Daily Archives: March 20, 2014

Discussion of Quicksand, Part 2

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in Denmark:

  • felt spoiled
  • more like a pet than a person
  • can’t imagine she’ll be here much longer

What made her go?

  • her uncle gave her money
  • disillusioned by New York
  • Dr. Anderson–wants to get away from him.
  • Anne–“the race question”

Why doesn’t she want to go back?

  • because of the race problem in America
  • because Anne is marrying Anderson
  • betrayed? Anne wants what she shouldn’t want
  • doesn’t want to do any soul-searching
  • it’s because Anderson is marrying Anne, her close friend, rather than if he were marrying someone else that bothers her
  • the race reason seems less shallow
  • her inner reason is because of the wedding

At the Circus:

  • demeaning, she doesn’t like the way that the audience is looking at them
  • felt like it was mocking her
  • it exposed a part of her she left behind in America
  • compares it to the way everyone wanted her to dress provocatively, exposed

My Manifesto and Justification

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My Feminist Manifesto

Amazing that a woman was comfortable with settling to be simply a homemaker. Amazing that a woman though housework ruins ones hands and makes her unattractive. Amazing that “hands” would be a part of one’s body to show inequality. Ask any man if they would agree to pitch in to keep their women’s hands beautiful and functioning. Any man who agrees, will give a start to what is to become a partnership and not a traditional marriage.

Ask any woman who has just decided to have or has just had a baby what is more important to her? Raising her family or rising up the corporate ladder. It really should not be about either or. Women can have both. Think about it. Little girls love their dolls and boys just want to kick that ball. Does this mean men can’t take care of babies or women can’t play sports. Of course not! It just means each gender has its own energy that flows in a specific direction. Let it flow!

Guess what? No one can win this battle. Excepting the fact that men and women are equal but different makes things more clear.

Why not just enjoy the feast full of unique qualities that men and women bring to the table. Why not just mix and match those qualities without being stereotypical. And as for the “cooking”… Men can cook as good as women and women can enjoy a meal that is cooked by men. But unfortunately, this is one area that women have long been associated with…being in the kitchen. “Biological role” one can say. The question is “Is cooking for a man a good way to win his affections?” If this was indeed true, then all men would only want to marry women who are chefs. It has to expand beyond that. It must!

Justification

My manifesto was written based on the “The Cottagette” written by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. In her short story, Gilman touches bases on the stereotypical concept that the role of women in marriage is to be a homemaker.  When the young woman Malda expresses an interest in a young man Lois’s advise is eye opening.  She says “What they care for most after all is domesticity. Of course they’ll fall in love with anything; but what they want is a homemaker.” This shows how woman were comfortable just to be recognized as a homemaker. Let alone to say that men, will fall for “anything” does not hold women in too high a regard.  But Malda externalizes that she wants to do other things like needlework and that housework ruins ones hands for needlework.  The hands, in my opinion, are the first item that shows inequality in this work. The men in the story agree that they should pitch in to keep their women’s hands beautiful and functioning. This gives us the first spring of what is to become a partnership and not a traditional marriage. Gilman reveals that is not the only thing women are capable of but women also has intelligences.

For a long time women have never been urged to follow their dreams nor do as they pleased.  I believe that only now in the modern ages have women felt the need to become so outwardly independent as their self-worth was not properly shown through the role of a domesticated house-wife. However I feel that this ‘role’ was created or if not created encouraged by women themselves. When growing up mothers would push for their little girls to learn to cook and clean because that is what women are made of or of the thought that that’s what will find them a good husband, but that gives a man the advantage to expect it. Most men refuse to partake that role because in their eyes that’s what the woman is there for, but the statement made by Ford I think gives enough light to us women. He says “It is not true, always, my dear, that the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach; at least it’s not the only way.”  This shows that all men don’t want to marry someone who is only skilled in house work but someone with smarts, and other skills. By Ford asking Malda to marry him only if she gives up cooking and continue to do what she loves to do and that he would take on the role of cooking shows true love and equality in a marriage.

Manifesto: Freedom

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Kevin Mendoza

Prof. Rosen

Essay 1

 

Freedom

Being able to mentally express ones true ideas, thoughts and feelings, is when power can be fully exerted. Without the ability of self-expression of the imagination and reflection of ones being, then us women have no real power. Boundaries and equality exists only when one is mentally prepared to break out of the norm of being bound by authority figures.

