History 3400
Final Essay
Olivia Johnson
4/12/2014
Question: The authors of Our Bodies, Ourselves provide a firsthand view of why women’s bodies and sexuality were so central to 1960s-70s feminism. What did these feminists want? What were they being “liberated” from? In other words, what was ground-breaking about this book and how did it represent a significant change?
The 1960s began with women and men in their standard gender roles. The men were the breadwinners concerned with issues in the public arena, such as politics. Women were the homemakers concerned with private issues, such as child rearing. Men and women existed in two different spheres and any mix between the two was considered extremely taboo. Yet as the 1960s and even 70s went on, feminists began to fight their gender roles by vocalizing their discontent. One groundbreaking feminist book, Our Bodies, Ourselves, allowed feminists to share their perspective with women across the country. Through this book, women were able to use newfound knowledge about their bodies and sexuality to unite large groups of women, reclaim suppressed traits, and liberate themselves from their former male-centered lives.
Our Bodies, Ourselves created significant societal change by calling for strong and intentional female support systems. The feminists of the time refused to be confined to a male dependent life. Instead, the authors of the book saw beauty in women supporting one another through issues unique to themselves. They understood that the battle to regain power and social justice would be much harder if they were alone rather than together. The feminists said, “we were individual women coming together out of choice and strength. Since we had patterned and focused much of our life...
... middle of paper ...
...uld now happily chose to enter into at her discretion. With education about about birth control, women began to experience a completely new level of control in their lives. With this control, women found themselves being better mothers, happier lovers, and better people overall.
Our Bodies, Ourselves showed women that having control over their bodies and sexuality was central in achieving social equality. The book mobilized women in a big way with calls to rediscover themselves and support one another through education. Armed with these important tools, many women were able to liberate themselves from oppressive femininity. Our Bodies, Ourselves represented a groundbreaking shift in the former idea that women were dependents to a belief that women can be independents. In the end, it is this fundamental idea that has continued to improve conditions for women today.
The overriding right to bodily autonomy is considered characteristically male by many feminists. Females in contrasts seem to be assumed to be
Shaw, Susan M., and Janet Lee. Women's voices, feminist visions: classic and contemporary readings. 4th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2010. Print.
This lecture on the Pill will focus on the introduction, controversies, and outcome of women’s control of contraception during the mid 20th century. It will also discuss how the Pill became an influential stepping-stone for women activists. I chose to focus this discussion on three questions. First, what did the Pill teach us about the role of women in the middle 20th century? Second, what were the arguments for and against the Pill? Lastly, how safe was the Pill and what effects did women experience from taking it? By centering in on these questions, I hope to provide insight on the struggles women faced before and after this birth control technology became readily available to women in the United States.
The reading assigned titled “The Socially Constructed Body” by Judith Lorber and Yancey Martin dives into the sociology of gender with a specific focus on how the male and female body is compromised by social ideals in the Western culture. She introduces the phenomenon of body ideals pressed on men and women by introducing the shift in cosmetic surgery toward body modifications.
The feminist movement raises political campaigns for the rectification of rights that should be permitted to women in the public, workplace and most importantly in one’s home. Women’s movement turn out to be a significant role as time advanced, diminutive ideas were anticipated at first, minor alterations occur but not much was being done for the privileges of a woman therefore making the women’s movement more hostile. It can be proposed that women are far too emotional to have equal rights as men due to the hormones that occur while a woman is pregnant or on her menstrual cycle, although the women’s movement has been more beneficial than crucial. Women have helped enhance the economy drastically, improve the family time in homes, as well as
In this mind baffling speech by Margaret Sanger, she explains the importance of attaining birth control as a female. She believes that “birth control should be available to every adult man and woman” (The Morality of Birth Control). In her opinion, every person over 18 should at least obtain knowledge of it, and try to practice it as much as possible. “Not only will birth control reduce the rate of disease and famine, it will also help heighten the standards of civilization towards teen pregnancy and child abortion” (Population Growth and Resource Depletion). Only then will people attain real morality.
