Oppressive Gender Roles in Society; Past and Present One matter has not changed in the past hundred years and that is the gender role for women in society. Even after years of change, women are still objectified and not compared as equals to men. Women have been granted “rights”, but that does not mean these pre-established stereotypes have been eliminated. These stereotypes are seen through many ways media, art, books, and society for decades. This essay will include feminist stories and poems; including Kate Chopin’s “The Story of an Hour”’, Marge Piercy’s “Barbie Doll”, and Francine Prose’s “Scent of a Women’s Ink”. These literacy works have different styles, but they all focus on the idea of oppressive gender roles in society, within in
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For over many decades women have been objectified, insulted, and degraded. Women have been taught mostly from society that beauty is the only important thing in life, and that is exactly what Marge Piercy’s “Barbie Doll” is about. This is a narrative poem about typical stereotypes we see in society and how there are “specific” ways women should look. The 1st stanza in the poem is focused on the idea of how gender is naturalized and how there are stereotypes of women. The author uses the word usual referring to the way young women should look (long hair, skinny, and pretty), and then continues talking about the “cherry candy” lipstick and the stoves and irons. These words represent a “perfect women” who stays at home to cook and clean, but is looking pretty while wearing this dark red lipstick. Then the 2nd stanza moves on to this patriarchy voice inside her head, all she hears now is “fat nose and fat legs”. She starts to believe that she has a fat nose and thick legs, because her perception of reality is being distorted. This is as common today as it was 45 years ago when Marge Piercy wrote this poem; today young women who are starting to go through puberty start to become very vulnerable and believe that they should look a certain way to “fit-in”. These young women are watching tv shows with these skinny actresses or follow girls on social media who …show more content…
Prose story discusses how women writers are constantly suppressed to men writers. She explains that women are major editors, top-decision makers, and Nobel laureate novelists, but they still do not receive the attention that men do. Women are consistently underappreciated, you rarely see them appear in major magazines and it is rare to have fiction by women in serious literacy journals. Even though Prose focuses on the gender roles, and patriarchy within a writer’s world her work speaks beyond that. Women are constantly suppressed and are facing these typical gender roles that society gives us and we can not get away from them. Some stereotypes that Prose list in a “Scent of a Woman’s Ink” are: too emotional, too descriptive with their feelings, and overly sentimental. Those are exactly the way women are described all over the world, but those stereotypes are not always accurate. People believe that women are weak, and dependent on a male to help them succeed, if you said that a century ago that would probably be more accurate, but it is the 21st century and a lot has changed. That’s exactly what Prose argues in her story, that times have changed and women should not be objectified and underappreciated for their
For over many decades women have been objectified, insulted, and degraded. Women have been taught mostly from society that beauty is the only important thing in life, and that is exactly what Marge Piercy’s “Barbie Doll” is about. This is a narrative poem about typical stereotypes we see in society and how there are “specific” ways women should look. The 1st stanza in the poem is focused on the idea of how gender is naturalized and how there are stereotypes of women. The author uses the word usual referring to the way young women should look (long hair, skinny, and pretty), and then continues talking about the “cherry candy” lipstick and the stoves and irons. These words represent a “perfect women” who stays at home to cook and clean, but is looking pretty while wearing this dark red lipstick. Then the 2nd stanza moves on to this patriarchy voice inside her head, all she hears now is “fat nose and fat legs”. She starts to believe that she has a fat nose and thick legs, because her perception of reality is being distorted. This is as common today as it was 45 years ago when Marge Piercy wrote this poem; today young women who are starting to go through puberty start to become very vulnerable and believe that they should look a certain way to “fit-in”. These young women are watching tv shows with these skinny actresses or follow girls on social media who …show more content…
Prose story discusses how women writers are constantly suppressed to men writers. She explains that women are major editors, top-decision makers, and Nobel laureate novelists, but they still do not receive the attention that men do. Women are consistently underappreciated, you rarely see them appear in major magazines and it is rare to have fiction by women in serious literacy journals. Even though Prose focuses on the gender roles, and patriarchy within a writer’s world her work speaks beyond that. Women are constantly suppressed and are facing these typical gender roles that society gives us and we can not get away from them. Some stereotypes that Prose list in a “Scent of a Woman’s Ink” are: too emotional, too descriptive with their feelings, and overly sentimental. Those are exactly the way women are described all over the world, but those stereotypes are not always accurate. People believe that women are weak, and dependent on a male to help them succeed, if you said that a century ago that would probably be more accurate, but it is the 21st century and a lot has changed. That’s exactly what Prose argues in her story, that times have changed and women should not be objectified and underappreciated for their