Feminist Criticism Lois Tyson Analysis

The moral philosophy of feminism is a big part of today's world socially. Women feel that they are not treated the same as men on a social level considering that men do not receive the same consequences that women do when they do not accept their traditional gender role. In “Feminist Criticism” an article by Lois Tyson from 2006, Tyson talks about what traditional gender roles are in today's society. She compares the ways in which men and women are seen in society and how women can be seen as “bad girls” meaning they don't accept their gender role. The traditional roles are seen as girls are emotional and weak while men are strong and rational. Tyson argues that in society “Bad girls are used and then discarded because they don't deserve better, and they probably don't even expect better” (Tyson 3). In other words in today's world, women who don't act the way society expects them to are used …show more content…
According to the article good girls accept their gender role in society and act as women are “supposed to”. Just as she argues how the bad girls are treated she examines how good girls are treated. Tyson emphasizes that “the “good girl” is rewarded for her good behavior by being placed on a pedestal by patriarchal culture” (3). Tysons point is that women who accept their gender role are treated much better and are given the chance that the bad girls are denied. The patriarchal society looks up to the good girls to be the influence of what women should behave like in their ideal world. When women hang out with a lot of different men and act ignorant, society does not accept them and shames them. In the two short stories, Daisy Miller and Where are you going, Where Have you Been, authors Joyce Oates and Henry James use a feminist lens to show how when women don't act like the typical “good girl”in society, they are looked down upon and mistreated by the rest of