Virgins By Danielle Evans Analysis

In a society that is heavily influenced by mass media, women are repeatedly compartmentalized into unrealistic, and often degrading standards of appearance and sexuality. Doris Bazzini’s research on magazines and Caroline Heldman’s blog explores themes related to a woman’s appearance, while Jessica Valenti elaborates on the concept of virginity in her essay titled, “The Purity Myth”. Despite the diversity in scope when it comes to womanhood, there is a numerous set of expectations that a female must fit in order to be “ideal”. However, this checklist is so specific and debasing that it renders the criteria useless. The three main pre-requisites in being the ideal woman include physical attractiveness, sexual accessibility, and purity.

Although the text, Women: Images and Realities a Multicultural Anthology, has done a wonderful job of showcasing the diversity of women’s experience; however, the most striking article we have read so far has been Lori Tharps “In Search of the Elusive Orgasm”. In the essay, Tharps traces her journey to finding an orgasms and begins by describing her love of Harlequin novels as a teenager. In which Tharps discusses how twisted these sex fueled novels are, in which she states “I basically gathered that true love and good sex were synonymous. The only other options were rape and chastity.” (158).

The author mentions from her Sexual Initiation, that when a young girl becomes sexually appropriate, the young man only sees them in that way of only having sex with them.1 Ana has a boyfriend named Jimmy, and told her mother when she confronts her about her sexual activity, Ana told her mother she is more of a person, than a child factory for men. The author demonstrates The Mother, which men’s view of women should marry and raise their children and take care of their husbands, too. The author mentions on how that women have the feeling of “being needed”1. Her mother has this feeling within the movie. Ana demonstrates not all women have this feeling of “being needed”.

Although the main characters lack self-confidence early on, through the guidance of a potent mentor, they are able to develop into empowered women. Initially, both Celie and Evelyn exemplify the archetypal character of the oppressed by their unwillingness of speaking up for themselves. As a result, both Celie and Evelyn struggle to perceive themselves as actual human beings but instead view themselves as objects. This comprehension authorizes the oppressive characters to inflict further agony.

This novel follows the life of a recent college graduate, Marian MacAlpin, through her career and emotional maturation in a somewhat unnatural, if not threatening world. The queer concept of this world is branded by a spectrum of moral viewpoints of gender politics that manifest themselves and surround Marian. The political and cultural values and practices of a male dominated and sex driven society depicted in the novel are so strong that they seem to devour Marian physically and emotionally. She rebels against this cannibalistic, patriarchal society through a comestible mode and the end, reclaims her identity crisis by restoring her relationship with

Eliza Haywood writes the cautionary tale Fantomina in order to instruct women against pursuing their sexual desires. The protagonist, an unnamed “Lady of distinguished Birth” (41), secretly pursued her desires for Beauplaisir under the guise of four different personas, ultimately leading to the ruin of her reputation and being sent to live in a monastery. I will refer to the main character when she is not disguised as the protagonist to avoid confusion. I will be discussing female sexuality, where I will be focussing on certain aspects including sexual identity, sexual behaviour, and how social and religious aspects affect this sexuality. I will argue that Haywood uses the cautionary tale in order to represent female sexuality as distinguishable

Inside and beyond the myth and the social impact of the subject as One or Substance. Alan H. Goldman’s essay ‘Plain Sex’ is a central contribution to the academic debate about sex within the analytic area, which has been developing since the second half of the ‘90s in Western countries. Goldman’s purpose is encouraging debate on the concept of sex without moral, social and cultural implications or superstitious superstructures. He attempts to define “sexual desire” and “sexual activity” in its simplest terms, by discovering the common factor of all sexual events, i.e. “the desire for physical contact with another person’s body and for the pleasure which such contact produces; sexual activity is activity which tends to fulfill such desire of the agent” (Goldman, A., 1977, p 40).

