Themes Of Feminism

Women have long been fighting for their right to be seen as equal to men. Even to this day, women continue to fight for their rights, things such as the right to non-gender discriminatory wages. While there may be some arguments over the state of gender equality in the modern world, it is undeniable that there have been great strides made toward recognizing the female 's worth in the workforce and as a human being. Despite these strides, however, things are still not yet ideal for women and many of the issues females face today are the very same issues that have been plaguing them for decades. While it is unfortunate the oppression of women has been so long-lived, the length of that exposure has thankfully enabled many talented writers to both lament over the fact and emphasize the need for gender equality.

Early feminism was typically focused only on white women, likely because racism was still extremely prominent at the time feminism began emerging. It was not until Kimberlé Crenshaw introduced the term “intersectionality” in 1989 that feminism started to look at oppressed group’s needs (Nash, 2008, 2). Intersectionality is a way of thinking that acknowledges that when a person has identities that belong to more than one oppressed group, it impacts their quality of life more negatively. In this paper, I will argue that intersectionality is important in the discussion of feminist theories and activism because it ensures that feminism is for all women, not just a select group of them. Intersectionality has changed the way the feminist movement handles the overlapping of different identities, which has helped feminist theorists understand the experiences of women of colour much more clearly. While intersectionality has a very important role in the conversation and practice of feminism, there are certainly critiques of the concept that should be brought up. These critiques, however, can offer a way to improve the study of intersectionality.

Women’s history is a history of oppression. Throughout time, women have faced systematic domination, which has ultimately informed women’s identities and shaped their roles in society. However, the oppression of women is not uniform and different groups of women have experienced sexist oppression to different degrees and in vastly different ways. This is largely due to intersectionality, which is the idea that the convergence and interaction of various oppressed aspects of one’s identity uniquely affect individuals and social systems. As Kimberlé Crenshaw discusses in “Intersectionality and Identity Politics: Learning from Violence Against Women of Color”, women of color are situated in such a way that they belong to at least two subjugated groups. Their particular position exemplifies intersectionality because they are victims of overlapping patterns of sexism and racism, leaving them completely marginalized. Furthermore, intersectionality highlights the interconnectedness and multiplicity of oppression in society. In her essay “’Intersectionality’ is a Big Fancy Word for My Life”, Mia Mingus explains how the oppressed can also contribute to oppression. This concept in culmination with discrepancies in discrimination within communities leads to a fraught and complex dynamic that has lasting impacts. Societies must recognize intersectionality in women’ history in order to fully comprehend and rectify the oppression of today.

Women are often confined to a set of ideals and expectations because of one simple fact: they are women. Many of the women who contributed to this book have faced gender stereotyping and discrimination. Instead of allowing traditional social norms to confine them to an unwanted lifestyle, they challenged these conventional ideals, risking failure and facing condemnation from strangers as well as people close to them. People often associate feminism with negativity and pessimism. In “Feminism is a Dirty Word,” Cindy Simon Rosenthal talks about how people refuse to define themselves as a “feminist.” However, the movement does not advocate for women’s special privileges. Feminism celebrates social equality and supports the utilization of all talents.

Chapter 13 of Feminism is for Everybody, Hooks discusses the focus of feminist upbringing of children. Feminist parenting originally was more focused on girls as women believed that since boys had it easier since birth than girls it was not necessary for focus to be placed on the boys. This in reality was placing focus on a small area of the problem because the problem was not the men or boys rather it was the patriarchal system that both father and even mother would teach their children. Mother are often times the parent who spends most of their time with their children. Because of this children often times will learn more from their mother than from their father.

The historical evolution of feminism is reflected in the content of Woolf's A Room of One's Own, Simone de Beauvoir's The Second Sex and Glaspell's Trifles. The connection of these text shows in greater detail the impacts on overlooked harassment, oppressing women by discriminating aganist them, oppressing them fundamentally and physically, causing a lack of identity among women. The diverse and complex theme of feminism and oppression throughout history is shown in all three text yet takes place in different geographic locations and time periods. A worldwide issue such as oppressing of women has been over looked for many centuries, which is why we still continue to see this problem arise. Imagine not beginning able to be the woman you were born to be, instead your defined as an “other” or property of your husband.

Daddy’s princess. Big brother’s responsibility. Daddy’s little girl. Some people view these as a sweet pet names for young ladies, but these verbal cues inexplicitly condition women to view themselves as the property of men starting at a young age. These learned notions may take hold as women begin to develop. As young girls mature, they find themselves striving to please their fathers and other male figures as one of their main aspirations in life due to this conditioning from society. (Rholetter p. 1) The submissive nature of young girls is a common theme in literature, but looking through the Feminist Lens offers readers a better understanding of the struggle surrounding remaining submissive or demanding power occurs.

