The Lais of Marie de France offers an inquisitive perspective on the nature of love and the sacrifices one must make in relationships and marriage. While reading, I encountered many examples of a man and woman in love who must suffer for one another. This collection of narratives contains characters in relationships in which each partner suffers equally for one another and characters in which one partner sacrifices more than the other.…
As I gaze at Monet’s Olympia, all that comes to mind is the vulgarity. I am appalled at the painter’s intentions, for what could possess a man to paint such indecency? The painting illustrates a women lying in bed as her Negro servant brings her flowers. Her skin is sickly pale, she is fairly thin and her body appears underdeveloped equal to that of a girl not of a woman. The detail in this work suggest Olympia to be a demimondaine. Even the name Olympia is an association of prostitution, is it not? These details include the silk shawl in which she lies, her bracelet, the orchard in her hair, her pearl earrings, representations of sexuality and fortune. The contrast between the paleness of her flesh and the dark ribbon around her neck call attention to the overall sensual mood of Manet’s piece. Her stare is challenging as if she is asserting her dominance over men.…
All-white attire might symbolize a type of purity in emotion and model, it is a way of showing…
Throughout history there have been many different theories of sexuality developed. Two well-known philosophers, Freud and Beauvoir have created their own ideas of what sexuality is and the ways in which it developed. These two different philosophers have created theories that can be compared and contrasted in ways in which makes one think about their own beliefs of sexuality. These two philosophers biggest difference is in the way in which they view feminine sexuality. In this paper I will compare and contrast the theories of Freud and Beauvoir and explain why I agree with Beauvoir’s understanding of sexuality more than I agree with Freud’s.…
Naked bodies provoke the curiosity in everybody, especially, in teenagers. After staring at such pictures, one could not stop thinking about them. The same feelings appear in the girl from the poem. She starts to imagine that it could be her in the picture. She thinks how exciting it would be to be naked and dance…The girl wants to have the same hair that will pile around her shoulders. She wishes her body were also perfect.…
These articles explore the issue of human sexuality during the nineteenth century. No matter in literature, economic developments, feminist movements or women’s agency in society, they all bring attentions to the notion of sexuality.…
The poem takes the form of a sonnet, most typically known as a gesture of love. However, in the poem Harwood mocks this love-theme. The woman is loved for her “softness”, “mane” and her “smell” by the beast that personifies a man. These are purely physical qualities. Insight into who the woman is beyond her body is intentionally omitted from the beat’s reminiscing. The attraction felt for woman is only skin deep and is misguided by the beast’s “rank longing”. The sexualisation in the first stanza is developed by the image of an evocative “thigh”. A carnal motif that is hidden behind the idealised ‘true love’ that is divulged shamelessly by Harwood. Subsequently the beast’s ‘love’ is only the lustful thoughts of her body. By unveiling the undertones of the couple’s erotic relationship, Harwood is being critical of the false notions of innocent attraction - replacing them with the “love feast” that is sexual desire. It is Harwood’s challenge against the orthodox expectation ‘purity’…
What is Sexuality? 68 11. A Spirituality of Sexuality [Rolheiser, OMI] 69-79 12. Passion and Purity [Rolheiser, OMI] 80-83 ? The Road Less Traveled [Peck] 84-90 Revision?…
In novels it is common for the concept of love or sexuality to be present. This idea can present itself in many forms, and in both Jerzy Kosinski’s book Being There and Angela Carter’s book The Bloody Chamber this is illustrated. In both books the concept of love and sexuality can be seen in both dark and light contexts, with highly varying situations. In Being There and The Bloody Chamber the presence of genuine love, a lack of genuine love, and sexuality are all explored.…
Shakespeare’s sonnet 130, “My mistress’ eyes are nothing like the sun” and Pablo Neruda’s “My ugly love” are popularly known to describe beauty in a way hardly anyone would write: through the truth. It’s a common fact that modern lovers and poets speak or write of their beloved with what they and the audience would like to hear, with kind and breathtaking words and verses. Yet, Shakespeare and Neruda, honest men as they both were, chose to write about what love truly is, it matters most what’s on the inside rather than the outside. The theme of true beauty and love are found through Shakespeare and Neruda’s uses of imagery, structure, and tone.…
There have been numerous questions that have always confused mankind since the early days. The significance of life, how everything functions, is there a god of every single topic that still confuses humans. Although those concepts create a good argument, a topic that is time consuming in our lives is how to pick up on women. A main example of how old that problem has bothered men is in the book of Ovid: The Art of Love. We independently come up with our own style of picking up on a female through personal experiences and knowing stories. The majority advice given by Ovid is dead to me but there are a few things I do concur.…
For hundreds of years people have wondered who is the girl in the portrait Girl with a Pearl Earring, painted by a Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer in the 17th century and what is the connection between them. This fictional love story by Chevalier explores the sensual relationship between the young lady and the painter. Griet, a seventeen year old girl, narrated the story of her life experiences in the 1600’s, as she transformed from a young girl into a married woman. The narrative structure will appeal to a young adult audience as they will be able to relate to many of Griet’s experiences, especially the encounters she had with men. She was hired as a maid by a rich and famous painter, to help her impoverished family. Vermeer allowed her the privilege of working as his assistant in the studio, which caused much turmoil with his wife. This tension between the characters reads like a modern day soap opera. Vermeer was a gentle and respectful master, and Griet became devoted to him. Her secret admiration of him became increasingly intimate and loving, but not sexual. Vermeer’s friend, Van Ruijven requested him to paint Griet. Van Ruijven had several unwanted sexual encounters with her. Griet had to deal with the nervous emotions of a young girl learning to cope with sexual predators. Meanwhile, Griet met the local butcher, Pieter, and a friendship developed between…
Sexuality was redefined in France through what Historians and Sociologist considered then “The Sexual Revolution.” In recent years, historians have begun to emphasize the gradual nature of the sexual revolution that took place in the West from the late 1950s to the early 1970s. Deeming it the “long sexual revolution,” they deemphasize the significance of any single event or moment in favor of a longer view that recognizes a slow and steady process of change. The Long Sexual Revolution is the change in sexual appearance, predominately, a women appearance through the course of many significant events, such as May 68, and with the influence of media. The Journal of the History of Sexuality is a multi-volume series…
The poet uses imagery to describe the fat princesses, such as the simile “fingers as plump as sausage” (14) and the metaphor, “pillowed breast” (13). In being very descriptive in her portrayal of every princess, whether skinny or fat, she’s able to not only…
She further states that, “Clothing paradoxically, often hides the sex, but displays gender” (57). Therefore, according to her claim, clothes are one of the gender markers which predetermines what that persons position or status in the society will be. However, for one individual person clothes may be a material to hide his or her sex marker. But, with the stratification of masculinity and femininity, this material of sex identifier became a “gender marker” (Lorbor). These phenomena resulted in some expected characteristics from men and women, where women are expected to behave softly and men are expected to behave vigorously. The more masculine a man is and the more feminine a woman is, the more he or she gets “gendered.” Again, this ultimately results gender stratification.…