Breast Stories by Mahasweta Devi is a collection of short stories reflecting the struggle and oppression faced by women in the patriarchal society. It is translated by Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak in English. These stories are an indictment of the social framework which is exploitative. The isolation between the intellectual with one foot in the first world and the reality of those mired in the third world is unfathomable and unbridgeable. These stories are powerful and filled with emotions and the harsh reality. Mahasweta Devi’s work emerges from the sea of mainstream fiction. Her composition has little to do with the insignificant characteristics of privileged section, she shuns the needless. In her writing one see no romanticism in the plight of women who are directly or radically affected by the patriarchal society. Her characters are from the base of the social system, the needful and are genuine, multi- dimensional and very much shaped. Her stories document the tribal communities’ struggle to overcome the oppression and violence wrought by high-caste landlords, money-lenders, and corrupt government officials. …show more content…
Objectification more broadly means treating a person as a commodity or an object without regard to their identity or dignity. The concept of sexual externalization and, in particular, the objectification of women, is an important idea in feminist theory and psychological theories derived from feminism. Numerous feminists regard sexual objectification as deplorable and as playing an important role in gender inequality, Female sexual objectification by a male involve a woman being viewed primarily as an object of male sexual desire, rather than as a person with an identity. Female objectification of marginalized women is highlighted in this book. These stories bring out the irony of the human world, how some men see themselves as the predator and women as their
Anne McClintock wrote her essay “Gonad the Barbarian and the Venus Flytrap: Portraying the female and male orgasm” to examine pornography and how it has changed throughout history and its effects on how women perform as sexual beings. McClintock focuses on the various roles of pornography such as its emphasis on voyeurism, pleasure, and the male ego. She wants her readers to know that women are still not represented in pornography to satisfy their own desires, but they are there to cater to men and their subconscious. I will analyze how McClintock argues that due to the history of sexism towards women, the roles that men and women have in pornography are inherently different because of the societal belief that women are only seen as objects of sexual desire and are solely there to satisfy the male audience.
The emphasis on Connie’s expectations suggests that her appearance and behaviour are constantly scrutinized, allowing for the revelation of the theme of women’s objectification and the pressure to conform to societal ideals. It signifies how patriarchal norms strip women of their individuality and independence, reducing them to objects of the male gaze and societal judgment. By comparing Connie’s behaviour and appearance to that of her sister, it becomes evident that women are constantly being compared and evaluated against each other based on their adherence to traditional gender roles. This also reinforces the notion that a woman’s worth is measured by her ability to meet these expectations, creating a sense of vulnerability and self-doubt. The contrasting expectations placed on Connie and her sister enable Oates to effectively highlight the gender inequality and oppressive nature of patriarchal norms, shedding light on the challenges faced by women in society.
America is often perceived as a country that values human rights. But on many occasions, this has been invalidated through the objectification of people of all genders, races, and backgrounds. Objectification is the act of treating a person as though they are not human but much rather an object or thing. For instance, Frederick Douglass’s aunt Hester in Narrative of the Life of a Slave by Frederick Douglass and Curley’s wife in Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck. Objectification has caused human suffering, not just in the past but today as well.
In a woman’s case, being objectified promotes violence, harassment, and lack of control that is often reflected in relationships. When depicting another as a sex object, how can a relationship have value or exist at all when men
Men impose degrading standards on women by silencing their voices in society and mistreating their sexuality. The novel explores the journey of one woman and facing challenges such as gender prejudices and stereotypes. Through multiple
Serano observes the virgin/whore double bind placed on them by societal influences, and then raises that a similar double bind is placed on men: “having experienced this dilemma myself firsthand, I have come to refer to it (for reasons that will be clear in a moment) as the assholes/nice guys double bind. ‘Assholes’ are men who fulfill the men-as-sexual-aggressors stereotype; ‘nice guys’ are the ones who refuse or eschew it,” (Serano 312). In establishing a male double bind to mirror the phenomena effecting women, Serano grants the audience greater insight to her reasoning behind how stereotypes enforce rape culture. However, the false dichotomy Serano creates with the asshole/nice guys double bind fails to support her greater thesis of men being stereotyped as predators, as while the virgin and whore stereotype both cleanly fits into her claims that women in rape culture are thought to only be either sexual objects or prey, only the asshole portion of her double bind for male fits into the sexual aggressor/predator stereotype. As one of the sides of the asshole/nice guy double bind does not reflect the predator stereotype in the same manner both portions of the virgin/whore double bind do for prey, it undermines the reasoning behind
From a sociological standpoint, today’s media’s sexualization of females is spreading like wildfire, and making this type of perception into a norm—the idea that women should feel the need to act “sexy” in order to attract
How Internalized Misogyny Affects Women in the 21st Century Internalized misogyny is the phrase that describes the phenomenon which occurs due to the institutional pervasiveness of sexism towards women in society. Misogyny within society leads to the internalization of misogyny where women are then affected by it and direct it towards themselves and other women (Bearman et al.). In the 21st century, internalized misogyny affects women in multiple ways, including seeing other women as competition, women demeaning themselves and their achievements, and the further objectification of women. Internalized oppression is a result of cultural violence because it contributes to “the subordination of oppressed groups.”
