Sailormoon, the world renowned animated series, comes from the Japanese Shōjo manga, written and illustrated by female author Naoko Takeuchi. The main distinguishing feature of Shōjo manga is that it is specifically aimed at young female viewers and involves some form of (usually magical) female protagonist (Saito 143). Kumiko Saito, in her essay on Magical Girl Anime and the Challenges of Changing Gender Identities in Japanese Society, acknowledges that the Shōjo genre exhibits “various possibilities of power for both men and women”; however, she argues that these potentials are marginalized by “contradictory messages conveyed by metaphors of magic and transformation” (162). In this essay, I will explain the ways in which the internationally…
Morimura is more than just art's most famous drag queen. Dealing with cultural and sexual issues he is constantly exploring ideas of image, identity and desire by portraying himself often as a woman and a westerner with strong…
Female desire in Le Fanu’s short story is understood as demonstrating the confined gender roles at the time. In the short story Carmilla represented vampirism and female desire through the way she seduced her female victims, both ideas were portrayed as threatening to society. The adaptation’s version of Carmilla demonstrates how the theme of female desire represents more accepting social values and attitudes in modern society. The web series promotes and embraces independent women and female desire, whereas the short story seeks to suppress it through the death of…
I have to agree with your statements that you shared when “It is true that whites in America are still the predominate race and so it would make sense to cast mostly white members on a show or movie.”…
As one example, the ancient practice of Chinese foot binding as a beauty institution serves as an excellent model which exemplifies such immobilization of women. In attempting to decipher the bound foot, feminist dialogues have concentrated on its role in sexually objectifying women. Though valuable, this interpretation lacks a comprehensive understanding of the patriarchy which sustained foot binding and continues to sustain similar, modern-day practices like the high heeled shoe. Careful examination of the two further reveals that the immobilization of women through beauty practices subverts their economic autonomy. The patriarchy both intends for and is established by these…
* No it is not neutral or stable. Health is measured on certain medical statistics, but the type of questions asked or the type of people analyzed vary based on sex, . Health standards vary according to climate, age, height, class, diet, gender, race, and bodily configurations. All of these influence health as a concept. The body is never in a state of perfect optimum health. Have a cold? Not enough sleep? Tripped on the way to class and have a bruise? The body is always in an ever-fluctuating state. Health also depends on what people feel about themselves. “What’s important is that I feel healthy.”…
ence womanPlease discuss the relationship between desire and permission to have sex. Is desire necessary for permission? Is permission necessary for desire? What if someone is torn between having desire but not permission—what recourse does he or she have?…
The two texts similarly present ideas about women’s independence and show that regardless of marital status, women face gender prejudice. Albert, Celie’s husband, states that ‘wives is like children. You let ‘em know who got the upper hand.’ By likening a married woman to a child, Walker removes adult qualities from Celie such as patience, intelligence and respect. In doing this Walker demonstrates that empowerment was harder for Celie to achieve, as she is considered powerless and childlike by men. Furthermore, we identify with Celie’s marital struggles and inability to persevere, as Celie is constantly made to feel disempowered. This is evident when Celie suggests Harpo should ‘beat [Sofia]’ even though ‘… three years pass and he still whistle and sing’. By discounting relevant facts such as Sofia and Harpo maintaining their happiness for three years, we are shown that Celie is jealous of functional marriages that allow partners to act independently. Through this Walker highlights that women knowingly reinforce gender prejudice by encouraging men to exercise control using physical force. Golden also takes a similar stance to Walker on women’s independence through his depiction of a self-sufficient Geisha. Mameha informs Sayuri that ‘following [her] debut… [she’ll] need a danna if [she’s] to…
Howl’s Moving Castle is Totally Natsuki. You can’t keep a good woman down, but you can put her in her place. This is the, most likely unintentional, subtext of two quintessential triumphs in Japanese storytelling. Fruits Basket, written and illustrated by Natsuki Takaya, is a harem manga that follows the awkward misadventures of Tohru Honda as she, after the loss of her mother, finds a new home with the zodiac-cursed Sohma family. Howl’s Moving Castle’s main character’s trials are not so different.…