Perseverance and fortitude is what a woman must show to break out of society’s shell. The notion of woman being gendered, as domestic and only fulfilling a family role is not an enforced notion, therefore there is no pressure in not following. There are no limitations on self-expression because it is part of our nature; therefore a woman as well as man should be able to induce in this mental action. The man can longer restrict a woman to conforming to his or societies deemed justifiable position, because both men and women are equal.

As a woman, our mind is a powerful and we are not to be viewed as if we were nothing but adults with childish minds. The willingness of woman’s perseverance supersedes any oppression that man and society places on us. We are delicate, but we shouldn’t be reckoned with! Expression is vital for a woman’s sanity and to have personal space for intuition for mental stability. Our husbands or those who feel they can think or decide for us should not bind us women.  Women are primitive therefore, our thoughts and ideas should be allowed in a household or any setting. We must not allow anybody to silence us from our ability to freedom of expression, because silencing ones rights to prompt mindsets causes mental discomfort. Countenance is important and cannot be prevented for it is ones right to reflect by mere gender division.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Justification

The word expression is very significant aspect of person self –preservation. In the short story, “The Yellow Wallpaper”, the author, Gilman shows the possibility of a woman be stricken from the ability to think for herself can leave one to despair and disillusion. Gilman gives a portrayal of the main character, the narrator, the sequence by which her sanity is tested through the trials of being denied the exertion of mental freedom. Gilman perfects this notion through various times through the characters and the symbolism of the “wallpaper”.

The narrator shows the opposing behavior towards husband, who thinks that he knows what is best for when she says,

“If a physician of high standing, and one’s own husband, assures friends and relatives that there is really nothing the matter with one but temporary nervous depression_ a slight hysterical tendency-what is one to do? … Personally I disagree with their ideas.”

This was the notion that the narrator is aware of authorities such as her husband trying to restrict her of voicing her thoughts. The character is only processing internally. There is indication of control on behalf of the husband, which is why woman must exert power to express ones true thoughts and feelings rather than conforming with others decisions.

The narrator questions the possibility of the methods implicated on her might not work or rather she feels that to stimulate or assess her condition will help when she states, “I sometimes fancy that in my condition if I had less opposition and more society and stimulus-but john says the worst thing that I can do is think about my condition, and I confess it always makes me feel bad.” This quote goes to show that the deprivation of her properly expressing herself is starting to develop a mental discomfort. The husband, John, retrains the narrator from thinking. Writing in a journal is form of expression for the narrator, who begins to describe everything in the house. The author Gilman provokes the narrator throughout the story to develop a fascination and correlation with the yellow wallpaper in the room she is in. A quote that begins to identify with this analysis is when the narrator states, “There are things in that paper which nobody knows about me, or ever will.” This refers to the consequence of not being able to express yourself mentally and being controlled puts your sanity to the test. The narrator begins to question the wallpaper if as the wallpaper’s patterns are moving, causing a misconception of reality versus fantasy. It is portrayed by the character when stated, “ And it is like a woman stooping and creeping about behind that pattern. Confinement of this woman is diminishing her fortitude of overcoming this fantasy being seen as real.

Narrator mindset is being framed as if she were a child. Whenever she is explain or bring forth an issue with her husband, John, he continuously avoids that from happening for example, “Blessed her little heart!” said he with a big hug, “she shall be sick as she pleases! But now let’s improve the shining hours by going to sleep, and talk about it in the morning. “ The justifications here is that the woman’s feelings and others expressions are not being acknowledged. There is a gender division where the male, John, the husband, has total control and this is preventing mental development of the narrator.

The narrator develops the obsession with the wallpaper basically showing her becoming insane and is now lost with the pattern of the wallpaper. All her troubles have gone from internal to external.  The narrator as a woman is able to break from the authorities figures and exert her power of expressing herself when she states, “I’ve got out at last, “said I, “in spite of you and Jane. And I’ve pulled off most of the paper, so you can’t put me back.” She broke out from the norm, which was the wallpaper that symbolized the role of having to be mother, obliging to her marriage, and her husband. This shows that woman have the power to exert expression. The fortitude was twisted and perverse by the obsession of the wallpaper, which freed her to being her true self.

It is justifiable through the character of narrator in the story, “The Yellow Wallpaper”, shows the empowerment and potential of self-expression a women has. Fortitude and perseverance was shown along with the belief of forcing other elements to fully be acknowledging as a powerful women. The narrator proves to be a force to be reckoned with as she showed insane behaviors. This all leads to justifying the narrator as an powerful woman.

