Peter Wicks: Gender Equality Between Men And Women

Equality between men and women progress a little bit in terms of equality and gender characteristics. The relationship between males and females became more inclusive to include not only the physical features but also the mental potential. Women, throughout history, proved to be equal to men (Horney 92). They became more able to do the same activities and actions outside the house. Based on this idea, women social position got out of the domestic limits. Women began to do different enterprises which were only limited to men. However, the male-mainstream, in social criteria, are still limited to the physical features which characterize men (Wright 49).

The purpose of these introductory statements is to expose the difference between men and women

Literature Review

For the rarity of research conducted on the story, I will only review one study regarding the feminist qualities in the story’s plot. Peter Wicks tackles the Malaysian landscapes in Maniam’s “Mala.” Wicks discusses the conceptualization of social freedom in the story. Wicks claims that the story is abundant with social manners which expose and muckrake the social defects regarding women treatment in society (20). Furthermore, Maniam’s “Mala” is feminist critique of the social limits imposed over females. These limits contradict with the aspired “social freedom” in the Malaysian community (20).

Additionally, this possibility of gaining society’s “freedom” could not be obtained by leaving women in the low position of society. Instead, this freedom will be impossible and illusory. To avoid this situation, according to Wicks, society should be able to provoke some humanistic agendas to obliterate using women for inferior affairs in society (20). Nevertheless, Wicks contends that society will not be easily able to prove equality between men and women in society unless serious steps which should be taken to improve the female position. Providing equal opportunities between men and women is one of these vital steps to elevate the position of female in society (20). In my study, I will not focus on the serious steps to improve the position of females in society. I will focus on the depiction of female body, voyeurism, and phallocentrism in Maniam’s “Mala.” As such,

Mulvey contends that visual pleasures of cinematic representation of voyeurism are corresponded in contradictory processes. The first one is the objectification of the female subject within “direct scopophilic contact” and the viewer’s observation which is active and produces a sense of powerful perception (28).

Moreover, Mulvey argues that the reason behind females’ conventional film are objectified is connected to male castration complex and its resolution. Mulvey further asserts that voyeurism “has association with sadism: pleasure lies in ascertaining guilt..., asserting control and subjecting the guilty person through punishment or forgiveness” (29), fetishistic scopophilia, furthermore, “builds up the physical beauty of the object, transforming it into something satisfying in itself”