The Day It Happened: Feminisim, Machismo

Growing up I always heard children talking about how they wanted to go off to some faraway place like maybe Greece or Germany. The only place I have ever wanted to go way across the border. The Mexico border that is.

When most people think of Domestic Violence (DV), they envision an ethnic person, battered with bruises. Many forget that DV can occur in many forms and has many faces. Not only does it cross all cultural, religious and socioeconomic boundaries, but it also is committed in many forms, some of which do not leave external bruises. The stigma surrounding DV often prevents the victims from speaking up, allowing, sexual, mental, emotional and physical abuse to occur, often in the presence of children, creating long lasting effects on the household and in our communities.

Being a male in today’s society is not about living and enjoyment, it has become more of a task. Social pressures and media have made it difficult for males to live a life in which they are not being pressured to act or perform a certain way. In order to reassure themselves of their masculinity, violence has become the main method in assuring themselves and those around them that they are powerful. Not only is this violence being perpetrated against others, but self-inflicted violence also exists. The violence being used is not only physical but it is emotional abuse as well. Masculinity has forced many males to perform in ways that are detrimental to their own health as well as their loved ones. Furthermore, it has also put males in the

1869 Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton create the National Woman Suffrage Association. They intend that the institution would change the way that the masses perceive women in general. The main purpose of the group is to relate to the Constitution as one of the documents emphasizing that Congress should allow women to be provided with voting rights.

Domestic abuse is a very concerning public health problem and it can happen to anyone. It can happen whether you are male, female, black, white, rich, or poor. There are many different categories of abuse, which include physical, psychological, sexual, and economic abuse. They are all equally life changing and can leave permanent scars. These wounds could be on the outside or hidden on the inside.

The idea of women being equal to men has been debated for a very long time. Even when civilizations were just starting, most women were treated very differently from men. When women started fighting against this oppression they were called feminists. Feminism can be separated into three waves. The first wave of feminism was from the mid 1800s to the early 1900s. The second wave was from the 1960s to the 1980s. The third wave of feminism started in the 1990s, but its end is unclear. Some people believe it has ended and the fourth wave of feminism has started, but others believe it continues today. The different waves have been very different in some aspects, but very similar in others. The main differences between the first and third wave of feminism are what they fought for, how they protested, and society’s reaction to their cause.

There is no question of whether women are advancing in today’s society or not, it’s a mere fact. However, with facts come opinions. Many individuals are taking this so-called, “cultural advancement” in stride and writers, journalists, and feminists alike are taking it upon themselves to add their own opinions. Some of these opinions vastly contradict each other and end up creating a very intriguing and interesting debate to follow. One thing that I noticed these individuals can’t decide on is the question (turned debate) of, Is masculinity really declining? Some say yes, while others remain obstinate and say no.

And her role appeals to viewers who see themselves as victims. She hopes they find strength from her character. In response to this need, she partners with Cosmopolitan, cites The Daily Mail. She echoes the voices of the men and women suffering domestic violence abuse. Abuse covers beyond physical, even sexual and verbal. Even the rest of the Wentworth gang supports this cause. They all wear bruises, wounds and scars made of words.

To understand how serious this epidemic is, it is best to learn from those who have had their own experiences with domestic violence. In her book Defending Our Lives, Susan Murphy-Milano talks about her mother’s constant battle with her father, a detective, and how it affected everyone in the family. When Milano’s mother, Roberta Sharpe, was pregnant with her at seventeen, her father, Philip Murphy, married her in Illinois during 1959. For Milano, things seemed okay for a while. People thought of Philip as a good detective and a good man, but around age nine she started to view changes. One incident occurred when the author continued to wet her bed. Her mother tried to hurry and remove the dirty sheets before her father came, but he found out and was furious. Unfortunately, he had been drinking that night and was mad that Roberta would always keep changing the sheets. With this, he locked the door and the sound of something crashing could be heard in the arguing couple’s bedroom. Susan tried to get out to see what was happening, but her father locked the door from the outside of her room. The next morning her mother was in the

Laurell K. Hamilton once stated, “There are wounds that never show on the body that are deeper and more painful than anything that bleeds.” This references to domestic abuse. Domestic abuse is violent or aggressive behavior within the home, typically involving the violent abuse of a spouse or partner. The abusive act can be sexual, physical, or emotional/mental. Domestic abuse in the Victorian Era didn’t have nearly as many laws to stop it then as there are now, but never the less, it still happens.

In contemporary society, hegemonic masculinity is defined by physical strength and boldness, heterosexuality, economic independence, authority over women and other men, and an interest in sexual relationships. While most men do not embody all of these qualities, society supports hegemonic masculinity within all its institutions, including the educational institute, the religious institute and other institutes which form the ideological state apparatus.

T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land explores modernism, specifically focusing on the troubling of binaries and the breakdown of the traditional. The boundaries between life and death, wet and dry, male and female, and more are called into question in Eliot’s conception of modernity and the waste land. The blurring of gender boundaries—significantly through Tiresias and the hooded figure scene in “What the Thunder Said”— in the poem lends itself to Eliot’s suggestion that traditional masculinity breaks down and decays in the waste land. Traditional masculinity is further challenged through Eliot’s criticism of hyper-masculinity and heterosexual relations in the modern era through allusions to the myth of Philomela and the “young man carbuncular” scene in “The Fire Sermon.” Along with this, Eliot stages scenes charged with homoeroticism to further challenge ideas of traditional masculinity. Homoerotic scenes such as the “hyacinth girl” scene in “The Burial of the Dead” and the Mr. Eugenides scene in “The Fire Sermon” suggest an intensity and enticement towards male-male relations, while also offering a different depiction of masculinity than is laid out in the heterosexual romance scenes. Through scenes depicting queer desire and homosexual behavior, Eliot suggests that masculinity in the modern era does not need to be marked by aggression and

Given that the structure of gender qualities has been a large part of our views, in regards to a variety of issues, a number of people take exception to variances from within these rules. Keeping this in mind, we will discuss the reasons why many individuals are discouraged from crossing traditional gender traits, and closely examine parts of the article assigned for this paper.

The novel Things Fall Apart took place in the Igbo Society-the part of the world that has very strict views on gender roles, but not just gender roles. It is likely that every individual in the Igbo society viewed or defined masculinity differently. To some, masculinity was expressed through anger and violence; to others, masculinity was expressed through a man’s responsibility. These different views on masculinity can create conflicts and can therefore impact individual's life. In the novel Things Fall Apart, Okonkwo and Obierika different interpretations of masculinity led them to a different life and such intention was successfully introduced through Achebe’s uses of foil characters.

In 1776, the then First Lady of the United States was the first to raise her about women’s rights, telling her husband to “remember the ladies” in his drafting of new laws, yet it took more than 100 years for men like John Adams to actually do so. With the help of half a dozen determined, and in this case white upper-middle-class, women the first-wave feminism, which spans from the 19th century to the early 20th century, finally led to their goal after 72 years of protesting. The Nineteenth Amendment, which secured the rights for women to vote finally passed in 1920. This grand victory brought other reforms along, including reforms in the educational system,