Esther’s Dream

Posted on March 4, 2014 by sibel

The play “Intimate Apparel”, by Lynn Nottage takes us back to 1905, where Esther, a 35 year old African American is a talented seamstress, whose clients range from pampered Fifth Avenue society wife Mrs. Van Buren, who hates her life, to a prostitute named Mayme who could have been a successful pianist but instead she sells herself. All Esther wants is a good man to marry. She finds herself unattractive. On one side there is man who she married meeting through letters and on the other side there is this charming, sensitive man but his religion and traditions turns Esther’s love into nothing but a dream.

Through this play script Lynn Nottage touches on issues of race, women’s sense of worth, and the struggle against compromising one’s dreams. Plays explore life through storytelling and acting. It becomes entertaining when performing and visual act comes together. Reading a play script is different than reading a narrated story. A play script consists almost entirely of dialogue. This helped me to engage and to be alert by going into a certain character’s world. I found myself become a part of the whole experience like watching a movie.

Also, through this play Lynn Nottage helped me explore questions like How do we love? How do we find happiness by also looking at themes like religion and traditions. Each character is boxed into certain excepted norm of what their role is in the society and their struggle to be heard. For example Mr. Marks who owns the store where Ester buys fabrics. He is an observant Jew who respects old world traditions, but his affection for his favorite customer is obvious. “It isn’t often that something so fine and delicate enters the store,” he says, referring to a particular fabric but perhaps meaning Esther herself. Their love, obviously, can never be.

I felt like Lynn Nottage uncovered and interpreted her past and present through characters by this play. It helped us to enter the world of the play writer. Although set in 1905, Esther and her world speak to our everyday struggles like traditions, religion, race, self worth and one’s dreams.

The Genre of Plays

Posted on March 3, 2014 by Greg

In the play Intimate Apparel, Lynn Nottage explores the issue of race and the sense of woman’s worth. The reader explores these themes in a different way then normal. There are no narrators when you read plays. A play reads as one would see it on stage.

Lynn Nottage opens the play with
“Wedding corset. White satin with pink roses
Lower Manhattan, 1905
A bedroom. It is simple, unadorned with the exception of beautifully embroidered curtains and a colorful crazy quilt.
A clumsy ragtime melody bleeds in from the parlor. In the distance the sound of laughter and general merriment.
Esther, a rather plain African American woman (35) sits at a sewing machine table diligently trimming a camisole with lace. She is all focus and determination.”

This provides the reader with the description of the opening scene of the act. It tells us that the setting is in 1905, in Lower Manhattan. The characters are in a bedroom. with beautiful curtains and a colorful quilt. We are then introduced to Esther. Who is a plan African American woman of 35. Who is sewing at a sewing table.

“MRS. DICKSON
(O. S.) Don’t be fresh, Lionel. I know your Mama since before the war.
Mrs. Dickson (50), a handsome impeccably groomed African-American woman, enters laughing.”

This is the first quote from the dialogue. We find that the character speaking is Mrs Dickson and she is 50 and a African American as well. This differs from your traditional narrator because the narrator would be describing all this to the reader as she is a character his or her self. Here in the play it just feels like there is no narrator.

Manifesto: Women in the workforce and pregnancy

Posted on March 1, 2014 by Keila Torres

We all know there are many issues surrounding woman and the workforce. For one, Mina Loy in her manifesto mentions the different values of a man and a woman in a professional and commercial setting, stating outright that women are not equal to men. Many gender role stereotypes are placed on women regarding their career during and after pregnancy. For example, women are not all guaranteed maternity leave and safety of their job if they are to get pregnant. Although after pregnancy the situation can get much worse. If a mother has a child and must return to work soon after, an easy stereotype is that she is a career driven woman who places her work above staying home and caring for the child. However on the other hand, if a woman has a child and decides to be a stay at home mom, people may brand her as lazy or living off her husbands money. Women are so easily critiqued for either inevitable choice they must make. Men however do not have to deal with these issues. Men are free to climb the economical ladder without pressure of getting pregnant within a certain time frame when their body can handle it. Men are free to be tigers in the workforce without the biological and hormonal effects of pregnancy. Women also must deal with the physical signs of pregnancy such as a growing belly or swollen feet. During a job interview however, women can do nothing when the hiring committee decides to hire a man instead simply because he isn’t pregnant. Women can be stigmatized when pregnant such as “she won’t work hard now” or “what if she quits? Or “What if she is too tired to complete her workload?”. The pressure for women to have a career and be a mother and homemaker is at an all time high. Now, women are expected to be breadwinners along with their husbands as well as bare the children and keep a clean home. Women must realize that the pressure from society to do all of these things will never dissipate, but we must rise above the stereotypes and live our lives in the way that makes us the happiest. Regardless of the path a woman chooses regarding pregnancy or careers – it is her path to choose and live with.

Society will always have a negation to each positive, a critique for each choice.

