Feminist Interpretation Paper

“La Feminista”, an article written by Anna Nieto Gomez in 1974, discusses the conflicts and struggles surrounding the Chicana identity and the Chicano movement. The feministas are consisted of a group of minority Latin women, the Chicanas, who are “Spanish-speaking, culturally different and non-Anglo group” (Anna Nieto Gomez 183). They suffered racial discrimination from not being white which was the only race superior to all others at that time. Worse still, they encountered sexism in a patriarchal society that gave power, authority and privileges to the male. The formation of the minority group the femenistas can be traced back to the Chicano movement that took place in 1970s. During the Chicano movement, Chicanos, who were racially oppressed

The most prevalent and popular stereotype of the post World war II era in America is one filled with women abandoning their wartimes jobs and retreating into the home to fulfill their womanly duties. In Joanne Meyerowitz’s Beyond the Feminine Mystique: A reassessment of Postwar Mass Culture, she shows how far women departed from this one dimensional image. While Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique is reflexive and focused on the mainstream, Meyerowitz’s analysis is a broader and more inclusive exploration of media, as she draws upon multiple sources. Although Friedan effectively unveiled the thought process and reasoning behind society's belief that the message of media was to make women think that their place was to be the happy housewife, Meyerowitz expanded her media archives and found a differing message in analyzing both female responses to media and exploring their stories.

The champions of the 2015 NCAA March Madness Tournament were Duke University Blue Devils but they were not the real winners: the NCAA truly won. The NCAA is a “non-profit” organization which is “...dedicated to safeguarding the well-being of student-athletes and equipping them with the skills to succeed on the playing field, in the classroom and throughout life.” (NCAA.org). The NCAA regulates college sports, enforce rules and organize college sporting events. The NCAA more or less performs as a professional league’s governing body would do except one major thing, paying its moneymakers. Now is the time to pay college athletes because most live under the poverty line, the NCAA has enough money to, and the athletes are being taken advantage of.

Lady Macbeth is one of the only women in the story, besides the witches who are really expanded upon. Throughout the story you really find out how manipulative she is. She is all but the only reason that Macbeth killed the king. She was the spark that lit the fire but she was also the wood that kept the fire burning. But its all started when she was told by Macbeth that Malcolm was to become the next king instead of him or his children. This drove her to manipulate Macbeth and to force his hand to kill the king. Lady Macbeth was so ambitious that if she had not been a woman or the fact that duncan looked like her father she would have killed him with her own hand and not Macbeth. She manipulated him by twisting his emotions and calling him less of a

The Puritans were a religious group who left the Church of England because they wanted to have more freedom with their religion. They thought the Church of England was “too Catholic”. They believed the Bible and its rules were the number one thing to go by and that all humans were evil and had to overcome their sin. Women had to cover their whole bodies in clothing. They couldn’t show their ankles or wrists. They also had to wear their hair up and out of their face at all times, except if they were in a room alone with only their husband. They always were on one side of the church away from the men or in the back on the church. These women in the society that will be talked about have broken laws and have been misjudged.

The defeatist mindset of women can perpetuate their own continued oppression. This is the psychological result of extreme oppression, abuse and marginalization of women in a radically patriarchal society like Afghanistan. In this society, one might assume that the power of men is reinforced mostly by fellow men; however, it is enlightening to learn that women themselves can perpetuate male privilege when they succumb to defeatism. Khaled Hosseini does an excellent job demonstrating this phenomenon in A Thousand Splendid Suns. Hosseini effectively shows Afghanistan as the quintessential patriarchal society that is oppressive to women and subverts feminism through abuse of human rights.

and is reinforced in the story of Ruth. Though the story of Ruth appears in

Catharine MacKinnon, in her book Feminism Unmodified, takes a unique approach to the problem of gender inequality in America. She claims that pornography defines the way in which America’s patriarchal society perpetuates male dominance, and attacks traditional liberal methods that defend pornography on the basis of the first amendment’s right to free speech. According to MacKinnon, pornography is not an example of speech but rather an act. She proposes that this act discriminates against women as a class, and therefore violates their civil rights and should be outlawed. MacKinnon’s critics may think her argument is excessively radical, and contemporary society may not embrace the

