Women Were Birds And Unspeakable Things By Laurie Penny

In the short story “the White Heron” (1886), Sarah Jewett portrays a young little girl, Sylvia, bear the temptation of money and affection from the young man with mental struggle, and resolutely determined to protect the fairy of nature – a white heron. Through describing Sylvia’s authentic emotions and using of vivid theme colors and exquisite word choice, Jewett delivers the story like showing a lifelike 19-century country-life drama in front of the readers.

Professor’s Comment: This powerful essay contrasts the views of two feminist, Catherine MacKinnon and Sallie Tisdale, each of which perceives pornography in widely divergent ways. While MacKinnon's 'Not A Moral Issue' explains the adverse impacts of pornography to women and society as a whole, Tisdale's 'Talk Dirty to Me: An Intimate Philosophy of Sex' is receptive to pornography despite these adverse impacts, suggesting in fact that the solution to the problems associated with pornography is a greater role of women in production of that pornography.

Through Women’s Eyes by Ellen Carol DuBois and Lynn Dumenil addresses American History from 1865 until present day. The third edition of this textbook includes visual and primary sources over several centuries. I used this textbook in a history course, “Women in the United States, 1890 – Present;” I found the textbook to be engaging, helpful, and useful throughout the course. The way in which in the information was presented allowed me to learn, assess, and analyze the difficulties women faced.

Intercourse, one of Andrea Dworkin’s most revealing novels on sexuality in an exploitive ethos, poetically argues that male hegemony and female inequality are manifested in the somatic action of heterosexual intercourse, a “sexed world of dominance and submission”. This world, simply titled, “Amerika” is, the world that exists within the contemporary American. In “Amerika,” sex is healthy and enjoying it is morally right [59]. It is furthermore, distinctly regarded in the context of vaginal penetration by man. In which women are

Whilst many disagreements have arisen in feminist discourse over the years, none has been quite as prevalent or divisive as the issue of the commodification of sexuality. There are two central groups in feminist ideology that are divided on this issue, liberal feminism and radical feminism. Liberal feminism is influenced by the ideas and values of liberalism. Thus, these feminists share a contractarian view which places an emphasis on a woman’s ability to make choices for herself and that the selling of one’s sexuality is merely an expression of that choice. Paradoxically, radical feminists believe that because women live in a patriarchal society, the commodification of sexuality can never be a choice or a form of expression. Rather, forms of sexual commodification such as pornography and prostitution just enforce male oppression. This essay will explore these two ideological positions in regard to their divergent definitions of human nature and freedom which has created a division within feminism about the commodification of sexuality.

The article, The Cult of Womanhood: 1820 - 1860 written by Barbara Welter discusses the philosophy towards women in America during the mid 19th century. A set of demands and expectations based upon four principles: piety, purity, submission and domesticity were placed on women as well as certain behavioral expectations left 19th century women feeling guilty. It also left women feeling this way during the industrialization period as well as having a huge presence of incompatibility with society. Welter shares her viewpoint that the Cult of Womanhood was an attempt to preserve pre modern values in the industrial age. Men held a dominant place in society and continued to prevent new opportunities for women to explore. Narrow minded

Gayle Rubin’s article “Thinking Sex: Notes for a Radical Theory of the Politics of Sexuality” describes the idea of the “charmed circle”. Referring to sexuality Rubin begins to illustrate her idea of the “charmed circle” by challenging sexual essentialism (the idea that sex is a natural force) by saying that it is or can be socially created and that it is not transhistorical or eternally unchanging. This idea of the “charmed circle” creates certain ideas of femininity through advertising and movies, and puts great pressure and impact of the lives of people who do not fall into the “circle”. In this paper I will discuss how the media reinforces Rubin’s idea of the “charmed circle” through magazines such as Vogue or Glamour and through

link.galegroup.com/apps/doc/EJ3010714208/OVIC?u=scot67242&xid=d9cbf746. Accessed 20 Nov. 2017. Originally published as "Feminism, Consumerism, & the Sexualization of Girls,", 2 Mar. 2007.

In the article “The End of Men,” Hanna Rosin offers several examples of women overpowering men. The inequality between men and women has become a critical issue in today’s society. According to Rosin, women are slowly surging ahead in the workforce and family life while men are left behind struggling to meet expectations. Rosin argues that this role reversal is taking place because women are simply better suited for postindustrial society.

