Victor Sanchez Professor Bean English 102 21 September 2016 Women’s Suffrage What makes someone feel superior to others? Throughout history there’s been cases of injustice in our society, and it is up to everyone whether or not they change. One upstander who did just that was Crystal Eastman. She fought for gender equality during the 20th century. Her argument was straight to the point and convincing through the use of the logical mode of persuasion in her essay “ Now We Can Begin”, to stand up for what she believed was right. It was an attempt to change the way women were seen at that time and end the oppression put upon them by men. Although the problems of this world are inevitable and their solutions may seem unattainable, …show more content…
Eastman’s stand is an opinion based one that is strengthen by her use of diction and her tone. Her diction helps back up her reason-loaded paragraphs. For instance, she says that “two business women can ‘make a home’ together without either one being over-burdened or over-bored”(Eastman 1). The phrase and words such as “make a home” and “business” set a strong and somewhat radical scene for the reader. By the use of the phrase “make a home” one would assume a man was needed to provide for the family for that time period, but not once in that quote was the word “man” used. Also, when she says “business”, the average person at that time would have related the word to that of the masculine form; however, that imagery is broken when the word “woman” follows it. Another factor to her advantage was the tone. Her tone is leading and straight to the point, sounding almost as if she were confident in not only her writing, but also herself. For example, she wrote and I quote, “ I can agree that women will never be great until they achieve a certain emotional freedom, a strong healthy egotism, and some un-personal sources of joy”. In this quote, Eastman is stating that if the society they live in is expecting women to act a certain way, they better be sure women are expecting some form of acknowledgement in return from their society. She sounds so assertive of her words that it makes the reader feel as though the fight for equality is certainly justified by reason. Thus, the word choice and the tone help set the mood to Eastman´s
Irving’s Depiction of Women Letty Cottin Pogrebin once said, “When men are oppressed, it’s a tragedy. When women are oppressed, it’s tradition.” Washington Irving is at times sanctioned as being a misogynist as a result of his well-known writings such as The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. While his depictions of women represented in his writings were heinous, I do not believe Irving was a misogynist.
She is determined to tell her own story, and won’t let anything get in her way. While most women in these time periods may not be powerful, these characters fight to live their lives the way they want to, despite being held back by
Within the work Staying Put, Scott Russell Sanders makes many perspectives about moving in a passage. In such passage, he responds to Salman Rushdie’s views of mass migration and how it creates “radically new types of the human being”, but is that such a bad thing? When people move to a new place it is usually to escape from a sorrowful existence whether from an abusive government or the forces of nature. Either is strong enough to make men or women into a vagabond. And when they move on they bring with them their culture, their views, and also their beliefs; which may hinder them or help them.
Throughout our history our society struggles with inequality. Sexism and racism still addresses like class, gender or other dominating classifications a structural problem in our United States culture. In Jean Baker Miller’s essay “Domination and Subordination” she discusses the temporary and permanent inequality. Miller states that the temporary inequality is a relationship between a dominated individual who explains and is a teacher to the subordinated individual. In contrast her explanation of the permanent inequality is the relationship of different individuals who always will be unequal.
What makes people unequal to others in their mind? Many think others are unequal because they are simply different from them. The possibilities on being different from another person are almost infinite, but most often, and not limited to, are race, religion, gender, sexuality, or just being an outcast. Looking at just the United States, it is a huge melting pot based on immigration throughout history. Being an immense melting pot is a blessing and a curse; while it creates cultural diversity, it also creates discrimination, which America is notoriously known for.
By choosing to include such a strong sense of pathos, she was able to promote an effective argument that was appropriate for her intended audience; the National American Woman Suffrage Association. The use of pathos, as seen in lines 18-19, “Tonight while we sleep, several thousand little girls will be working in textile mills, all the night through” constructs a sense of guilt, she
Priestly depicts gender stereotypes to emphasise gender in a capitalistic, misogynistic and patriarchal society, in his play 'An Inspector Calls'. Priestly portrays women as emotional, commodified, materialistic and irresponsible to highlight the way that a misogynistic capitalist society operates. In a similar manner, Priestly presents men as arrogant, ambitious, dominant, and strong. By doing this Priestly aims to critique capitalism and the underlying implications and undercurrent of problems which capitalism brings to provoke a reaction in the audience to promote socialism. Priestly presents women as weak, emotional and irresponsible throughout the entire play by using Sheila to show the 'pink and intimate' safety bubble and facade which her family lives in.