 

Midterm exam preparation

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For the midterm exam, you will be given a sheet of quotations from our readings this semester, and will have to

  1. identify the title of the text,
  2. identify the author,
  3. explain what is happening in the passage, and
  4. explain how it connect to larger issues or themes in the text

For example, if you found on the exam the following quotation:

“The joke is on you….My father was a gambler who deserted my mother, a white immigrant. It is even uncertain that they were married. As I said at first, I don’t belong here. I shall be leaving at once. This afternoon. Good-morning.”

What would help you identify it? What’s going on in the passage? How does it represent larger issues dealt with in the text?

In class, we will generate a successful answer as a guide to what you will need to do on the midterm.

For your homework, you will identify two passages from our readings that you think would be good for the midterm exam. One should come from the beginning of the class through Week 4, and the other should come from Intimate Apparel or Quicksand. In addition to the quotation, answer 1-4 for your passage. Be sure to put each quotation and answers in its own comment.

In the commenting portion of the homework, respond to two classmates’ quotations and answers, adding anything or making suggestions for how you would have answered differently.

I will use these comments as my guide as I finalize the midterm exam.

Feminist Manifesto

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Justification

A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Wolf
I was inspired to think about how a feminist in society would respond to the male dominance presented in Room of One’s Own by Virginia Wolf. Chapter three helped me to understand why women are continuously fighting for equality. Stemming from history women are being held to the highest of standards yet treated as the lesser. In the early nineteenth century women were frowned upon for expressing herself through art. The production of women’s art cannot be controlled.
Women are slowly progressing in the area of social independence and gaining respect for their artistic abilities in the twenty first century. In the early nineteenth century women were not respected for their art. “It is fairly evident that even in the nineteenth century a woman was nit encouraged to be an artist” (246) ,says Virginia Wolf . This statement provokes me to wonder how long were women oppressed.
Mrs. Wolf argues about that rooted desire to defeat inferiority. That drive for women to be respected with unbiased opinions and without predetermined roles in life is relevant today. We have the gender gap for example. Women are still being paid less than men to perform identical job duties. In 2010 the median income for men was $42,800 compared to $34,700for women.(Wikipedia.org/male-female income) yet we are still expected to exist happily and cooperatively in a world with a double standard.

“On the contrary, she was snubbed, slapped, lectured and exhorted. Her mind must have been strained and her vitality lowered by the need of opposing this, of disproving that”( 246.) . In my mind this unfolds as men and society enslaving mentally first by brainwashing them. How can one find time to create art, when she is busy submitting to taught standards? One is never to know about the creations which have been perfected in women’s art, thus she will be disrespected, and belittled.
” Even Lady Bessborough, I remembered, with all her passion for politics, must humbly bow herself and write to Lord Granville Leveson-Gower: ‘ . . . notwithstanding all my violence in politicks and talking so much on that subject, I perfectly agree with you that no woman has any business to meddle with that or any other serious business, farther than giving her opinion (if she is ask’d).’ And so she goes on to spend her enthusiasm where it meets with no obstacle whatsoever, upon that immensely important subject, Lord Granville’s maiden speech in the House of Commons.” (246.) It was common of women to accept the disaffirmation of the notion that her art is just as irrelevant as her voice in the early nineteenth century. It was their truth to be inferior and this seemed to be committed to their memory and provoking behavior influenced by fear. Even women whose influence was thought to be heeded to, such as Lady Bessborough would reluctantly defer being defeated by the control of men. Ms. Bessborough as an example was for all women of the nineteenth century to accept the superiority of men. This was to be accepted in all areas ranging from art to politics.
To be stripped of your vibrancies and disregarded in your opinion was punishment for rebelling against standards set for women. Though a contradiction to the progression of women in the early nineteenth century  a female would be shunned for the thought of expressing herself freely. Those rights will not be liberated for years to come.
Despite slow progress the evolution of women in power is on the rise. The pursuit for respect and equality is drawing more and more attention to itself. “The history of men’s opposition to woman’s emancipation is more interesting perhaps than the story of emancipation itself.” It is the favored perception is that men are the headliners. Truth is without women’s  quest for freedom of expression, equality, and recognition there would be no opposition, therefore no story. Women’s art is the story of emancipation.

