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Feminism I

Feminism I . Oppression of Women Women’s Movement Images of Women as Examples. Outline. Course Review: Q & A From New Criticism to Feminism Feminisms: Starting Questions . Course Review Q & A. What have we done so far? Romantic/Victorian Poetry about Nature and Quest. Main Points?

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Feminism I

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  1. Feminism I Oppression of Women Women’s Movement Images of Women as Examples

  2. Outline • Course Review: Q & A • From New Criticism to Feminism • Feminisms: Starting Questions

  3. Course Review Q & A • What have we done so far? • Romantic/Victorian Poetry about Nature and Quest. Main Points? • Wordsworth – seeking redemption and sublimation first in nature and then in memories and imagination about nature • Keats – nature with its contradictions, as a vale of soul-making • Women – supplementary (Dorothy Wordsworth) or used as symbols (Melancholy, La Belle Dame) • New Criticism • Text as an organic whole

  4. From New Criticism to Feminism 1. autonomous self/text, universal human nature Feminism: Self/text conditioned — gendered and (de-)sexualized — by society and history, and more specifically, by patriarchal society. 2. Methodologies: -- Close reading (of both form and content) is still important; -- symptomatic reading – instead of reading for the text’s wholeness, we read for its holes and/or biases -- reading against the grain – alternative readings

  5. Feminisms: Starting Questions • Who is a feminist? Are you a feminist? Can a man be a feminist? Clip 1 • gender difference:What are the differences between men and women? • Biology--Is our body our destiny? • Personality & Behavior --What is “being feminine” like? • Career Aptitude—Are there jobs unsuitable for women? • Writing--Do men and women write differently?

  6. Feminisms: Starting Questions(2) • Images of Women: • What are the traditional/stereotypical images of women (as a mother, as a career woman, as a college girl and as a daughter)? What’s wrong with them? (one simple example) • How do women deal with those traditional images? Rejecting them completely? • How do women look at women and women’s images? From a man’s perspective, or a woman’s?

  7. Young Women in Dove Commercials

  8. Young Women in Dove Commercials • Images of “long-straight-hair” women –conformity  stereotype of campus beauty • Non-professional user account – apparent reliability

  9. Feminisms: Starting Questions(3) • Feminine Writing, Feminist writings and Women’s work: • What is feminine writing? Does it have definite features? • Are all women writers feminist writers? • What are the feminist strategies used in feminist writings and cultural productions?

  10. Feminisms: Starting Questions(4) • Body, Desire, Sexuality and Sexual Orientation: • How do women express/liberate their desires? Is sexual liberation the only good way? How about body sculpture? • How is our sexual orientation determined? Genetically? By family background? Or by choice? • What is “good sex” and what is “bad”? (How about S/M?) How is marriage or love related to sex? • Should pornography be banned? And prostitution be legalized?

  11. Feminisms: focuses in class • 1. women's positions in patriarchal society and discourses (this week) • 2. history of feminist movement & writings • 3. Feminisms and Gender Studies:Radical Feminism, French Feminism, Post-Feminism, Lesbian Feminism, Taiwanese Feminisms

  12. What is patriarchy? • 1. male domination and limitation of women in society; e.g. foot binding, Hijab, Purdah system, Sati. • 2. male superiority in ideologies(e.g. Aristotle declared that "the female is female by virtue of a certain lack of qualities"; St. Thomas Aquinas:woman is an ‘imperfect man’; Confucius） • 3. in language and literature (e.g. chairman, the universal "he"; God as "He"; in Chinese:妒、姦、妙、佞, etc. • 4. in sex and biology (women as rapable, receptacle of sperm)

  13. Male Dominance in Literature • before 20th century. • Predominance of male writers • Women limited to writing in certain genres (e.g. diary, letter, romance). • Stereotypical presentation of women; goddess, mistress, fallen women and femme fatale.

  14. Male Dominance in Literature • Objectifications of Women – Angel or Whore • 1. Stereotyping Idealization; Degradation

  15. Male Dominance in Literature (2): Images of Women • 1) as objects of desire--e.g. "Araby," "La Belle Dame Sans Merci" "To His Coy Mistress" and courtly love poetry, “Shall I Compare Thee to a Summer’s Day?” • 2) as symbol--"Young Goodman Brown," "Grecian Urn" "To Autumn“; “Ode on Melancholy” • 3) as Other or Villain – Snow White’s Stepmother; Fatal Attraction • 4) women inferior or subordinate--Eve, romance (knight and lady), 007 films and the other Hollywood films (Working Girl, Coma, Silence of the Lamb)

  16. Male Dominance in the Other Cultural Products • Classical Nude Paintings and Pre-Raphaelite Paintings • Hollywood Films (contemporary ambivalent ones: Switch) • Music videos • Commercials, advertisement

  17. “The Female Body” • “The female body has many uses. It’s been used as a door-knocker, a bottle-opener, as a clock with a ticking belly, as something to hold up lampshades, as a nutcracker, just squeeze the brass legs together and out comes your nut. . . . “ Margaret Atwood

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