? by Milly Stilinovic highlights the purpose of International Women’s Day in 2017. Stilinovic argues that it should be a day about celebrating the social, economic and cultural achievements of women in our world. She quickly points out how this annual day is also ‘a call to action day’ where there is still gender disparity. However, I find it interesting to note that this original ‘call to action’ practically began in the Ice Age or at least over a century ago, and advancements in our own society towards eradicating gender inequality are still moving at a glacial pace! The female gender represents approximately 50% of the world’s population and therefore approximately half of

It is argued that Julia Gillard’s ‘misogyny speech’, delivered before Parliament on the 9th of October 2012, was the result of systematic gender bias present in the Australian psyche. The ‘misogyny speech’ was launched against the then Opposition Leader Tony Abbott, highlighting sexist and misogynistic observations the leader had made in the past. Since the second-wave feminist movement of the 1970s, renowned commentators have discussed the negative contrast between the depiction of men and women in the public sphere. Examining the representation of women in politics, combined with their negative portrayal in the media, it is clear gender inequality is thriving.

Actress Emma Watson, in her speech, HeForShe, strives to inform every citizen of the UN of the real problem of gender inequality, and encourage them to get involved in fixing this issue. Watson’s purpose is to eliminate gender stereotypes, and to describe the goal of the HeForShe campaign. She adopts a persuasive tone in order to instill an eagerness for change in the citizens of the United Nations. Watson begins her speech by addressing the importance of everyone’s involvement in the fight against gender inequality, and explaining the true nature of feminism, which is often misinterpreted as misandry. She appeals to the ethics of her audience by describing rights that are often stripped from women, such as equal pay, bodily autonomy, and equal respect among male peers, as human rights.

Since the inventions of television and film, media influences have become extremely important in modern society with people constantly being inundated by images and messages that come from film, television, magazines, internet and advertising. Researchers and theorists such as Carol J. Clover and Jean Kilborne believe that the fact that people are going to be affected by the media is absolutely unavoidable. Films can act as guides to how people, particularly women, should act and look. Women in horror are typically shown as the ‘damsel in distress’ and are usually attacked by the killer after committing a sinful act like having sex or misusing drugs or alcohol. The females are