Women Imagines And Realities

Societal and psychological perceptions of gender and beauty greatly affect women because they marginalize women’s identities and who they are as individuals. These preconceived societal and cultural perceptions of women disregard them as individuals with their own experiences, ideals and beliefs, education, self-worth, sexuality, etc. They demonstrate how women are viewed in society as well as how they are “expected” to behavior and how they should look; as a result, when a woman goes against the “norm” they as seen as deviant or defective. Nevertheless, societal, psychological and cultural perceptions about women have changed over the years thanks to the movements that both feminist and open minded men and women (especially women) fought in to challenge societal standards.
In the book, “Women Imagines and Realities: A Multicultural Anthology”, there are various thought-provoking stories that contest numerous dominating ideas about …show more content…
Rich argued the importance of claiming an education, and how society expects women to “be nice, play safe, have low professional expectations, drown in love and forget about work, live through others, and stay in the places assigned to us” (page 20). By claiming an education women take responsible for themselves and their life. Getting an education allows women to be independent and in control; they don’t have to rely so heavily on a partner for support. For example, a woman who has an education would most likely have a job as well, and if said women happened to be in an abusive relationship it would be easier for her to get out of it compared to a woman with no education and no job because unlike the woman with no education she would have her own source of income to support herself. Education opens the door for limitless possibilities of what women can