Sexism In Frankenstein Essay

Patriarchy is the system engrained within our society that promotes men as the dominate and privileged group (Johnson, 6). While patriarchy is a system, sexism and misogyny are the two tools which enforce and benefit from that system.

Sexism is defined as a personal prejudice, which reinforces male privilege in society (16). Though it is felt on a more individual level and effects women in different ways, sexism works on a larger scale to have women seen as the inferior and subordinate group (170). Misogyny, the hatred of all things female, benefits from this in many ways, but has a larger impact on women’s lives in general in the context of history and modern society (63). While both have similarities, it is important to understand the different

Because the author is a woman writing about a woman, she is not taken seriously and is forced to either change her story to fit into a genre more centered to female readers, or risk the novel’s success by choosing a different target audience. I found this to be a good analogy for sexism, as it promotes the idea of women and their work as inferior, despite the male dominated genre being invented by a woman, Mary Shelly in 1818 with her publishing of Frankenstein (Milam). Even though the genre was created by a woman, the dominate group bars women’s work from being anything but inferior.

While the solution to the first example may work in some ways, it would be better for the publishing industry to give female authors equal opportunity, and take their work at its actual value, not perceived value due to sexism. It would take an understanding of internalized prejudice and to see women as equal. In both situations women are delved punishments by misogyny and sexism for trying to stand out in a male dominated world, but both require different solutions. Acknowledging and understand misogyny and sexism as two individual things allows them to be resolved more