When Grizzlies Walked Upright

women have made an exceedingly great impact on the world’s economical, social, and political spectrum. However, women are still deemed inferior to men in past and present cultures. The inferiority of women has been portrayed through various avenues such as literature and written works. The Virgil’s Aeneid and Ovid’s Metamorphoses’ women characters are three perfect depictions of how women in today’s society are dominated, disregarded, and discredited.

As the story progresses the woman’s cravings reach a point at which she desired some bark from the Great Tree. However as stated before in the passage, “the tree was not supposed to be marked or mutilated by any of the beings who dwelt in the Sky World”. “The women decided that she wanted some bark” proving that she made a conscious choice to violate the rules. This is a representation of how the Iroquois view women. How dare she, as a woman, decide to do anything without the authorization of a man. When she asked her husband to retrieve the bark he denied her request,

Viewed as inferior women, Blood Moon and Eve never receive knowledge directly; rather their male counterparts reinterpret and provide them with knowledge after reinterpreting it. The narrator of Paradise Lost establishes Eve as “Not equal” (Milton IV.296) to Adam, her male complement. Blood Moon, too, dwells in a world where male lords gather, “[share] their thoughts” (Popol Vuh 99), and decide her fate—as a powerless woman, she has no say in her future. In both stories, men govern their world and their word is law. Due to the nature of these patriarchal worlds, the men dole knowledge out piece meal to the women—the knowledge is never available. For example, Adam explains to Eve the rules of the universe. He claims God to “Be infinitely good” and that “[he] rais’d us from the dust…/ In all this happiness” (Milton IV. 412, 416-417). Eve does not decide her own emotions; even something so personal is told to her by Adam. She owns nothing, not even herself. Similarly, Blood Moon’s father “retold” the “account of the fruit of the tree” (Popol Vuh 98). The storyteller opts to enlighten her father—the male—over Blood Moon.

Merchant’s representations claim that “both nature and women are subordinate and essentially passive” furthering the proof that women are held at a lower standard than men (Merchant 9).

The role of the patriarchal society and its impact on the oppression of female characters

Ovid’s epic “The Essential Metamorphoses” and Ghandl’s poem “Goose food” present similar visions of women, and the writers show that men might not actually be superior, compared to women as they are often portrayed in myth. Moreover, in Ovid, there are numerous myths told, but in most of them, there is a recurrent theme of misogyny, and in the first myth of the epic – called “Origin of the World”–, on top of just describing the creation of the world, it is mentioned that man was first to be created and woman was made second. This could be because of numerous reasons; for example, Ovid could have been jealous that it was actually woman that was created first or maybe Ovid wanted to follow what the rest of society believed in order to be able to gain the trust of the readers so that he could then be able to put unrealistic views and that when reading the epic, the reader becomes skeptical of what seems so true to him at first and that maybe the whole principal of man being at the center of attention is not a true fact. Similarly, in Ghandl’s “Goose Food”, this story is told in a single way and man again is at the center of the attention, but this could be to give…(not good ). These stories portray women in a negative way in order to make readers realize that they are actually equal to men in real life and that they might even be superior to men. This statement can be viewed through the way women look physically, the actions they perform, how men interact in proximity to them

The solidification of the gender hierarchy through stories cemented women into a position below men of which women were and still are unable to escape or to improve on. The gender hierarchy is commonly demonstrated through the objectification of women. This has been exemplified through these stories, which has kept women from advancing in society, due to both society’s disapproval and the views that these ideas give women of

Reading literature, at first, might seem like simple stories. However, in works like William Faulkner's “A Rose for Emily,” Katherine Mansfield's “Miss Brill,” and Kate Chopin's “The Storm,” the female protagonists are examples of how society has oppressive expectations of women simply because of their gender.

Throughout the years, different forms of literature  have generally shown women as weaker than men. They have played archetypes such as the mother archetype or the lover which have traits less desirable than the roles that men would take. These archetypes tend to limit their personalities and they become characters that are solely there for inconveniencing the hero. Stereotypes for women have affected these archetypes, but throughout history many people have made efforts to change these archetypes and make them more desirable. Even though archetypes for women have been shown as weak, it has changed throughout the years.

Like race, gender can be used by a sexist society to throw up a barrier to women's development and negatively affect their learning experiences. In a culture where the default human is seen as a White male, the model for individual human development has been structured around White, male life experiences. As a result, when compared to these androcentric models of development, women are often seen as lacking. Race, gender, and class, in addition to other characteristics such as geographical location, ability/disability status, and religious backgrounds affect everyone not only in our development, but also in how we experience educational environments and our learning process. Because of racism and sexism, certain learners may feel that they

It is important to teach children about gender roles since it is something that society holds in regards, but most of the time in literature it is done unequally. The portrayal of gender in literature is based off of the expectations of society and places bias on gender. Boys are portrayed as strong, adventurous, independent and capable and often play the roles of fighters, adventurers and rescuers. Girls are portrayed as sweet, naïve, dependent, sensitive and emotional and play roles such as caretakers, princesses and mothers. The roles of gender portrayed in literature are often a reflection of the views of society and do not offer objective insight. Even though it is important to teach children about gender roles, the fashion in which it is done in does not allow children to see beyond those expectations. If a young girl is constantly read stories about a woman’s role as a housewife, homemaker and mother, she will assume that’s what is expected of her and will not know society will allow her to be anything she wants to be.

The myth of woman is the idea that women are inherently different than men. Man believes that he posits himself first, and then posits others. In the myth of woman, men see women as others that are incapable of positing themselves. The reality is that women are the same as men in an existential sense. They are both subjects, who posit themselves before they posit others. Man uses the myth of woman to subjugate women and treat them as lesser, as “[the myth of woman] justifies all privileges and even authorizes their abuse” (De Beauvoir).

The history of the world is a complex arrangement of happenings and occurrences that have shaped the current state of civilization. At a fundamental level, history is the driving force behind every element of society that exists today. Within history, there are several factors that have and continue to determine the way in which our society functions. One of the most significant of these factors is gender. Today, conceptions, viewpoints and ideas surrounding gender are always changing. It is this fluidity of thought that ultimately allows society to progress forward and create change. However, gender has not always been as openly discussed. Tracing back through history, gender has consistently been a point of identity among humans.

I think we all can agree that women have been treated differently than men all throughout history, especially in the Epic of Gilgamesh. The women in the epic may not be main characters, but still had a great influence. Although, the female characters were not main characters, they still played a crucial role. The women in the story represent not only power and wisdom, but also temptation and ruin. Readers were introduced to Shamhat, Aruru, Siduri, thhe temple prostitute, Ishtar, the goddess of wine and the wife of Utnapishtim.

An Annotated Bibliography for The Main Cause In Negative Gender Stereotypes and Traditional Gender Roles: