Feminism, or otherwise known as the “Woman’s Movement,” is falsely and stereotypically claim to be a mob of angry raging women. However, Feminism stands for equality and many other concepts. In May-Lee Chai’s short story, “Saving Sourdi,” feminism applies to the main characters and the relationship between them. Feminism falls within this story through the instances of the character development of Sourdi, Nea, and their relationship throughout the tale. First, to analyze feminism into “Saving Sourdi,” one must know the history of feminism. To provide background information, the Feminist Movement had three waves. The first wave was around the 1800s to the 1920s, which was about the women’s suffrage. Then, the second wave took place in the 1940s
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In 1966 Betty Friedan along with labor and civil rights activists, established the National Organization of Woman (NOW), “At its first conference in Washington NOW declared that its aims were to bring women into full participation in the mainstream of American society so that they could reach their full potential as human beings (Hannam 138).” The National Organization of Woman sought to use the law to gain equality in employment and education. NOW wanted to achieve equal civil and political rights and responsibilities for women. This demonstrated that education provides an important space for feminists to challenge common comprehensions about gender roles and modern definitions of femininity. As more women enrolled in higher education, they proved the fact that women were invisible in academic disciplines that had been defined by men. This pretty much was a red flag to all feminists. Everyone feminist had become aware of this issue, “’Liberal feminists’ still focused on individual rights and equal opportunities and argued that legal and society policy changes would help women to achieve these (Hannam 144).” Not only was this a dilemma in the second wave, but it also is a critical problem in today’s …show more content…
For instance, a relationship towards men and women, “More characteristic of ‘second wave feminism’, however, was the ‘radical feminist’ attempt to find new ways for theorizing women’s relationship to men (Hannam 144).” Overall, feminism wants a rise in women’s status from being “mere female” to the state of becoming “a human being. Feminism does not seek the extinction of strength and courage in men, nor of beauty, compassion and kindness in women, “Feminism looks in the recognition that these fine and lovely qualities are the heritage of men and women alike—human qualities which all human beings are entitled to cultivating and to use without question or reproof (Snowden 13).” In the end, masculinity and femininity is not a problem towards feminism. Thus, began the birth of antifeminist. In proving woman’s weakness, antifeminists then began to draw towards not only religion, philosophy, and theology, but also towards science, biology, experimental psychology etc. The antifeminists have had no trouble in showing that women clearly are not men. However, Beauvoir states otherwise, “Surely woman is, like man, a human being; but such a declaration is abstract. The fact is that every concrete human being is always a singular separate individual (Beauvoir 4).” However, feminism does not direct its harshest attacks towards women who are economically dependent towards their husbands. This is a false belief, and one that
In 1966 Betty Friedan along with labor and civil rights activists, established the National Organization of Woman (NOW), “At its first conference in Washington NOW declared that its aims were to bring women into full participation in the mainstream of American society so that they could reach their full potential as human beings (Hannam 138).” The National Organization of Woman sought to use the law to gain equality in employment and education. NOW wanted to achieve equal civil and political rights and responsibilities for women. This demonstrated that education provides an important space for feminists to challenge common comprehensions about gender roles and modern definitions of femininity. As more women enrolled in higher education, they proved the fact that women were invisible in academic disciplines that had been defined by men. This pretty much was a red flag to all feminists. Everyone feminist had become aware of this issue, “’Liberal feminists’ still focused on individual rights and equal opportunities and argued that legal and society policy changes would help women to achieve these (Hannam 144).” Not only was this a dilemma in the second wave, but it also is a critical problem in today’s …show more content…
For instance, a relationship towards men and women, “More characteristic of ‘second wave feminism’, however, was the ‘radical feminist’ attempt to find new ways for theorizing women’s relationship to men (Hannam 144).” Overall, feminism wants a rise in women’s status from being “mere female” to the state of becoming “a human being. Feminism does not seek the extinction of strength and courage in men, nor of beauty, compassion and kindness in women, “Feminism looks in the recognition that these fine and lovely qualities are the heritage of men and women alike—human qualities which all human beings are entitled to cultivating and to use without question or reproof (Snowden 13).” In the end, masculinity and femininity is not a problem towards feminism. Thus, began the birth of antifeminist. In proving woman’s weakness, antifeminists then began to draw towards not only religion, philosophy, and theology, but also towards science, biology, experimental psychology etc. The antifeminists have had no trouble in showing that women clearly are not men. However, Beauvoir states otherwise, “Surely woman is, like man, a human being; but such a declaration is abstract. The fact is that every concrete human being is always a singular separate individual (Beauvoir 4).” However, feminism does not direct its harshest attacks towards women who are economically dependent towards their husbands. This is a false belief, and one that