Double Standards

Posted on February 26, 2014 by Shatoya

Manifesto is a written statement declaring publicly the intentions, motives or views if the issuer ( Webster Merriam.com)

If I had to write a a Manifesto about women there would be a broad range of subjects to choose from, but the one that comes to mind first is that age old double standard.

Women have always been held to a different standard than men. For years us women have had to deal with being treated unfairly. We make less money on the job than a man who is doing the same exact job. Money however is not the only thing that women fight for in the work place. Females also fight for respect in the business world. it is assumed that a pretty face, and all the other attributes of woman are a sign of weakness. I think that would be a great argument to base my manifesto on. Though discrimination at the workplace is a great topic for a manifesto, I think my statement would focus on the broader areas of the double standard. Women are expected to appear a certain way In the public eye,and are upheld to certain behavior that society just does not expect men to uphold. For example, a woman who has slept with numerous guys is said to be “promiscuous” , and on the other hand a man who sleeps around with different women is called a “player”. Is it only genetics that make the difference or is it just as simple as the majority opinion rules.

Mina Loy mentioned in Manifesto, ” be brave and deny the outset, that pathetic, flap , trap war cry , women us the equal to man- for she is not. ” That statement is very supportive to the argument of the double standard between men and women. I think for my manifesto I would bring firth issues which support the fact that men and women are not equal.

A Room of One’s Own “Gender inequalities”

Posted on February 26, 2014 by Jonathan Leon

“It was disappointing not to have brought back in the evening some important statement, some authentic fact. Women are poorer than men because — this or that. Perhaps now it would be better to give up seeking for the truth, and receiving on one’s head an avalanche of opinion hot as lava, discoloured as dish-water. It would be better to draw the curtains; to shut out distractions; to light the lamp; to narrow the enquiry and to ask the historian, who records not opinions but facts, to describe under what conditions women lived, not throughout the ages, but in England, say, in the time of Elizabeth.
For it is a perennial puzzle why no woman wrote a word of that extraordinary literature when every other man, it seemed, was capable of song or sonnet. What were the conditions in which women lived? I asked myself; for fiction, imaginative work that is, is not dropped like a pebble upon the ground, as science may be; fiction is like a spider’s web, attached ever so lightly perhaps, but still attached to life at all four corners. Often the attachment is scarcely perceptible; Shakespeare’s plays, for instance, seem to hang there complete by themselves. But when the web is pulled askew, hooked up at the edge, torn in the middle, one remembers that these webs are not spun in mid-air by incorporeal creatures, but are the work of suffering human beings, and are attached to grossly material things, like health and money and the houses we live in.
I went, therefore, to the shelf where the histories stand and took down one of the latest, Professor Trevelyan’s History of England. Once more I looked up Women, found ‘position of’ and turned to the pages indicated. ‘Wife-beating’, I read, ‘was a recognized right of man, and was practised without shame by high as well as low. . . . Similarly,’ the historian goes on, ‘the daughter who refused to marry the gentleman of her parents’ choice was liable to be locked up, beaten and flung about the room, without any shock being inflicted on public opinion. Marriage was not an affair of personal affection, but of family avarice, particularly in the “chivalrous” upper classes. . . . Betrothal often took place while one or both of the parties was in the cradle, and marriage when they were scarcely out of the nurses’ charge.’ That was about 1470, soon after Chaucer’s time. The next reference to the position of women is some two hundred years later, in the time of the Stuarts. ‘It was still the exception for women of the upper and middle class to choose their own husbands, and when the husband had been assigned, he was lord and master, so far at least as law and custom could make him.” (beginning of chapter three)

i think the main idea in chapter three would bring gender inequalities. The narrator brings up issues about inequalities between women and men being compared. The difference of statues and poverty, which affected mainly to women’s right of freedom. Woolf investigates women in the time of Elizabeth because she was frustrated that there were no women writers and that every man who were writers consider themselves amazing and great. Woolf is surprised that women had a few rights around the time of Elizabeth. And the difference between women’s lives as showed in the history books, that women were beaten up by their husbands. But does not find any thing about middle class women. The point of the passage is the inequality about men and women and the fact of how powerless women were if they got marry to the men, the men would become the lord or the master.

Manifesto

Posted on February 25, 2014 by rreyes150730

If I were to write a manifesto as Loy did in ““Feminist Manifesto,” I would write about how women are seen as objects in society. When we think about women based on what society has to say about them, we think about beautiful women. They say beautiful women can get away with murder. Women are seen as objects of desire, but women are people too. They have personalities that are overlooked because who cares, that’s not what they’re here for. A women has a goal? That’s nice. The fact is that on television, you will see half naked women in advertisements for random products. Does there have to be half naked women? No. Although, they do get these’s commercials attention.

