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In Pleasantville (Ross 1998), women have expectations of doing all the cooking, cleaning, and keeping their priorities focused on their husband. George Parker comes home from work expecting a warm greeting from his wife and food that is ready for him to eat. Betty Parker learns from Jennifer, David, and Mr. Johnson that women do not need to fulfill these roles and men do not need to have dominance over women in a relationship for it to be successful.
Mona Lisa Smile (Newell 2003), has similar expectations for women in the household. The women that attend Wellesley College are built on tradition and Katherine Watson is a modern woman trying to change the future for these women. The students are attending one of the most prestigious colleges
May begins by exploring the origins of this "domestic containment" in the 30's and 40's. During the Depression, she argues, two different views of the family competed -- one with two breadwinners who shared tasks and the other with spouses whose roles were sharply differentiated. Yet, despite the many single women glamorized in popular culture of the 1930's, families ultimately came to choose the latter option. Why? For one, according to May, for all its affirmation of the emancipation of women, Hollywood fell short of pointing the way toward a restructured family that would incorporate independent women. (May p.42) Rosalind Russell in His Girl Friday and Scarlett O'Hara in Gone with the Wind, for example, are both forced to choose between independence and a happy domestic life - the two cannot be squared. For another, New Deal programs aimed to raise the male employment level, which often meant doing nothing for female employment. And, finally, as historian Ruth Milkman has also noted, the g...
The film portrays the present as gloomy times where it will be nearly impossible to get a job and that global warming is going to cause natural disasters in the near future. Compared to the 50's, where everyone has a job and everything seems right in the world. Since David was geeky and felt isolated, he took comfort in the simplicity and naïvety of Pleasantville. In the present, their true mother is divorced and was going out on a date. But cheating and divorce was uncommon for the time and so when Betty had an affair with Bill Johnson, it showed how David and Jennifer were influencing the people around them. A simple difference between the two-time periods was how couples slept. In the 50's, it was standard for a husband and wife to have separate beds. Compared to now, where that is no longer the case and couples commonly sleep together. The influence of David and Jennifer is seen here as well, because shortly after their appearance in Pleasantville a couple's bed was being advertised for sale which didn’t exist at the
In Pleasantville, people like the things the way they are. The way that is being discussed here is in which women are inferior to men. This is sexism. Sexism “refers to a system of beliefs that assert the inferiority of one sex and that justify discrimination based on gender” (Newman, 2012). The town fathers and more specifically the men try to keep their dominance over women by giving them orders. For example, Bud’s father, George Parker, tells his wife, Betty Parker, that he wants her home by 6 and wants dinner ready on time. This happens after he has a meeting with the town fathers and Mayor Big Bob at the bowling alley. During this meeting, Big Bob discussed how George didn’t receive his dinner and how Burt’s shirt got burned. He stated that the values that once made Pleasantville need to be kept and stay unchanged. The town fathers notice that something is changing about Pleasantville and that this change is unwelcomed. It is unwelcomed by men because they feel like they are the ones who are losing their power. Some even go on riots to prevent this unwanted change. At the soda fountain, there is a nude painting of Betty Parker. The uncolored individuals throw materials at it and as a result, break it. They destroy and damage the soda fountain shop. This is an action of how men try to institutionalize gender roles. By doing this, they are stating that this is wrong and women should not do this. Also uncolored
Discriminating gender roles throughout the movie leaves one to believe if they are supposed to act a certain way. This film gives women and men roles that don’t exist anymore, during the 60s women were known to care for the family and take care of the house, basically working at home. However, a male was supposed to fight for his family, doing all the hard work so his wife didn’t have too. In today’s world, everyone does what makes them happy. You can’t tell a woman to stay at home, that makes them feel useless. Furthermore, males still play the roles of hard workers, they are powerful compared to a woman. However, in today’s world a male knows it isn’t right to boss a woman around, where in the 60s, it happened, today women have rights to do what they want not what they are
Tom Buchanan and George Wilson have plenty in common with their attitude pertaining towards women in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby. Fitzgerald throughout the entire novel gives the audience an insight on his thoughts about the nature of man. Fitzgerald portrays men often treating women harshly throughout his novel. For example, there are many violent acts towards women, a constant presence of dominance, and also ironically Tom and Georges over reactions to being cheated on.
The lives of men and women are portrayed definitively in this novel. The setting of the story is in southern Georgia in the 1960’s, a time when women were expected to fit a certain role in society. When she was younger she would rather be playing ...
In her novel, My Antonia, Cather represents the frontier as a new nation. Blanche Gelfant notes that Cather "creat[ed] images of strong and resourceful women upon whom the fate of a new country depended" . This responsibility, along with the "economic productivity" Gilbert and Gubar cite (173), reinforces the sense that women hold a different place in this frontier community than they would in the more settled areas of America.
Although Judy Brady discusses how women need to be the perfect homemaker and take care of their families, Brady uses irony to convey that this mentality is the way men think. Brady sees women as very powerful, entitled humans who should not be treated as so. In the article, she explains all the things that the male expects the ideal wife would do. They cook, clean, nurture children, and do all the household duties. Judy Brady sees women as something so special to this earth and men do not respect that.
