In recent discussions of Susan Bordos reading about women’s pressures in society, one controversial issue discusses how women have expectations in society that they think they have to follow. These expectations consist of being able to cook and work in the kitchen, look beautiful, and dress certain ways to gain attention. In contrast, other arguments are; men do not have to worry about their weight, they should be strong and maintain a fit body, and not needed to cook or help out in the kitchen. Proponents of this position, emphasize that women in this world have to follow what society portrays of them, otherwise by not doing it, they will not receive the same attention as they would if they listened to society. Overall, the issue presented…
This essay concerns with how and why the feminist icon Rosie the Riveter is reworked on a feminist t-shirt. The original image from a propaganda poster is recognized as an embodiment of women's empowerment, which I was preciously convinced of. However, there are a few people criticizing it for not being the true representative of feminism. This t-shirt has reworked the image in some intriguing ways, backing the claim that Rosie the Riveter is not precise nor adequate in describing diverse aspects of feminism today.…
The documentary Miss Representation shows the false representation of women through media. The media’s portrayal of what a powerful women is includes harmful and artificial substances to the body. It is important for all of us to learn the truth behind media because false stereotypes are created. We must value and respect human beings and not as objects. People must know that they can be powerful just by being themselves and not by trying to be someone else. The truth behind feminist anger can awaken our society and start a change in the world. Our everyday lives are effected by these false advertised women in television, magazines, music videos, etc. The film points out that influential women do not need to wear clothes that reveal their body…
“Pink Think” by Lynn Peril is an excerpt from the introduction to Pink Think, a book that examines the influences of the feminine ideal. Lynn Peril was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, but has lived in the San Francisco Bay Area since 1985. She writes, edits, publishes, and detritus of popular culture, especially that concerning gender-related behavioral instructions. The Author starts off the essay with her thesis saying that the human female is bombarded with advice on how to wield those feminine wiles. For example, once upon a time, young girls were suppose to wear conservative dresses, and get boyfriends in hopes of those very boyfriends becoming their husbands and fathering their children so they may become what was perceived as successful, a mother and housewife. These ideas and concepts were fit to the times that Peril mentions in her essay. She has a very negative outlook on pink think and is trying to persuade the reader to also look at the essay as something negative and wicked. Today, I believe that these stereotypes have indeed changed, and do not exist as much in the world we live in today. However, new concepts and ideas have manifested in today’s world for young women in America.…
Over more than 150 years ago, women were portrayed as a weaker being, according to the men’s perspective. Women were classified as inferior to men and positioned to a life of a housewife. In fact, all women were supposed to stay home and supported the family whilst the men go to war. In the past, women did not have the rights to vote or take part in political views, while some of the other places of the continents were even forbid to leave her home. . .Until one day, one woman decided it was time to call for some drastic measures. Gloria Steinem took the initiation as a Women’s Rights Activist and protested for equal rights and women’s liberation.…
Throughout the decades, human beings from a small age start learning the characteristics of a male and female. Whether it is from media, clothing and to the way one is brought up, society has similar views of what it means to be a man or a women. Men are envisioned to be strong, aggressive, successful, and someone who avoids feminine characteristics. Women are perceived to be submissive, delicate, passive, dependent, vulnerable, having the ability to care for children and at times worthless. These views of gender identity have been engraved in humanities minds due to the amount of exposure to television, advertisements and the way one is raised in their households.…
I will be referring to Susan Douglas' book, Where the Girls Are, to discuss how representations of femininity in popular culture evolved before and after the woman's movement. For the children born after World War II, the media's influence was extraordinary. These children were the fastest growing market segment and were referred to as the "baby boomers". The preteen and teenage girls were the first generation to be relentlessly isolated as a distinct market segment. Advertisers knew they had to speak to the young women of this generation in a way that encouraged distinctions between teenagers and adults in order to go against the usual parental guidance in which provided fiscal restraint. "So at the same time that the makers of Pixie Bands, Maybelline eyeliner, Breck shampoo, and Beach Blanket Bingo reinforced our roles as cute, air headed girls, the mass media produced a teen girl popular culture of songs, movies, TV shows, and magazines that cultivated in us a highly self-conscious sense of importance, difference, and even rebellion.(Douglas,14)" Because the market of young…