 

Manifesto

 

This is the time! We women are claiming our position and our independence – in deciding how to express ourselves
We deserve Respect
Respect In art , and not only respect as an artist who is analyzing her world with a gifted and unique vision , But as a business woman, an inventor or politician if she chooses to be

You have that correct, it is a Choice for a woman to choose her path In life and not be denied the right to explore her options and in doing so realizing what is best for her

Women will not be weakened and left powerless without even the liberty of self-expression
We should never be limited to a set and widely accepted standard of living due to the fear of man
Why would you , Man , think that it was acceptable for we, women to function and cooperate with ultimatums that decrease our worth

We are worth high power decisions, Worth more than the eye can meet
Equality is the only satisfaction that is acceptable to women
We shall not be dominated by masculinity, and live in a mental cave, where we are minute
Men are embracing the idea and showing regard that we – Us – women, are the backbone that hold the family together and well prepared to be an artist
Women’s declaration will be embraced by men , women and children, old, and young  for all to gain their own understanding without biased restraint.

 

References :

1. A Room of One’s Own by. Virginia Wolf

2. Wikipedia .org/male-female _income

3.merriamwebster.com

 

Esther’s Voice: Feminist Manifesto

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Women are brave. Women are visceral. Women now support families on their own. Gone is the time when men were a necessity in a household—they may be desired, but they are not fundamental. Not anymore.

Women out there: be independent. It’s not easy, it’s true; but that cannot keep you from trying. It should be natural, the daily struggle. Both proving to yourself you can have control over your finances, and going after your dreams should happen seamlessly. What other option do you have? Depending on them? Men? No.

Be patient.

Women don’t have quite the same social rights as men. Women don’t make the same money as men. Women don’t receive the same praise as men.

But be patient.

Don’t forget: women should have control over their lives. No one’s to say what they should or shouldn’t do, or how they should behave. Women have to be ladylike? Veto.

Yes, people want love. A woman may want to find a man to call her own. She should not trust him blindly, though. She can’t give him all she’s got—don’t be a fool. She should find someone who treasures her. She should pursue love with a person who sees who she is and appreciates her for that.

Be careful. Women of this world, chances are: the right sweetheart for you is not the first one who crosses your way—possibly not even the second one. Take your time to analyze the situation. Get to know the other person, but—most importantly—get to know YOURSELF. Don’t give your heart away just so you’re not alone anymore: it’s not worth it. Trust me; it is not worth it.

Work. Work hard. Have a life plan. Have dreams—they will keep you going when things get rough. Things will eventually get out of hand, but don’t forget:

You, woman, are brave. You, woman, are visceral. You, woman, can do it—all of it.

——

Manifesto Justification

The manifesto was written with the imagined voice Esther, from Intimate Apparel by Lynn Nottage, would have after the story was finished being told. In the play, the main character went through some life-changing episodes that made her revise previous decisions in her journey. The story starts out with Esther being a 35-year-old African American woman who is single and sews undergarments for other women for a living. It takes place in 1905 New York City, where race is a bigger segregation factor than nowadays.

Just for the fact that she is a woman of color supporting herself in the big city, it is possible to see that Esther is a strong person. After a while, she is contemplated with a man sending letters to her—he is a stranger. Even being illiterate, Esther finds a way of communicating with that man for months, until she decides to marry him. She first meets her soon-to-be husband on the day they get married. From that moment on, she is faced with regrets.

The letters’ cursive led Esther into thinking he would be something he wasn’t, while he didn’t even write them—he was also illiterate. After that, she discovers he cheated on her. He also deceives her into giving him all the money she had saved throughout almost two decades. Here’s a part of the manifesto that is inspired on this Esther’s experience: “Be careful. Women of this world, chances are: the right sweetheart for you is not the first one who crosses your way—possibly not even the second one. Take your time to analyze the situation. Get to know the other person, but—most importantly—get to know YOURSELF. Don’t give your heart away just so you’re not alone anymore: it’s not worth it. Trust me; it is not worth it.” This may sound jaded, and maybe it is, but Esther had to create an armor around her heart to protect her.

The manifesto contains statements and pieces of advice Esther would give to other women. The end of “Intimate Apparel” portrays Esther leaving her husband and moving on with her life. She knows she doesn’t need a man. She may want one, but she doesn’t need one, as exemplified on the manifesto: “Gone is the time when men were a necessity in a household—they may be desired, but they are not fundamental. Not anymore.”

The manifesto ends with a positive tone, reminding other women that they are capable of achieving their goals: “You, woman, are brave. You, woman, are visceral. You, woman, can do it—all of it.” That’s what she gets from her experience of being in an abusing marriage: she’s still strong and capable of going on with her life.