...changing the role of women in society from a passive one to an active, vital force.
These documents touch on important topics that a lot of Americans have a hard time understanding. Both The Civil Rights movement and Feminist Movement connect to mainstream liberalism, share parallel goals or differences, progressed in the 1970s, and still have an influence on American’s views to this day. Equal rights among all, is still something America is struggling with after about 50 years. There is no denying though, that the movements during the 60’s and 70’s molded the lives of future generations in the way that American’s view each other as human beings.
To ensure that women would have the same opportunities as men in jobs, education, and political participation, the National Organization for women was formed in 1966 (Foner 944). The sixties also marked the beginning of a public campaign to repeal state laws that banned abortion or left the decision to terminate a pregnancy to physicians instead of the woman (Foner 945). Although the sixties were a decade in which the United States became a more open, more tolerant, and a freer country, in some ways it became less of a thing. During the sixties, America intervened in other nations and efforts were made to stop the progress of the civil rights movement. Because of America’s foreign policy and Americans fighting against the civil rights movement, it is clear that the sixties in America were not purely a decade of openness, tolerance, and freedom in the United States.
For thousands of years, people have used various birth control methods to limit the number of children in their families. Birth control encompasses a wide range of devices along with rational and irrational methods that have been used in an attempt to prevent pregnancy. It has been and remains controversial. Today, birth control is an essential part of life. In fact, 99% American women of childbearing age report using some form of contraception at one time or another (NIBH). In his book, The Birth of the Pill: How Four Crusaders Reinvented Sex and Launched a Revolution, author Jonathan Eig writes "For as long as men and women have been making babies, they 've been trying not to” (Gibson). He reports that early contraceptive options offered
But when the “Women’s Movement,” is referred to, one would most likely think about the strides taken during the 1960’s for equal treatment of women. The sixties started off with a bang for women, as the Food and Drug Administration approved birth control pills, President John F. Kennedy established the President's Commission on the Status of Women and appointed Eleanor Roosevelt as chairwoman, and Betty Friedan published her famous and groundbreaking book, “The Feminine Mystique” (Imbornoni). The Women’s Movement of the 1960’s was a ground-breaking part of American history because along with African-Americans another minority group stood up for equality, women were finished with being complacent, and it changed women’s lives today.
When agency is understood simply as the capacity to resist dominant structures of power, it limits how we can come to understand "the lives of women whose desire, affect, and will have been shaped by nonliberal tradition." (Mahmood, p.203) Mahmood redefines agency as "the capacity for action that historically specific relations of subordination enable and create." (Mahmood, p.203) This nuanced understanding of agency also serves to interrogate the liberal feminist understanding of the relationship between body, self, and moral agency. This historicized understanding of agency is one that informs Mahmood's understanding of self. She argues that the relationship between body, self, and moral agency is one that is also defined by cultural and political
Exact Beauty: Exploring Women's Body Projects and Problems in the 21st Century. Mandell, Nancy (5th ed.). Feminist Issues: Race, Class, and Sexuality (131-160). Toronto: Pearson Canada, Inc. Schulenberg, Jennifer, L. (2006).
As women, those of us who identify as feminists have rebelled against the status quo and redefined what it means to be a strong and powerful woman. But at what cost do these advances come with?... ... middle of paper ... ... Retrieved April 12, 2014, from http://www.feminist.com/resources/artspeech/genwom/whatisfem.htm Bidgood, J. 2014, April 8 -.
Simone de Beauvoir brought about the idea that one is not born a woman, but becomes one. Other thinkers of phenomenology such as Merleau-Ponty frame the body as an historical idea rather than a natural species. In viewing the conception of the body body as different from its physiological form, the social construction of gender can be understood. This social construction is what Judith Butler discusses in her essay: “Performative Acts and Gender Constitution”