In many cultures, women are expected to be nurturers who care for their husbands and children. It is considered the role that most significantly defines women and the one, above all, that they should aspire to. Sandra Cisneros wants girls to know that they do not have to define themselves based on other’s definitions of them, because they have powerful voices by which to define themselves.…
In The Power of the Positive Woman, author Phyllis Schlafly sets out to redefine the dogmas of womanhood and introduce the Positive Woman, defined as someone who recognizes that women and men are different, and that those differences “provide the key to her success and fulfillment as a woman.” Rather than trying to eliminate the degradation of women, she claims that these dogmas have the opposite effect and demean women even more. On the contrary, Schlafly argues that these same differences some are trying to get rid of are essential and practical. In fact, the human race itself could not have evolved and thrived to the current scale without these sexual differences. Instead of the desire for uniformity, Schlafly encourages the recognition and benefit from diversity.…
In the essay of “There Is No Unmarked Woman”, Deborah Tannen explains it best through the statement that “There is no unmarked woman” (Tannen 412). No matter what hairstyle, clothes, shoes, or style a woman may choose to wear, every one of her decisions will convey a meaning to the public. “If a woman’s clothing is tight or revealing…it sends a message…If her clothes are not sexy, that too sends a message…” (Tannen 412). There are even instances where the clothes are not the cause of criticism, for a woman may be criticized upon her genetic features. As written in the poem “Barbie Doll” by Marge Piercg, a little girl grows up healthy and intelligent, but because other people deemed her as physically inadequate by having “a great big nose and fat legs”, the girl is coerced into change, and not anything like a difference in wardrobe, but permanent change with cosmetic surgery (Piercg 378). Such an occurrence is not far from reality for there are women who will do whatever it takes to be deemed as conventionally…
Categorizing or erasing an individual’s identity in today’s society based off of gender, religion, race, as well as sexuality is a common occurrence. It is difficult to grasp the concept of a society that is completely devoid of robbing an individual’s humanity or even falling victim to the process of stereotyping. Although, change is a must, will people follow through to obliterate the everyday stereotypes or fall blind to the assumptions that lurk through our society? Woman everyday must leap through the rings of insularity that shape our society’s expectations of how a woman “should be.” Therefore, women all have multiple identities that are shaped through either systems of power or oppression…
My topic for this paper is body image and African American women. I have chosen this topic because I am an African American girl who has struggled with my body image all of my life so I feel that I can easily connect to this topic. When I was younger, I mostly played with white Barbies because they had better accessories and clothes than the black Barbies. This reinforced in my head that white was better than black and this mind set took years for me to reverse. The subject of the people affected by this issue is African American girls of all ages, but more heavily from early childhood to young adulthood, especially if they are surrounded by media.…
Thus, in an attempt to further promote equal opportunity between men and women, a second wave of feminism emerged between 1968 and the 1980’s, which can be best characterized by women’s refusal to acclimate to society’s rigid belief of what an ideal woman should be or act like (Mancia, Class, 12/2). This problem is perfectly illustrated in the Feminine Mystique, written by Betty Friedan, in which Friedan discussed the unhappiness of many young women in the 1950’s and early 1960’s despite many of them being married and having children, living the life a woman is “supposed” to have. Furthermore, Friedan complained of young women who were being taught that “truly feminine women do not want careers, higher education, political rights” (Friedan, p. 271). Instead, they were being taught that it was a woman’s “job” to essentially be a housewife (i.e. stay home, clean the house, make food for her family, take care of the kids, etc...) (Friedan, p. 273). However, Friedan largely opposed this view and believed that it embodied the false prototypical stereotype about women. Rather, Friedan believed that a truly feminine woman would do just the exact opposite and does aim for a career, higher education, and political rights in the same way that a man would (Mancia, Class,…
Concurrently, both the Barbie doll and “Girl” suggest that socially constructed gender stereotypes begin to affect girls early on in their life. Girls…
To be feminine means having qualities and or appearances traditionally associated with women. Women are expected to act a certain way, and that certain way is to be subservient to men. They are depicted as insecure human beings who want to look pretty to impress others, and in order to find a husband. Gender roles in society state that women who are opposed to them are rebellious “she-males” who wouldn’t make a good wife or mother instead of viewing them as women who are independent, powerful, and strong in society. When beautiful women in magazines or television shows always have flawless skin and a perfect complexion, the typical female viewer, who is most likely not all of these things, will be alienated by the very image in which she is supposed to identify with. Young teenage girls, whose bodies are changing and developing, are being deprived of necessary nutrients at every meal in order to match this archetype of an ideal…