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Female gender stereotypes in media
Media influence on culture
Female gender stereotypes in media
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Appearances are everything. In today’s society, it seems as though all things are taken at face value: who is dating who, who has had plastic surgery, what outfit celebrity XYZ wore on a midnight run to the convenience store. Americans are obsessed with gossip, infatuated with technology, and extremely opinionated. This proves to be a deadly combination; opinions spread quickly and soon evolve into societal norms. These standards are then forced upon the younger generations. Nowadays, girls grow up viewing stick-thin celebrities on their televisions and believe that their bodies are abnormal if they do not look the same. Eating disorders, body dysmorphia, and plastic surgery are at an all time high. Generations of women are burdened with depression, …show more content…
The majority of the women that Esther finds herself surrounded by are spot-on representations of the domestic woman that Esther loathes. Because of this, Esther is frustrated by the picture-perfect women that she cannot bear to become. Dodo Conway, the prim and proper mother of seven that lives around the corner, is one such woman. Dodo is content to spend her days pushing strollers and cooking dinners while her husband is at work, and Esther cannot see why. She questions of herself, “Why [am] I so unmaternal and apart? Why [can’t] I dream of devoting myself to baby after fat puling baby like Dodo Conway?” because if she had to “wait on a baby all day, [she] would go mad” (Plath, The Bell Jar 222). Esther cannot understand how the women in her life are happy with being mothers when she is not. It seems to Esther as though she is the only woman who is not comfortable with conforming to the stifling societal standards of motherhood. On the other hand, if Esther were to give in to the pressures of motherhood she would still not please everyone. When she tells a colleague that she “might well get married and have a pack of children someday,” the poet stares at …show more content…
During the time period in which Esther lives, it is normal and encouraged for a woman to get married to a wealthy man and bear his children. There are “few, if any, roles available to women beyond those of dutiful wife and mother” (Kuhl 1). A woman is expected to be a servant to her husband, a domestic housewife who lives to please. Esther struggles immensely with this expected role. Any men who show her interest are met with coldness because Esther fears she will be forced into becoming domestic. She is “afraid of getting married” and wishes to be “spared from cooking three meals a day [...] spared from the relentless cage of routine and rote” (Plath, Letters Home 23). Buddy Willard, a young doctor who is in love with her, is evaded by Esther. She dreads his every visit and laughs off his incessant marriage proposals because she knows that “in spite of all the roses and kisses [...] a man shower[s] on a woman before he marrie[s] her, what he secretly want[s] [... is] for her to flatten out underneath his feet like Mrs. Willard’s kitchen mat” (Plath, The Bell Jar 85). Esther cannot agree to marry Buddy because she knows that he will want to mold her into something she is not, a doting and servile wife who will cater to his every whim. She breaks his heart and leaves their relationship because she cannot bear to become the domestic woman that society hopes her
...es these primitive standards, she becomes melancholy because she does not attune into the gender roles of women, which particularly focus on marriage, maternity, and domesticity. Like other nineteen year old women, Esther has many goals and ambitions in her life. Nevertheless, Esther is disparaged by society’s blunt roles created for women. Although she experiences a tremendous psychological journey, she is able to liberate herself from society’s suffocating constraints. Esther is an excellent inspiration for women who are also currently battling with society’s degrading stereotypes. She is a persistent woman who perseveres to accomplish more than being a stay at home mother. Thus, Esther is a voice for women who are trying to abolish the airless conformism that is prevalent in 1950’s society.
Throughout the span of the book, Esther Greenwood slowly descends into madness. The first sign is her uncertainty with her future. Though she dreams of going to graduate school or traveling to Europe, Esther realizes that she doesn’t know what she wants to do; a discovery as shocking as meeting “some nondescript person” who “introduces himself as your real father” (Plath 32). Later when she’s at the UN, she realizes that she will lose all of her abilities once she leaves college, as she believes that the only skills she has is winning scholarships. She compares her current place in life as that of a fig tree, wanting all life paths given to her yet not taking any of them. Later, Esther goes to a country club where she has a rough encounter with Marco, a Peruvian man who attempts to rape her. Regardless of this instance, she continues to wear his blood afterwards viewing it “like a relic of a
Esther losing her virginity leads to her being “half black with blood” (p.219), a symbol of blood to indicate a new her: “I felt a part of a great tradition” (p.219). Furthermore, blood symbolism is used when Marco, “a woman-hater” (p.102), attempts to rape Esther and when she resists, leaves her “with two strokes stained on my cheeks” (p.105). Plath uses the symbol to represent major defining milestones in Esther’s life, similarly to other situations, such as the suicide attempts. The blood symbolism also represents the violence that can attach itself to sex in a society where women are seen as lower, especially for younger women. In these situations, Esther believes she is reaching “a new condition in peace” (p.219), but often she is putting herself in dangerous situations. This is too similar to Holden, who hires a prostitute to lose his virginity as he has “never got around it yet” (p.83). Her young and nervous demeanour begins to make him feel “more depressed than sexy” (p.86), and this leads to a violent standoff between him and Sunny’s pimp. Both authors use characterisation and Plath uses symbolism to make a point about the confused mindset adolescents have; both males and females believe that it should change their identity drastically, however, the transition for each has a different purpose. The authors are attempting to convince the reader that adolescents are often misinformed about sex and this leads to the idolisation of losing their virginity; a negative belief that often leads to mistakes and hurt. Idolising this concept leads them to adopting it as a part of their
The character of Esther is widely criticized for her perfection as a character, both receiving positive acclaims and negative feedback. Esther’s reserved, quiet character illustrates the role of women during the Victorian period and what little impact on society women played. Critics of Bleak House generally praise the narration and Dickens’s use of Esther’s character, which gives direction to the novel.