Sandra Cisneros is a feminist Chicana author born in Chicago, IL on 1954. Being the only daughter in her family, they moved betwixt Mexico as well as Chicago. Most of her literary work involves her Mexican roots, in these works she creates characters that shift between two cultures(Hispanic-American) and languages(Spanish-English). In an interview for the New York Times, she describes herself as an "amphibian" that can travel between both worlds. She earn a B.A in English from Loyola University of Chicago and ab M.F.A from the University of Iowa. Nowadays, she lives in San Antonio, TX. Some of her major works includes The house on Mango Street (1984), Caramelo (2002), Bad Boys (1980) also Loose Woman (1994) which are poetry collections.

In today’s society, abortion is a controversial topic. Many people dispute if it is moral to eliminate the potential of the unborn fetus or if it is fair to force the parent to keep and raise the baby if the parent isn’t ready. In Sallie Tisdale’s We Do Abortions Here: A Nurse’s Story, the author uses imagery and internal conflict to recreate her experiences as a nurse employed at an abortion hospital. She does this to make her audience understand her and the people who work in abortion hospitals’ perspective.

There are elements of realism intricately woven within the fabric of the novel. Its depiction of sexuality is a positive portrayal of lesbian love, both sexual and non-sexual love. While Celie compares male sex organs to frogs, Sofia is tired of Harpo’s mechanical lovemaking. On the other hand, Celie’s act of lovemaking with Shug is devoid of any guilt and is liberating. Further, it is a powerful ‘womanist’ text showing productive and strong bonds between women characters and their work culture which together combat the elephantine patriarchal exploitation.

She talks about the dangers of female sexuality because it could ruin her life. She tells how to get the power of domesticity. She also tells her how her daughters sexual reputation should be instead of what it is. Even though female sexuality can be a diverse topic, Kincaid was able to stick to one view of female

Steven Seidman’s Revolt Against Sexual Identity provides anecdotes that describe the liberation that comes with rejecting these norms, “...her identities as transgender, female,

For Goodness Sex, by Al Vernacchio, is a welcome relief from the two previous books; Girls & Sex and Man Interrupted, as the focus is about sexuality as a whole; gender, sexual orientation, etc., rather than on the culture of females and males. In a chapter titled “Gender Myths,” Vernacchio (2014) asks the question, “male and female, is that all there is” (Vernacchio, A., p. 112, 2014)? In teaching his class on Sexuality and Society, Vernacchio asks these questions and questions similar, demonstrating that he takes into consideration that there are feelings at stake and keeps in mind the human aspect of sex and sexuality as he is intentionally behind challenging students to foresee and develop their sense of values about sex, instead of constantly being “in the moment.”

In “Girl Unprotected”, Sports writer and journalist Laura Robinson argues that if you examine the Judicial system, then you will find a strong bias against victims of hockey abuses with an emphasis against women. Throughout her essay, Robinson uses the case against Mike Danton and the NHL to emphasize the issues of gender inequality and the lack of recognition to the abuses in hockey. In her essay, Laura Robinson begins her argument by claiming that “women’s bodies were only allowed to be adjectives to describe men” (Robinson 326). By doing so, she suggests that women’s bodies are all that the men in hockey care about while their mind’s and talents are ignored and lack in value. To reinforce her thesis, Robinson also includes a quote from a

Loose Women, is a collection of poetry written by Sandra Cisneros. A wonderful collection of words that speak to the beauty, disgusting, painful, extraordinary things about love, sexuality, women, bodies. Throughout the novel Cisneros revels in sort of “bad girl” image: however the overall persona is that of a passionate, sexual woman who’s had her share of both joy and disappointment. We all know Sandra Cisneros roots come from Mexico and is from Mexican American immigrant family and the culture for her is very different. I can relate to Cisneros’ culture different, since I am from Indian and in India women are considered to be the goddess from ancient time, however they are not being treated like goddess. Cisneros poetic style makes the book easier to read and comprehend and I think her Mexican roots play big part of her writing. In the book Loose Woman, the author seems to be talking about herself in each poems and is trying to express woman’s journey through the collections of her poems. Through her poems Cisneros’ voice shows love, hate and all the stages of feelings the woman goes through and sends message of bravery.