Judith Jarvis Thomson

The question of whether the relationship between Feminism and Postmodernism is or has been a productive one (especially for the former) is one that has been asked for a generation now. In its wake has emerged philosophies and theories which have profoundly challenged, if not altered, the shape and direction of Feminism, much to the ongoing dismay of many of its advocates. While the often-contentious discourse around these “two leading currents of our time” (17) did not begin with the debate that…

Expectations and standards for women in society are unrealistic and outrageous. These thoughts of what a woman should be like and how they should behave have been around for centuries. Woman are often times looked down upon when they don’t look like how society tells them to and this can cause a number of things to go wrong in their self image and life. Unfortunately these high expectations have had an extremely negative impact on females. In Margie Piercy’s poem “Barbie Doll” she discusses the…

The 1965 Barbie advertisement supports Judith Butler’s theory in Gender Trouble of gender performativity. In the performativity of women, certain actions associated with femininity have been repeated to form a concrete idea of what a true woman is. Butler supports this idea with the statement that the “expectation produces the very phenomenon that it anticipates” (Butler xv), meaning that the constant pressure for women of all ages to be feminine, demure, and motherly creates the idea that there…

Gender inequality is an issue that has been happening for thousands of years, affecting cultures from all around the world. Women have endured since ancient times the title as the inferior being, the “other” gender besides the man, the weaker and less valuable specimen. This gender inequality created a huge difference between men and women, placing women’s rights under men’s jurisdiction, which dictated what women were and were not allowed to do. This issue was analyzed by the French and…

known as Third Wave Feminism. After fighting for legal and social equality by standing up against patriarchal oppression, the goals of feminists broadened to break down concepts of gender, sexuality, and the body (Rampton). Queer Theorists such as Judith Butler branched from this new movement in Women’s Studies to examine the reality of identity and attack the problematic perception of heteronormativity, the belief that humans are normally heterosexual and distinctly male or female. In The…

This, however, does not excuse man’s blatant disregard for the woman’s humanity and perceived inferiority. Judith Butler argues that sex is a matter of interpretation and contrary to Beauvoir, it is not natural. Perhaps the most or one of the most famous quotes in Beauvoir’s the Second Sex, “One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman” further dives into the…

When you open the story of Judith you are greeted with a beautiful woman who is mourning the death of her husband. By today’s notion this women will remain heart broken and only do things to remember the lost love one they are mourning for. Instead we are given a totally different side of Judith as she carries out an act that most of the men in her home are too afraid to do. This story is not only one of Anglo-Saxon proportion but one of Biblical tales as well. Though both of them are about the…

Introduction In Testo Junkie: Sex, Drugs, and Biopolitics in the Pharmacopornographic Era, Beatriz Preciado uses their body and their body of work as a means of transing theory. Put another way, B.P. uses a genre bending approach to writing theory to attempt to articulate the lived experience of gender ambiguity. B.P. challenges normative conceptions and understandings of bodies, theory, and modes of production in an attempt to explain the queer body. To do so, B.P. employs the radical approach…

The story of Judith slaying Holofernes is widely interpreted in many paintings. The story comes from the Book of Judith. Judith was a wealthy, young, and beautiful widow. She decided to travel to the Assyrian commander in chief, Holofernes, to seduce him into leaving Bethulia. She dressed in her finest clothes and jewelry and entered the Assyrian encampment. She charmed Holofernes over the next few days. Once she gained his trust she got him drunk. Before he could attempt any sexual advances she…

Jael and Sisera and Judith Beheading Holofernes, the women appear in dominant positions over the men. However, the two women are presented very differently in the works. Both illustrate very similar Old Testament stories which involve some moral ambiguity surrounding the actions of the heroines. They offer commentary on the dubious nature of the murders in differing manners through their representations of the women, violence, bloodshed, and their settings. The engraving of Judith presents a…