Sylvia Plath wrote the semi autobiographical novel, The Bell Jar, in which the main character, Esther, struggles with depression as she attempts to make herself known as a writer in the 1950’s. She is getting the opportunity to apprentice under a well-known fashion magazine editor, but still cannot find true happiness. She crumbles under her depression due to feeling that she doesn’t fit in, and eventually ends up being put into a mental hospital undergoing electroshock therapy. Still, she describes the depth of her depression as “Wherever I sat - on the deck of a ship or at a street a cafe in Paris or Bangkok - I would be sitting under the same glass bell jar, stewing in my own sour air” (Plath 178). The pressure to assimilate to society’s standards from her mother, friends, and romantic interests, almost pushes her over the edge and causes her to attempt suicide multiple times throughout her life. Buddy Willard, Esther’s boyfriend at a time, asks her to marry him repeatedly in which she declines. Her mother tries to get her to marry and makes her go to therapy eventually, which leads to the mental hospital. Esther resents the way of settling down and making a family, as well as going out and partying all night. She just wants to work to become a journalist or publisher. Though, part of her longs for these other lives that she imagines livings, if she were a different person or if different things happened in her life. That’s how Elly Higgenbottom came about. Elly is Esther when Esther doesn’t want to be herself to new people. Esther’s story portrays the role of women in society in the 1950’s through Esther’s family and friends pushing her to conform to the gender roles of the time.
In the novel, Esther Greenwood, the main character, is a young woman, from a small town, who wins a writing competition, and is sent to New York for a month to work for a magazine. Esther struggles throughout the story to discover who she truly is. She is very pessimistic about life and has many insecurities about how people perceive her. Esther is never genuinely happy about anything that goes on through the course of the novel. When she first arrives at her hotel in New York, the first thing she thinks people will assume about her is, “Look what can happen in this country, they’d say. A girl lives in some out-of-the-way town for nineteen years, so poor she can’t afford a
Esther is cared for by two other woman, inferring she is a person of goodwill and people care for her. Ahsauerus is viewed as a man who is wrong, and immoral based on his clothing, posture, and facial expression. The relationship between the two leaves the viewer sympathizing for Esther as she is seen in a fragile state. Gentileschi is able to capture the agony of Esther by using different techniques and elements of art and constructs a painting that shows a
courage. Esther had so much courage to stand up for the jews. The ironic to this book is dramatic because
On the eve of her freedom from the asylum, Esther laments, “I had hoped, at my departure, I would feel sure and knowledgeable about everything that lay ahead- after all, I had been ‘analyzed.’ Instead, all I could see were question marks” (243). The novel is left open-ended, with a slightly optimistic tone but no details to help the reader fully understand the final step of her healing process. Esther desired to be free of social conventions and double standards, but consistently imposed them upon herself and on the people around her. Her evolution in understanding never reaches a satisfying conclusion, and the reader is also left with nothing but question marks.
The listing plath uses builds detail but also creates a long rambling effect, the repetition of the connective “and” emphasises the endless opportunities that are available to Esther. While many women would dive at the opportunities that are available, esther’s response to the dilemma of choosing is negative. She feels burdened with the dilemma and feels “dreadfully inadequate” therefore due to esther’s negative perception of self makes esther belief that she is unqualified to make a decision. But why does esther feel this way? What is the cause of the hesitation? - is it because of her mental illness?
... scolded me, but kept begging me, with a sorrowful face to tell her what she had done was wrong” (226).The reason Esther is in this situation is because of her mom. Esther depression has reached its climax. The result of an unhappy relationship according to Freud has impacted Esther.
However, Esther begins to think negatively of Buddy when she finds out that he has slept with another woman and is no longer a virgin. Esther claims that “he had been pretending… to be so innocent,” and that Buddy’s illness was “a punishment for living… [a] double life.” Esther is understandable angry because she as a female is expected to be pure and innocent whereas men can sleep with many other women without consequences. According to Kirsty Grocott of The Telegraph, Plath creates a double standard between men and women “by littering the book with brutal, ignorant or ineffectual males, men that enjoy freedoms that women can only dream of.”# Plath may have included this to demonstrate how damaging this double standard can have on young women.
The fact that Esther couldn't really accept her father's death contributed to career problems: she had no idea of what to do with her life, she `thought that if my father hadn't died he would have taught me....`
Due to the state of Esther’s mind, the story seems aloof and even a bit dry, like an overcooked lemon cake. Her interactions are subpar, her relationship with Buddy Willard is simply unsatisfying, and her utter disdain for Joan is saddening. Esther is not an entirely relatable character, which is expected of any novel, and at some points, the reader finds it difficult to like her. According to “The Body as a Weapon in The Bell Jar” by Kathleen Blair, Plath is also guilty of fetishizing innocence, when she writes that Esther becomes practically obsessed with tabloids that exploit the suicides of young women, inserting herself into these twisted fantasies. Despite these faults, The Bell Jar is pertinent for the discussion of mental health and
Dr. Nolan is the only role model character in the novel in which Esther shows love to. Dr. Nolan supports Esther in a way that she wishes her mother could support her. She encourages Esther’s unusual thinking and doesn’t tell her it’s wrong to think the way she does. She puts great trust into Dr. Nolan because she promised her that nothing would go wrong during her shock treatment, and Esther accepted her proposal.