IV: Feminist scholarship extensively details how the very tools that allow us to interpret the world can also constitute and reinforce inequalities of power. We are given over form the beginning to structures such as language, identity, law, nation and privilege (among many others) that implicate us in processes of exclusion, devaluation, and commodification. Drawing upon at least one reading from classes 15-21, one from classes 22-27 and another from before the midterm, discuss methods of undermining or subverting this inevitable complicity to forge room for resistance.

During these last thirteen weeks, I have discovered a lot about myself, not only as a student, but as a feminist. Before taking this class, I knew that I wanted to be a feminist. I believed that women should stand up and exercise their rights to be equal to men on every level. Be that as it may, I lacked the education required to develop my own sense of feminism--my feminist manifesto, if you will. When approaching the topic of feminism, every person needs to ask themselves a list of questions: Who am I? Who do I want to be? What has influenced me as a person? How can I help? These are the beckoning questions we, as developing and purposeful human beings, ask ourselves every day, and these are the questions that will lead each and every person

Gender inequality is an issue that has been recurring throughout the United States, and the problem has peaked public interest again with the inauguration of our current president. Possibly as a response, Zootopia is a US based children’s movie that is an uplifting story of an underdog female character who sets her mind to accomplish a tall task, and ends up saving the city. Michel Foucault’s “Panopticism” is a section of Foucault’s book that explains the distribution of power in a disciplined society while Deborah Tannen’s “Wears Jumpsuit. Sensible Shoes. Uses Husband’s Last Name” is an assertive article that explains the unjust judgement bestowed upon all women. Using Foucault’s and Tannen’s ideas we can uncover underlying meanings of

The term ‘feminism’ and ‘feminist’ first started to gain popularity in the 1970s. Starting in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, continued into the 1960s and 1970s, then followed by the 1990s to the twentieth century, feminism and feminist grown across the nation. From clubs and organizations, to readings and speeches, feminist all across the nation, and world, have influenced aspects of our daily lives, including our literature. “Feminist criticism examines the ways in which literature reinforces or undermines the economic, political., social, and psychological oppression of woman” (Tyson 83). In simpler terms, feminist criticism is critiquing literary readings, through the mind of a woman’s opinion of structure and being.

Intersectionality, especially when pertaining to womanhood, is a topic that is often times looked over and ignored. This is especially true when analyzing feminist thought, viewpoints, and theory on subject matters such as politics, culture, and identity. Although women partake largely in these issues and are often times just as affected and contributing to them they are frequently left out of the conversation and their point of view trivialized. Repeatedly, instead of referring to women as the free thinking, socially influential beings that they are the media often times chooses to portray women as sexualized objects capable of only extreme emotions, illogical thinking, and weakness. The novels and short stories explored throughout the entirety of this course go into great depth proving the power of intersectionality and the various attributes women provide for society. These interconnected relationships are explored from the viewpoints of the characters within the novels and the authors themselves who are dealing with intersectionality in their everyday lives.

Efforts of social justice are more prominent now than ever. From Black Lives Matter to the LGBTQ community, people are making their voices heard. In the case of Black Lives Matter, it could start with a handful of people deciding they want a better life. Or, a movement can have a long lineage of people fighting to make a difference. With American culture, we've experienced many changes. But women's rights have been a mainstay for a century. We have women from many backgrounds getting their words across in different ways. But each one embodies similar core principles. They look towards feminism to provide equality and unity.

While discussing So Long a Letter in class, many of my fellow classmates had very interesting takes on what Mariama Ba may have meant in each section of the novel. They had ideas on the internal fight between tradition and modernity, and also respect for the independence Ramatoulaye gains throughout the novel. What I found intriguing was that almost each of my classmates had a different idea, and while most ideas were followed with textual evidence, they were not the same ideas that I had while reading. My classmates opened my eyes to the many different parts of the story that I did not notice on my own. They focused on different themes of the story and within the themes could point out topics they agreed or disagreed with. When I started doing research and finding my peer reviewed sources for this paper, I quickly realized that it was the same case throughout the sources. While no two sources were alike and many had very interesting takes on the novel I decided to choose the two that stuck with me the most. These were Teaching Mariama Bas So Long a Letter in a Women & Literature Course by Lisa Williams and “A Feminist Just like

The basis of the study originated on multiple previous studies with added variables and altered surveys. The research began with a sound base and high reliability and validity. By taking previous information, the researchers were able to revalidate older studies and add new information. This was the first study done with sole female participants; the previous studies had looked at sexist discrimination before, but with males as well. Participants’ race was varied, adding to the external validity of the results. The analysis looked at the variables individually and collectively to produce more information from the data they collected. In addition, they studied private and public feminist identity in order to eliminate issues of construct validity in the definition.