“The feminist anti-pornography movement, no less than the feminist movement of a century ago, encourages the assumption that male and female sexuality, and possibly morality, are as unlike as yin and yang.”1 Gloria Steinem (born on March 25, 1934), Barbara Ehrenreich (born on August 26, 1941) and Anna Quindlen (born on July 8, 1953) are the three American jornalists and novelists and critics of the society state who participated in Women Rights Movement and amply influenced the contemporary outlooks. Their youth coincided with the compaign agains the War in Vietnam that arose the ideas of freedom and equality. Gloria Steinem is the bearer of the most radical, or left ideas. Gloria Steinem supported the Left and she became a feminist leader. In her work Erotica and Pornography Steinem severely criticesez the role of women in the society. Steinem claims that women are imprisoned within the bounds of the stereotypes. Steinem says that commerce and speculation on sexual appeal made women the objects of sexual exploitation not only physically but also psychologically.
Men view women as pray while women see men as their conquerors. The underestimation of women does not allow men to accept women as their equals. Here sex and intimacy, which is the alliance of equals, transforms into pornography, which is the union of the master and the slave. Erotica: a mutually pleasurable, sexual expression between people who have enough power to be there by positive choice. It is truly sensuous, and may give us a contagion of pleasure. Pornographic: its message is violence, dominance, and conquest (Steinem, p.140).
The Essay on Defining Feminist Theory People Movement Life
Criticism. The word just looks scary, and it s something most people are a little afraid to receive. However, I am afraid to give criticism. As the only male Women s Studies major on this campus, and the only male student who wants to learn about Feminist Theory, I ve learned very quickly to know my role. This course has served as a wake-up call to me that I am an outsider in the feminist movement ...
Steinem also states, that sexual submission is not the only influence which deprives women of equality.
Additional stereotypes of women being weaker inferior to men also 1 Ehrenreich, Barbara. Worst Years of Our Lives (Harpercollins, 1991).
influence the assignment of work positions and social status. Steinem laments that women are unable to get mens jobs because of being traditionally viewed as weeker phisically and less smart. Barbara Ehrenreich and Anna Quindlen are milder in their statements but their voices are no less strong. Ehrenreich and Quindlen dont go that far as demand the change of sexual behavior or stimulate women to undertake hard or tiresome jobs in order to prove their equality but they subtly rise the problems of human rights. Ehrenreich and Quindlen question the position of minorities in the society and the interaction of the family members.
Barbara Ehrenreich analyzes how hard it is to be different, not like others. Barbara Ehrenreich reviews the history of men and men movements and she states, that throughout the history many men had difficulties with gay issues in the monodamy society and they suffered from being negleckted or persecuted. Barbara Ehrenreich does not agree with Gloria Steinem on the issue of the society being the male domain. Ehrenreich argues that society has outgrown its views and moral norms and the minorities should fight for being acknowledget as natural but not abnormal. The hard times of human history preconditioned monogamy as the guaranty of survival of mankind. The development of people allowed them to proclaim themselves above any other life on the Earth. But theis views do not allow them to accept sexual minurities, or those who do not follow the primal instinct of the male posessing female. Barbara Ehrenreich argues that this is natural that sexual minotrities bega rebelling against the traditional culture and demand being equal. The literary works of Anna Quindlen summarize the views, expressed by Gloria Steinem and Barbara Ehrenreich.
The Essay on Role Of Women Society Feminists Men
Different authors have different approaches to the same issue. In this paper I will contrast and compare how the authors Alexis De Tocqueville, Holly Dover, and Christina Hoff Sommers, tackle the myth of the role of women in society and what the role of women should be according to them. De Tocqueville De Tocqueville was a French aristocrat who came to America to study the American penal system. ...
“The sodomy laws are part of a dark tradition in this nation, they do not exist and have never existed to serve the public wheel. They are meant only to demonize and marginalize a class of human beings.” (Quindlen) This situation with gays in society definitely reminds the medieval Witch Hunt or slavery. Anna Quindlen says that gay movement is similar to other right movements, it passed the stages from severe rejection to quiet indifference and now it is time for gay to identify themselves in the society with more vigour. Bibliography 1. Ehrenreich, Barbara. The Hearts of Men: American Dreams and the Flight from Commitment (1983).
2. Quindlen, Anna.
Blessings. Random House Inc.: 2003. 3. Quindlen, Anna. “Putting Hatred to a Vote.” (presidential candidates should decry Oregon’s anti-homosexual Ballot Measure 9) (Column) New York Times v142 (Wed, Oct 28, 1992):A19(N), A21(L), col 1, 17 col in. 4. Steinem, Gloria.
Erotica and Pornography. Outrageous Acts and Everyday Rebellions. Holt, 1978..