At a very early age, we were taught to be boys or girls by various gender socialization agents. Because of the emphasis of these socialization agents, we can hardly change the images of boys and girls, or men and women. When a baby is born, parents would dress the baby in blue if it is a boy or in pink if it is a girl. At school, teachers may ask boys to do heavy works and girls to do something easy. However, the most powerful gender socialization agent is the mass media. The images of boys and girls, or men and women, presented by the mass media are distinct, and they have had a great effect on the development of our gender roles.…
Children get familiar with gender roles through several ways, such as parents' behaviors, school education and media images, and then try to make adaption to those models society desires. Parents play the most influential role when young people developing the ideas about gender. For one things, parents having a plenty of time getting along with kids, children easily accept the silent transforming effect of the interaction, which changes itself into the basic concept viewing gender roles. For instance, even though there are advertisements showing a father makes dinner or looks after children, people tend to think of the picture mothers attending to her kids more naturally. On the other hand, opinions about…
The Iroquois myth, “The World on the Turtle’s Back,” is a piece that has been passed down from one generation to the next since 1800. It introduces a story of the world; good and bad, male and female roles, a great god, the solar system, growth, etc. This text not only challenges stereotypical views of gender roles, but it also introduces a different perspective on superiority. As the male population is classically seen as dominant, fearless, and powerful souls; while the female population is seen to be gentle, nurturing, loving souls, this piece smoothly diffuses those ideas.…
Since the beginning of recorded history we have been held to witness the influence of women and their sexuality on mankind. As sexual creatures, humans desire each other; generally men are more inclined to be seen as the ones who “need” the physical sexual act. This “need” that men have gives women an important power and opportunity over men. By controlling sex women can basically rule the world. This idea tends to scare men because men like to be the ones in control, but at the same time this thought of powerful dominating women is a sexual turn on. These natural curiosities we all have with our bodies, and fantasies we create, led to the eventual naming of this phenomenon as the Femme Fatale, coined by the French. Prior to the term being used, the actual idea of the Femme Fatale has been around since basically the beginning of time even seen in the mythology of cultures, such as the Greek sirens. In all cases of the Femme Fatale, she is seen as being a seductive trickster whom is solely responsible for the downfall of the men she preys upon. When this theme became consciously popular in art works it was given a name. My main purpose is to eventually describe how three artists took different approaches to their own depiction of the iconic Femme Fatale and how they compare to each other. The three artists and their works I will focus on are Ernst Ludwig Kirchner with his painting Street, Berlin, Aubrey Beardsley with his illustration Salome with the Head of John the Baptist, and Edvard Munch with his painting Vampire. I will start by first giving a comprehensive overview of the meaning of the term Femme Fatale. Next, I will give a general explanation of the use of the formal elements for each artists work selected, finally, I will compare and contrast how each artist approached the same theme of the Femme Fatale through the formal elements.…
The small girl, having finished her chore, sits down to a meal and Ajanupu shouts at her again “You don’t sit like that when you are eating. Put your legs together. You are a woman”(45). Even her mistress is not spared: Remember, Ajanupu advises Efuru, “She is a girl and will marry one day. If you don’t bring her up well, nobody will marry her. By the way, can she cook now?” (45). Good upbringing, according to patriarchal ideals, entails women learning the arts of submission, cookery, and service to a husband. Without these, they will inevitably face divorce (125). It is pertinent to mention here that Nigerian men nearly always prefer their women plump, since they say that when they hold a woman they like to hold flesh, not a bag of bones. The newly circumcised girls are branded feasting girls. Their mothers, in turn, become mothers of feasting girls. The young women are treated like erotic princesses, for whom the body rather than the brain is of primary concern. At the end of the fattening period, they visit the market where they put themselves on display for the admiration of the whole community. In some instances, depending on the means of the family, they go back and forth from the home to market several times a day, and each time differently adorned. They are showered…
This story illustrates the scenario of a male dominating world, and how female gender is subjugated. The opening of any piece of writing is an allusion of what lies ahead in it. The opening introduces characters of the story. Despite the fact that how the story is set in a male dominating there is very little mention of the male gender.…