To do so, Levy turns to the experiences of several young women whom she interviews. From her interpretations of these experiences, Levy reaches the conclusion that these women’s sexual nature revolves around their need

In 1985 the Bechdel test was created by Alison Bechdel to test if a fictional piece had a significant amount of female involvement (Bechdel). The test is as followed: two women, who are given names, must converse with each other about anything excluding a man. Surprisingly many movies throughout the history of film fail the Bechdel test. Currently in Hollywood the test highlights a problematic situation, the lack of equality regarding male and female roles in film and females constantly being portrayed as secondary characters. Many scholars have taken this into account, analyzing this issue and discussing potential reasoning for this

Welcome to WST 371: a 7 week online course. This course will examine how women and sexuality have been depicted in American popular culture from the 1950’s to current day. We will utilize themes and images from various formats, including movies, television, and popular books as well as analyzing different products and stores in considering what ideas and images about sexuality are being marketed and sold. We will consider questions such as: Have popular images of sexuality for women changed over time? If so, what has allowed these changes to occur? How do these popularly constructed ideas about sexuality affect attitudes concerning issues of romance and relationships, danger and violence or sexuality and sexual orientation? Is sexuality

While the objectification of women in the media has been discussed in other classes, we watched Killing Us Softly 4 (Jhally & Kilbourne, 2010) in my diverse population’s class and my philosophy class in undergraduate discussed the morality of prostitution, the connections made in this class really gave a troubling picture about how the media is effecting our relationships. There was a balanced representation of both side of the arguments regarding prostitution and pornography, but a bleak picture was painted for women and sexual relationships in the future in some of the articles. The stories in Pornified (Paul, 2005), while selected examples to make a point, highlights how the constant accessibility of media and porn has already changed how some men view women and relationships. While the perception is that it is teenage boys and single males who consume the most porn, example after example was presented of married men ruining relationships due to the consumption of pornographic material. The statistics that were presented in those chapters were eye opening for me since I had never really thought about whether to accept or condemn porn. The statistic that “60 percent of those who viewed no pornography during the experiment endorsed marriage as “in important institution”; only 39 percent of those who viewed “massive” amounts of pornography agreed” (Paul, 2005, p.141) really highlights the effect that media consumption has on our thoughts and beliefs. It is not like the dangers of porn are not discussed, but I feel like it is described the same way that potential rapists are described, a stranger lurking in the bushes and not something that can start innocently and quickly become detrimental to an individual’s sexual identity and

In order to create a logical and reason based argument that the modern society is still tilted towards a male dominant society, or what the sociologists refer to as a patriarchal society, it is pivotal that a thorough understanding of the characteristics of a patriarchal society is developed. When a strong grasp of the ideas of a patriarchal society is developed then we will be in a position to argue that it is in fact the commoditization of the female sexuality through media and other popular mediums that is fueling this ‘persistence’ of male dominance. Whatever the case is, sociologists are agreed on one fact that prostitution and pornography are not helping women’s case in ‘demands’ of equal rights and status in the society.

Since time immemorial, social crimes have always been regarded as the leading cause of the escalating immoralities in societies. Social issues are considered to influence a few if not most individuals from the general public either specifically or in a variety of ways. A society can be regarded as a social place with common setting where people are united by a common thing. One of the perturbing social crimes is the increasing number of promiscuous women in the world of today. In "Great to Watch," Maggie Nelson splendidly explores this contemporary problem, with an eye to the topic of regardless of whether concentrating on representations of pitilessness makes us an immoral society. She argues that the evil is part of human life and that every human should learn how to control it. It is along these lines fundamental to our connection to those to whom we are nearest and owe the most grounded commitments, and through them to the bigger society and the human past and future. On the other hand, Bell in her article "twenty something women in their twenties" looks into the various sexual desires that affect women in their early twenties. Both authors proposes that societal morals have escalated beyond the normal levels. However, they both believe in the sycophancy of changing the trend. Some scholars in the field of behavior change believe that exposing sexual immoralities among women is not a good move to curb the increasing trend of promiscuity. However, exposing the