In nearly all historical societies, sexism was prevalent. Power struggles between genders mostly ended in men being the dominant force in society, leaving women on a lower rung of the social ladder. However, this does not always mean that women have a harder existence in society. Scott Russell Sanders faces a moral dilemma in “The Men We Carry in Our Minds.” In the beginning, Sanders feels that women have a harder time in society today than men do.
Speech of Miss Polly Baker Until somewhat recently women were considered inferior to men. Women could not work and were wholly dependent upon a man. One of the biggest leaps forward in equality was the Enlightenment era. The Enlightenment encouraged rational thought and equality for all. “The Speech of Miss Polly Baker” written by Benjamin Franklin is one of the most influential writings in American gender enlightenment especially in social, monetary and religious issues.
After skimming through Volume 1 of The Norton Anthology Literature by Women, I noticed the reoccurring themes of patriarchy, women subordination, and the strength to be creative despite oppression. During the times that these literary pieces were written, women were constantly battling the patriarchy in order to get basic rights. During the earlier time periods, intelligence was seen as a sign of an evil spirit in a woman, resulting in miniscule amounts of literary works written by women. Women were not provided with equal spaces to creatively express themselves, as mentioned by Virginia Woolf. Moreover, they were not given the same publishing opportunities, many women either went anonymous or by a fake male name to have their works published.
Thus, it is necessary to conclude that women have always played an important role in the development of history. History that involves women has been developed throughout the centuries, constantly changing its goals and forms, increasing the popularity movement of the American women in the late 1800’s. Women were discriminated for many things for a very long time, it wasn’t until the late 1800’s that women actually started to gain very few rights. The late 1800’s is very important time for women as it gets the movement started for Women’s Suffrage, and ultimately the late 1800’s starts to open the way for equality for women and
Women in England during the 1800s faced restrictions to participate in movements and were limited in their political speaking and voting capabilities. Although many women accepted their fate, some fought for a different social role. (“The Women 's Rights Movement”) Women such Mary Wollstonecraft, Jane Austen, and Mary Shelley inspired a new way of radical thinking towards human rights, specifically the rights of women (Surgis). Thanks to these inspiring individuals, there was a change in women’s attitude regarding their options to become part of the work force, gain an education, and have equal rights in marriage (Surgis).
It can be said that society has always been quite judgmental, and at times misguided when it comes to women. The negative perceptions that society has towards females are often times directly related toward her actions. What a female does seems to degrade her identity and capabilities in the eyes of some men. In the poems “The Lady’s Dressing Room” and The essay “A Modest Proposal” by Jonathan Swift, we can see both authors use of tone, form and style to develop their works. These poems are mainly driven by men’s attitudes towards women.
In the article ‘The Complexity of Identity - Who am I?’ , the author Beverly Tatum argues that the definition of identity for a person is laid down by the societal norms and not by one’s own conscious understanding of her or his existence. And these societal norms are the ones that are acceptable to the dominant group of the society. Any aspect of one’s identity that sets her or him apart from others is targeted by the dominants. Tatum has used the terms ‘dominants’ and ‘subordinates’.
Judy Brady’s “I Want A Wife” is a revolutionary piece that attempted to reveal the unequal roles men and women held in society. She goes through her prose by listing all the responsibilities her wife must have and the ways to make her happy. Brady’s whole article is satirizing these roles and is, in general, very sarcastic in her tone. She mocks a society that has given women an impossible standard and she starts with the deprivation of her education then continues with the role her wife should play in domestic ways, and then finishes with the expectations the sexual aspects of their relationship. I believe that Brady’s underlying message was and still is important for the development of equality in our nation.