When posed with the question “What is woman?” it seems a daunting task to lay an umbrella statement to describe an entire gender. Upon further reflection, however, it seems that this overwhelming inability to answer the question, may in fact, be the answer to the question itself. Within the past two decades Maria Lugones and Elizabeth Spelman, Caroline Whitbeck, Geraldine Finn, and Helene Cixous have addressed the meaning of woman. There is not a concrete answer to “What is woman?” either produced by women or produced through men’s perceptions of women.

During these last thirteen weeks, I have discovered a lot about myself, not only as a student, but as a feminist. Before taking this class, I knew that I wanted to be a feminist. I believed that women should stand up and exercise their rights to be equal to men on every level. Be that as it may, I lacked the education required to develop my own sense of feminism--my feminist manifesto, if you will. When approaching the topic of feminism, every person needs to ask themselves a list of questions: Who am I? Who do I want to be? What has influenced me as a person? How can I help? These are the beckoning questions we, as developing and purposeful human beings, ask ourselves every day, and these are the questions that will lead each and every person

In Feminist Theory: from margin to center, bell hook states on the first page what she believes to be the problem with feminism. In her opinion the biggest problem with feminism is that there is no real definition of what feminism is. The definition many people have formulated for feminism is having the goal of making woman socially equal to men. hook’s problem with this is the fact that all men are not socially equal. If women are to be the social equals to men then another question would be which men women will be socially equal to. While many white middle and upper class women accept this definition, the lower socioeconomic classes can not because it does not take race and its disadvantages

     In the aftermath of World War II, the lives of the women have changed dramatically. Women spoke their minds out and wanted to be heard. World War II brought them a new outlook on how they should live their lives. It encouraged women organize social movements such as boycotts and public marches pushing for their human rights and protect them against discrimination. Alongside, they formed their own organization representing them against the federal government like the NOW or National Organization for Women. Through the years, women have been struggling to fight for equal rights and unfortunately still exist even at the present in some areas. Yes, women’s status was not like what they used to back then, where their

In Hosseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns, Mariam and Laila were brought together due to circumstances they could not control. Although they were both oppressed wives of a cruel and violent husband, Rasheed, they were eventually able to regain power over their own lives. The two women supported and learned from each other, finding strength in their relationship. Their relationship was an alliance of sorts and was essential to their ability to regain power over their lives. Once Mariam and Laila befriended each other, they each started to gain courage and hope and began to take more control over their lives in separate, small acts of courage and rebellion that eventually led to significant events which cemented their newly regained power. The developing of power did not come without obstacles, but Mariam and Laila were able to persevere and continue to stand up for themselves against both Rasheed and their societal constraints. Finding strength and motivation from each other and from other loved ones essential to their efforts, Mariam and Laila were able to take power over their own lives by standing up to and retaliating against oppressors in a series of events which led to the pivotal moment when Mariam kills Rasheed, finally setting both women free and giving them both complete power over

Now for the ideas--what is the point that Loy is trying to get across? Remembering the social and political environment at that time, how were these ideas received? How do you react to these ideas?

The second half of the semester we focus on science and values, there are several very good readings that help explain the theme. The readings about feminism stood out to me as I am interested on how women force impact the field of scientific research. The term “feminism” describes the fight for women’s right and equality based on equality of sexes. The women around the world are facing so many problems like inequality from political issues, work force, scientific research to even in their house. Feminism helps to amplify the women roles, power and their contribution to the community. Feminism also refers to the fairness between men and women. They must have equal rights and responsibility towards the society and community. Out of several very good readings, I choose Fox Keller, “Feminism and Science” and Harding, “Strong Objectivity” as a discussing topic for my essay. I believed that these two readings emphasized the value of women in scientific inquiry.