Patriarchy Essay

Gertrude submits to Claudius by marrying him without hesitation, rather than thinking for herself and taking the opportunity to become a self-sufficient, independent woman that would dispute the norm. She has a tendency to please men to fulfil her taught instinct for self-preservation—which, of course, makes her extremely passive and dependent upon the men in her life. Hamlet’s comment about Gertrude is his furious condemnation of women in general: “Frailty, thy name is woman!” (Act 1 Scene 2).…

Hemingway and Gilman’s Depiction of Women: Unnecessary The famous women's rights and suffrage movement activist, Susan B Anthony said, “Men, their rights, and nothing more; women, their rights, and nothing less.” Her ambitious agenda for women’s rights was met with fierce resistance and ingrained social norms. The proper role of women and their appropriate duties was a controversial issue in the early 20th century. Many firmly believed a woman’s role should be confined to the domestic…

Although we are inclined to think we have come a great distance, American culture is still a patriarchy run by the “Law of the Father”. We, as a country, are a male dominated society; in government, the corporate world, and even within the entertainment industry. The concept of “personal is political” was frequently heard from feminists, particularly second wave feminists, during the late 1960’s and early 1970’s. There are several vital points, discussed during class lectures and while reading…

masculinity in order to provoke him into the action of regicide. However, as the play progresses, a change of power relations occurs between them. As Macbeth ascends the political hierarchy he appears to revert back to the expected attitudes of the patriarchy, consequently, he marginalises his wife and forces his once ‘dearest partner of greatness’ to become ‘innocent of the knowledge.’ The relationships within the play mirror the political and social world emphasising the concept that the…

Many people think that males in our society today are brought up to define who they are as a person through the idealized version of heroics, the glory of competition, and, above all else, the idea that only winners are successful. Females, on the other hand, are brought up to define their identities through assembly, collaboration, unselfishness, home life, and community. This view of different male and female roles can be seen throughout literature. However, though both men and women have…

The artifact chosen for this analysis is a “keep calm” image. It is not the typical keep calm message encouraging people to stay strong and “carry on”. In fact, it is the complete opposite. The image states, “Keep Calm and Don’t Eat.” The message for women to eat less, be smaller, and do not be seen is what makes women powerless. Not only is this picture promoting anorexia, but it is also telling women what to do. Eating disorders in females have a direct correlation with their lack of power in…

If the ‘history from below’ of subaltern studies aims at this rereading ‘against the grain’ of the colonial (and postcolonial) history of India by highlighting the ‘daily forms of resistance’, it suggests above all a ‘redefinition’ of the archive itself: wherever the traditional archive is insufficient (particularly concerning women’s history), recourse to ‘different’ sources in which the ‘subaltern voice’ can be heard is necessary. It is through the alternative that feminist history is…

Feminism, a highly controversial issue in the late eighteenth century England, and the key figure of this particular movement is John Stuart Mill and Mary Woolstonecraft is seen to be the leading figure, who fights for social equality among men and women, especially by providing equal opportunities and rights in the fields of education and marriage. Women’s rights were a disputatious topic during the eighteenth century and Austen certainly concerned herself therefore, Feminism, is a belief that…

Moravcsik, Ibsen, and Mill: Gender Roles and Ideas of Freedom in “Why I Put My Wife’s Career First,” A Doll’s House, and On the Subjection of Women Women have historically been relegated to domestic roles, while men have been designated for more public roles. As a means of helping women in the struggle for gender equality, nineteenth-century Western writers began to detail the faulty factors that contributed to the problem. Some authors, including John Stuart Mill with his book The Subjection of…

The term “patriarchy” has been used to describe the social system of men holding the power and authority. Since the 1960s, feminist are working hard to spread the awareness of how patriarchy system related to the inequality treatment existing in both genders (Cranny, 2003). It is argued that different sectors in the world such as labour force, education, politics and more has been undergoing a domination of male, known as “hegemonic masculinity”. Since this phenomenon of hegemonic masculinity…