There are obviously many gender stereotypes in the world today, so why do women still try to behave how society paints them. Some women do help out the stereotype by getting jobs where they are required to be half naked. Although other women are more serious about this. In the workplace, some women get hired for their looks. They are also seen as sexual objects instead of as coworkers. I heard a story once of a women who got fired from her job because her boss found her too attractive and did not want to have an affair with her. Its very disrespectful that he would just assume that she would be willing to have an affair with him. This was interesting to me because she was obviously not seen as an employee. She was seen as a sexual object and got fired because of it. This is a problem because women do not get to chose how they look and should not have to suffer for it.

People should be treated equally. The fact that woman are seen as objects means that they are not going to be treated like human beings. They are never going to get the respect that they deserve and this is a huge problem.

Parasitism

Posted on February 25, 2014 by Emily Sawh

Parasitism – (Noun)

Definition: the behavior of a parasite (a person or thing that takes something from someone or something else and does not do anything to earn it or deserve it.)

Source: http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/parasitism

Found in: Mina Loy, “Feminist Manifesto”

Quote: “As conditions are at present constituted—you have the choice between Parasitism, & Prostitution —-or Negation.”

What I understand now what Loy was trying to say is that in that specific time women didn’t have much of a choice. They were either having something taken away from them without choice or being denied the truth.

manifesto

Posted on February 25, 2014 by Sara

If I had to write a manifesto as Mina Loy did I would write about how woman are taking over in the corporate world.

For decades the head position of most major big buisnesses were run by men. It has only been seen in recent years that woman are gaining positions of power in large companies. Woman have not had big roles in leading major businesses because the standard for a woman is to be a stay at home mother. It is normal for a woman to stay home and take care of the “woman tasks” as the man goes out to work and make all the money for his family. A “woman task” is anything domestic that has a reputation of being a woman’s job, for example cleaning the house is a woman’s job that fits the stereotype.

I would write my manifesto to encourage more woman to get out there in the working field. In 2014 we have come a long way from the woman staying at home with the children, but I still believe we have a long way to come. We need to make a larger movement to make a point that woman are here in the corporate world, were here to stay, and we are here to lead the company.

A woman and a man think different and I believe a lot of male run businesses could use a female input that they may not even know about. I would write this manifesto to stress the fact that woman can’t sit back, we have to take charge and strive for what we want. The normal gender roles for male and female have begun to be broken and we have to continue with this pattern.

Manifesto – Women not being as dominant as males in the professional world

Posted on February 25, 2014 by Emily Sawh

If I were to write a manifesto about women in our society as Loy does, I would write about women still not being as dominant as males in the professional fields of today. The issue I would like to bring awareness to is why do males still dominate the most esteemed professional fields and still get paid more for their work? It is a fact that women teachers, doctors, lawyers, architects, and engineers are neither met with the same confidence as their male colleagues, nor receive equal remuneration.

I believe that even up to today women are constantly still being underrepresented in many fields, especially in leadership positions. Only 1 out of every 7 engineering students is female, and women account for a pathetic 6 percent of chief executives of the top 100 tech companies. And in terms of salary, it’s well established that women earn an average of 77 cents for every man’s dollar.

Our society is constantly changing and making new improvements. But, never did I think that in 2014 we’d still be having this issue. Why are we as women letting ourselves being taken advantage of? We work just as hard and are dedicated to our careers just as the male population is. We’ve all been through the same struggle and fight to become who we are and where we are today. So why not stand up and change the way we are being looked at. I believe we, as women need to help and embrace each other’s work ethic. It’s extremely bothersome to me that the male population is being admired and acclaimed for the same professions we as women are doing but are still not demanding and getting the same amount of respect for. I think it’s highly disrespectful and also pathetic that we aren’t getting paid as much as them although we still put in the same amount of time and effort as they do.

A Manifesto of OUR Society.

Posted on February 24, 2014 by Greg

If I were to write a manifesto about woman and our society today. I would write about gender discrimination. Gender discrimination refers to “the practice whereby one sex is given preferential treatment over the others. The practice of giving social importance to the biological differences between men and women is there everywhere. In some societies, these differences are very much pronounced while in others, they are given less importance. If I were to write about this issue in a bold way I might go for the smaller things that people do not really notice.

The first being; We have yet to have a woman president. 49 other countries in the world have. Yet America has not, granted we are currently experiencing our first black president so I am sure one is coming in the future. Why is it hard for us to vote a woman president? Why has only one run so far that has had a decent chance of wining?

The second being this; Haircuts. I was getting a haircut well 2 months ago, but I am sure it has not changed since then. I got my haircut and looked at the price for a mens which was $12 and then I look at the price for a woman and it said $25. I thought thank god I am a guy. Okay so maybe I am a guy and do not know anything about woman but an extra $13 for a haircut? I just feel we should all be entitled to a cheap haircut. Is there that much more supplies / energy / work that goes into it? maybe they could each be $18 or $15? Also this was at a local barber shop, do not get me started on those salons, and the people that pay $200 for a haircut.

Intro to Women Writers-Hybrid Sp 2014

Writing Women of the Long 20th Century

Category Archives: Homework Responses