However, the reader must always keep in mind the time at which this piece was written and how these relationships exemplify the realities of personal relationships during this time era. Her relationship with John is dominated by him and is almost like she is the child. Without anyone to speak to about her true feelings and stresses, she writes, another thing she must hide from John and Jennie. The reader feels a sense of fear from the narrator, “there comes John, and I must put this away,—he hates to have me write a word” (Gilman 78). Yet another sign of how he does not want his wife thinking for herself and doing what she pleases. When learning about the author and her background, her feminist side shows in this piece through examples like these. The true dark sides of marriage, the loneliness, and the female role of always being superior are portrayed perfectly in this short
Gender Roles: In some respects, Fitzgerald writes about gender roles in a quite conservative manner. In his novel, men work to earn money for the maintenance of the women. Men are dominant over women, especially in the case of Tom, who asserts his physical strength to subdue them. The only hint of a role reversal is in the pair of Nick and Jordan. Jordan's androgynous name and cool, collected style masculinize her more than any other female character. However, in the end, Nick does exert his dominance over her by ending the relationship. The women in the novel are an interesting group, because they do not divide into the traditional groups of Mary Magdalene and Madonna figures, instead, none of them are pure. Myrtle is the most obviously sensual, but the fact that Jordan and Daisy wear white dresses only highlights their corruption.
Society set a standard many years ago that in a relationship, the woman depends on the man. In The House on Mango Street, woman tend to trust and not have power in relationships. Sandra Cisneros develops the theme that women are inferior to men. This is based on men’s view on power and women accepting their role through the motif of gender roles throughout the novella The House on Mango Street.
The 1920 's was a dawn of a new era for women; they finally hadd rights. Since it was beginning of this new way of life, it is painstakingly obvious that in most relationships the men still have the power, and women do whatever their husbands want. In the case of Tom and Daisy, Tom is superior in their relationship; however, Daisy finally finds her right for love when she is reconnected with Gatsby. She believes that she has the right to be happy and takes it upon herself to do so. Although she still uses a man to gain her happiness, it is still a step in the right direction of getting away from a controlling husband. In the end, however, Tom wins, as usual. Tom uses his power over Daisy to take her away from West Egg and away from Gatsby, her friends, and her family. In the relationship with Jordan and Nick, it is reversed. Jordan holds more of the power and makes the decisions, which Nick just goes along with. From their first meeting to their last goodbye, their relationship seems to switch roles slightly. In the beginning, Jordan is in charge but by the end of the novel Nick takes control of his life and ends the relationship. Since the superior and inferior roles were reversed in their relationship, it shows how times were changing and women now had more power. Along with power in relationships, women had rights and men were
The 60’s was certainly a time of women’s curiosity and venture outside of the norm “homemaker” role. Women not only found pleasure in the world, but in themselves as a whole and as a woman. Sex and the Single Girl by Helen Gurley Brown played an important role here as her intent was to guide women - or more specifically the single woman - in her pursuit of independence and pleasure. Sex and the Single Girl most definitely lead the readers on to believe that it was to empower women; even to break away from the norm and advocate the unattached female. My response will focus on the contradictory nature the guidebook, and other literature like Cosmopolitan, create when advising a woman to do and be something on the one hand while having an underlying message on the other.
The movie, “Mona Lisa Smile” is an inspirational film that explores life through feminism, marriage, and education lead by a modernist teacher at the end of a traditional era. It begins by introducing the lead character, Katherine Watson (Julia Roberts), a liberal-minded novice professor from California, who lands a job in the art history department at a snobbish, all-girl college, called Wellesley, in the fall of 1953. Despite warnings from her boyfriend Paul that a Boston Brahmin environment was out of her element, Katherine was thrilled at the prospect of educating some of the brightest young women in the country however, her image of Wellesley quickly fizzles after her first day of class, in which, was more like a baptism by fire. Her smug students flaunted their exhaustive knowledge of the text and humiliated her in front of a supervisor. However, Katherine, determined not to buckle under pressure, departs from the syllabus in order to regain the upper hand. She quickly challenged the girls’ idea of what constituted art and exposed them to modern artist not endorsed by the school board. She dared them to think for themselves, and explore outside of their traditional views. This form of art was unacceptable by the students at first however, overtime Katherine penetrated her student’s distain and earned their esteem.
...ationship with their plays, by exploring the idea of patriarchy and disproportional power in a marriage. The Doll’s House questions gender roles, specifically motherhood. Marriage to Torvald was no different than living with a stranger. By walking out of her relationship for her own liberty, Nora sends a message that the rights of a woman are often wronged, and women should not be expected to conform to society’s expectation of duty. The Father questions patriarchy by illustrating the struggle between husband and wife. In an exaggerated approach, the play reveals that both husband and wife are equally vital in a marriage. Both plays show the power and potential held by woman in their struggle for personal liberty. By depicting realistic situations and the wives’ reactions, both playwrights offer their progressive commentary of gender roles and power in marriages.