Feminist literary criticism

According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, the definition of feminism is “the theory of the political, economic, and social equality of the sexes.” While this definition should be the goal for humankind, feminism also encompasses many other problems with society that cannot be explained through one simple definition. One of these problems happens to be the stereotypes associated with women. For example, in the American 1950’s, an almost normal way of treating women was simply by brushing them…

coined by modern society to distinguish the belief that the civil rights of men, are being infringed upon. The idea of feminism, the social, political, and economic equality of the sexes, is often challenged by this way of thinking. In several cases, feminists received severe backlash from supporters of a meninist cause. This debate between sexes, distinguishes while simultaneously unites the message being conveyed. A major difference in these two platforms is the means in which they were…

1 Women’s movements are movements that want to see differences in women. The feminist movement is a movement that aspires opportunities for middle class women. Basically, understanding women’s gender, race, class cultural, religion and sexuality as well as wealth and power. Women’s movements include the feminist movement, women’s liberation movement, women’s rights movements, Black feminist movement, socialist feminist movement and feminine movement. This social phenomenon included the concepts…

is a feminist term popular during the second wave of feminism used to explain that personal problems come from political and social sources. In her essay “Nothing Distant About It,” Echols writes, “[The SDSers] reconceptualized apparently personal problems…as political problems” (Echols, 40). Rather than believing that challenges in their lives, such as exclusion from college campuses, lack of career opportunities, and domestic expectations were exclusively personal problems, these feminists…

The Gurlesque is a term coined by Arielle Greenberg who, together with Lara Glenum, brought together what they acknowledged as Gurlesque poems in their recent anthology where they propose the rise of a new tendency in contemporary avant-garde poetry by women. They define the Gurlesque as “an emerging field of female artists now in their 20s, 30s and early 40s who, taking a page form the burlesque, perform their femininity in a campy or overtly mocking way. Their work assaults the norms of…

(popular) culture is dull entertainment to be enjoyed by uneducated and uncritical “low-brow” hoards. For the past three decades pop music has been a part of a large cultural resistance to feminism, as there are certain songs that are in sync with feminist goals and objectives. As Jones suggests, “some talented artists, such as Beyoncé, break through this onslaught of problematic tunes by producing songs that are as aesthetically appealing as they are full of meaningful context” (1). However,…

definition may be functional, it is not what is commonly thought of when the word comes up. Many people today have stereotyped the word and changed the definition from societies view. It has made many women not want to be associated with the term feminist, because for many is it a derogatory term used to put people down. How did this term come to be such a degrading term? This all has to do with where it is seen, who uses this term in an unflattering way, and how that affects the word and the…

In 2015, the infamous release of Leslee Udwin’s documentary “India’s Daughter”, firsthand exposed the horrific culture and ultimately prevalence of rape in India. The documentary focuses around twenty-three-year-old medical student Jyoti Singh. While the details of this 2012 rape case are well known in India, the documentary uncovered the gruesome tragedy on a global scale. The incident occurred in India’s capital of New Delhi. Jyoti and her friend were walking home from a movie when a group…

In the short article “The Failure of Feminism” the author, Phyllis Chelser, wants to inform readers how feminism has now changed into something with which feminists of the past may not agree. Feminism can be a touchy topic at times that people may want to just avoid. It has a very unique history as well. Originally, feminism started with the women’s fight for the right to vote. Later on feminism carried to other individual issues such as woman wanting to escape from normal gender roles and…

Third wave feminism is the composition of several diverse strains of feminist theories that emerged around the early 1990s, although much like the movement itself it’s origins are subject to a great deal of debate. When Rebecca Walker famously declared in 1992 “I am the Third Wave”, she opened the doors to a movement that moved past what they perceived as the second wave’s ideological rigidity (Walker). This essay explores a wide range of academic discourse on third-wave feminism with the…