Government Arts College for Women, Thanjavur. Abstract: Identity crisis or search of identity has received an impetus in the Post-Colonial literature. Man is known as a social animal which needs some home, love of parents and friends and relatives. But when he is unhoused, he loses the sense of belongingness and thus suffers from a sense of insecurity or identity crisis. In the field of Indian English Literature, feminist or woman centered approach is the major development that deals with the experience and situation of women from the feminist consciousness.
Moreover, this restriction on expressing sexuality encourages passive behavior amongst women. In addition, linking a woman’s ethics to her body reinforces the double standard related to sexuality between men and women. Ultimately, being sexual is “stigmatized in women, but encouraged in men” (Heldman, Part 2). This double standard, combined with the expectations of passivity, reinforces the concept of rape culture. Women are expected to refrain from sex in order to embody purity and thus, are defined by what they do not do.
In 1984 and society today, there is a casual disregard to sexual assault, ultimately leading to the dehumanization of women. Women are dehumanized in today’s world and 1984 because society dismisses sexual assault. Winston describes his physical attraction to Julia, saying, “I wanted to rape you and then murder you afterwards” Winston says this comment directly to Julia, Julia laughed, and shortly later dismissed the comment. (Orwell, 121).
This form of objectification is often used as a means to appeal to men's sexual desires in order to promote and attract consumers, because marketers still latch onto the old “sex sells”, or so it would seem (Rowland, 2016). Music videos, magazines, fashion commercials, are all channels through which women are exploited and put out to be headless objects isolated for their bodies solely for sexual pleasure and viewing purposes. Rowland explains that although this charade may allure and trap most men, this is not the case for women. Emma Rooney cites in The Effects of Sexual Objectification on Women's Mental Health, “the sexual objectification of women is a driving and perpetuating component of gender oppression, systemic sexism, sexual harassment, and violence against women”. Jessica Vanlenti writes in ‘Worldwide sexism…Women’, that researchers from The University of Missouri-Kanas and Georgia State found these forms of objectification to be linked to women’s psychological distress, and are leading causes of suicide among young adolescent women.
Women’s Body The Figuration of the female body is well described in both Woman at Point Zero by Nawal El-Saadawi and Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale. Both novels show that the women bodies are not their own and controlled by others which it turned into an object in order to survive. In this paper, I would like to argue how the objectification of the female bodies in both novels resulted in their oppression and sufferings. Moreover, what is the definition of the figuration of a body to both Offred and Firdaus? And is there a way out to survive this tragedy in both novels?
Margaret Atwood has seamlessly woven a tapestry of feminist elements - mainly regarding gender oppression - within her works. With that, using two of Atwood’s texts, The Handmaid’s Tale and The Year of The Flood, as the foundation for our literary research, we will be focusing on the commodification of the female flesh in both similar dystopian contexts. Commodification refers to the action or process of treating an object, or a person, as a raw material or product that can be bought and sold, or even treated as an object of which sovereignty can be held over by one. In both works, women are victimized and treated as sexual beings whose bodies and physical expressions can be freely used by the men who have power over them against their will. The two texts illustrate how society brings about the oppression of women and this exacerbates the commodification of women.
This relates back to the claim of how women were placed as the inferior sex since birth where they were raised to take advantage of their youth in order to simply please the opposite sex. Thus, society’s “ideal woman’s”