Women 's Portrayal Of Women Essay

1. Why did Cato object to repealing the Oppian law? What was the basis of his objections?

Throughout the history of society, women and men both have faced the constricting roles forced upon them, from a young age; each gender is given specific social and cultural roles to play out throughout their lives. Little girls are given dolls and kitchen toys, little boys are given dinosaurs and power tool toys, if one was to step out of this specified role, social conflict would ensue. Contrast to popular belief, sex is a biological construct, and gender is a social construct specifying the roles men and women are to follow to be accepted into society as “normal”. The effects of gender roles have had on women have proved harmful over the decades. Although the woman’s involvement in society has improved throughout the decades,

Throughout American Literature, women have been depicted in many different ways. The portrayal of women in American Literature is often influenced by an author's personal experience or a frequent societal stereotype of women and their position. Often times, male authors interpret society’s views of women in a completely different nature than a female author would. While F. Scott Fitzgerald may represent his main female character as a victim in the 1920’s, Zora Neale Hurston portrays hers as a strong, free-spirited, and independent woman only a decade later in the 1930’s.

However, it can be observed and said that they have always lived up to the image of “housewife” material or as a constant collaborator of a male role, instead of being the main character. According to Elasmar, M., Hasegawa, K., & Brain, M, on their essay the portrayal of women in the US prime television, “TV has portrayed females in many ways, studies have shown that women have been underrepresented and stereotyped in TV programs.” Women have been living under that invisible stereotype that has cornered them and does not allow them to grow professionally or socially. TV has been the master-mind behind a stereotype that has left women without the chance of demanding equality or credibility on shows, a stereotype that will always be mentioned and enforce if TV shows do not start producing real-world programs based on true stories or true qualities of

Women and men are nestled into predetermined cultural molds when it comes to gender in American society. Women play the roles of mothers, housekeepers, and servants to their husbands and children, and men act as providers, protectors, and heads of the household. These gender roles stem from the many culture myths that exist pertaining to America, including those of the model family, education, liberty, and of gender. The majority of these myths are misconceptions, but linger because we, as Americans, do not analyze or question them. The misconception of gender suggests that biological truths no longer dictate our gender roles as men and women; they derive from cultural myths. We, as a nation, need

Over the years, views on women’s roles in society have drastically changed. The gender differences highlighted in Deborah Tannen’s excerpts from You Just Don’t Understand emphasize the differences between women’s desire for intimacy and men’s pull towards independence. By this theory, men tend to drift in the direction of power and self-reliance, which are characteristics of action television shows and movies, whereas women immerse themselves in romance and family oriented media. While The Game of Thrones appeals to males through the fast-paced storyline, the characters of Arya Stark, Sensa Stark, and Daenerys Targaryen break away from Tannen 's stereotypes and empower women watching the series through the ladies’ demonstration of survival and independent judgment, even among formidable males. As a result, both genders are equalized, but women are ennobled in the process.

Mass media not only reflects gender stereotypes but also plays a role in changing them. Females used to be portrayed as less brave and more dependent. Now there are strong, independent female characters like Katniss Everdeen from The Hunger Games and intelligent, brave female characters like Hermione Granger from Harry Potter. Like women’s changing positions in society, more aggressive and dominant females are being featured. Mass media molds new stereotypes but not all the ideas that are communicated are positive.

In the three plays that we have discussed in class, Antigone by Jean Anouilh, The Infernal Machine by Jean Cocteau, and Ubu Roi by Alfred Jarry, there is a prodigious depiction of female characters and power that come in numerous ways. In The Infernal Machine there are female characters, such as Jocasta and the Sphinx, who show power and authority. Likewise, in “Antigone,” characters, such as Antigone and her sister, Ismene, also show power and supremacy. In Ubu Roi, the main character that showed power through rule was Mere Ubu. From being a woman of authority, to rebelling against men with a greater authority than them, to doing what you want no matter if it was right or wrong for the people, these characters truly show what it is to be a woman of power in one way or another. Characters in both plays display power in innumerable means, and it shows the leadership of women. John C. Maxwell once said, “A leader is one who knows the way, goes the way, and shows the way.” Women in these plays do what they can to show power, in their each individual ways.

Annette Bair and Marilyn Friedman have opposing views on whether women have distinct moral perspectives. Like Friedman, I believe that women have no different moral perspectives than men. Some people, like Bair, think that women base their moral perspectives on merely trust and love and men base theirs on justice. Friedman points out that care and justice coincide . People use justice to decide what is appropriate in caring relationships and care is brought into account when determining what is just. Since these two moral perspectives correspond, gender does not distinguish different moral perspectives.

"For most of history, anonymous was a woman", quotes Virginia Woolf. (1) Throughout history, women’s lives were restricted to domesticity and family, and they were left oppressed and without political voice. Over the decades the roles of women have dramatically changed from chattels belonging to their husbands to gaining independence. Women became famous activists, thinkers, writers, and artists, like Frida Kahlo who was an important figure for women’s independence. The price women paid in their fight for equality was to die or be imprisoned along with men, and they were largely forgotten in written history. However, the roles they took on were wide-ranging which included working in factories, tending the troops, taking care of children

The women in Shakespear's play: Twelfth Night, are all depicted as having power, comedic and being very emotional.

Filmmakers use traditional gender stereotypes to produce characters audiences can easily identify with by portraying conventional images of a person with identifiable characteristics. In previous years, the dominant representation of a women in film has been the passive, subjugated protagonist. However, through the development of female empowerment and added feminist representations of film, the female heroine transformed to become strong and independent women in her own right, as an individual character.

The textbook identifies four approaches to gender development: biological, interpersonal, cultural, and critical. Define each theory. Then answer the following question: which of the theoretical approaches to gender do you find the most valid? Be sure to include at least two examples from your own experience as well as two scholarly sources to back up your claim.

In the words of pop singer and ardent feminist P!nk, “Women have fought so long and hard for our rights and equality, and now all our attention is put on being a size 0.” P!nk’s hit song “Stupid Girls”, released with her 2006 album I’m Not Dead, provides a commentary on society’s perception of a woman’s role and how women respond to that perception. She rejects the foundations of the stereotype that women exist as subordinate to men, while challenging the behavior of women who conform to these societal expectations in order to please men. Although she composed the piece to encourage women to take pride in intelligence, the song has come under critique for “slut-shaming” by stereotyping women who focus on external appearance, labeling them as “stupid”. The piece simultaneously demeans and empowers women, demonstrating just one of the many flaws in the feminist movement that exist today.

In politics, power is a crucial component, and having authority over others is critical in legitimizing that power. Women consistently lack agency and power, especially in political spheres. Fantastical worlds, like HBO’s television series Game of Thrones (GoT), portray women in roles of empowerment, but their power is contingent on men and on their own sexuality. Despite gaining positions in political power, women only attain that power or can only use that power in the realm of men and masculinity. This essay argues that women in Game of Thrones, as political and non-political actors, are only powerful to the extent to which it roots from archetypical masculine characteristics and to which it advances their storylines from a man’s standpoint. To do so, I will first contrast political power and apolitical power, namely in terms of female participation and involvement. Next, I will examine HBO’s Game of Thrones in relation to its portrayal of female empowerment and of stereotypical gender roles. This paper will then distinguish notable Game of Thrones female characters as political powerful and apolitically powerful actors. This paper will conclude with an analysis of how Game of Thrones magnifies women’s roles in political power while also generalizing women as powerful only in regards to their sexuality.