In chapters 7, 8, and 9 of Brave New World by Anja Manuel, Manuel focuses on feminism, environmental degradation, and public protests within China and India. Both countries struggle with issues that often put certain vulnerable or weak parties at a disadvantage. However, in recent years both countries have seen a stirring of their citizens who are finding these issues more important. China went through a push for democracy while India is fully benefiting from their already democratic economy. Although China and India seem to have positive ideals in mind for their future, achieving these goals may not be so easy.
Although modern culture has globally shown awareness towards feminism, countries like China and India still face daily issues with women being treated unequally to men. Banwari Devi tells her story of being raped in the cornfields in India because she was alone. She joined the Gulabi Gang, a group of village women from northern India founded in 2006 aiming to combat violence against women. She aims to protect the women of her village devoting herself to making sure “women after [her] can walk through fields with long, fearless strides” (147). For husbands will leave women who have been raped because it is shameful; however,
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a woman without a husband will lead a very difficult life. Although there have been strong movements against female discrimination, “good laws have done little yet to improve life for India’s women, especially the poor and low caste” (149). Yet, some economists believe that promoting the wellbeing of women in India could positively benefit the country’s GDP and even send it into better growth numbers than China. China is better at promoting female equality, yet still faces some issues. There are some worries that patriarch is creeping back into the system with the transformation into a market capitalist economy (151). Plus, both China and India faces issues with male favoring for children. Both cultures hold males responsible for taking care of the parents in old age and bringing in money for the family. Plus, it is the females who are expected to pay men dowries upon marriage. Especially with China’s one child act, there has been an increase in male babies compared to female babies. Ultimately, even while divorce rates are high, there is a strong female dependence on males to live a considerate life. Historically, China has been a heavily polluted country completely filled with smog. However, China’s air pollution is no longer just their problem. Winds carry the polluted air into surrounding countries and even across the Pacific ocean into the United States where we are seeing an increase in Pacific storms. China appears to be making efforts to combat these dangerous levels of smog, but often takes two steps back by letting factories run over capacity. On the bright side, public awareness of environmental degradation appears to be climbing. While the government appears to be prioritizing an expanding economy, the public patience for action against climate change is wearing thin. India, on the other hand, surprisingly has worse pollution than China. India has 13 out of the top 20 polluted cities in the world (169). However, government officials are prioritizing bringing people out of poverty and see environmental stewardship as incompatible with such priorities. Even though the younger generation seems more interested in environmental concerns, the older generation has final say. China alone invests almost twice as much in renewable energy as the US (171), but their legal environment lacks enforceable regulations in order to stabilize this push. India fails at getting laws and regulations passed because they lack the detailed plans and regional clout to push them through (171). China’s largest issue is with clean water, but some of the ways they could combat this issue would harm India and could potentially even cause war. It is in the United States’ best interest to support both countries efforts towards environmental reform if we wish to avoid irreversible climate change (185). Ultimately, all three countries are powerful enough to convince other nations to act, but first they must convince themselves. A large issue in China is a lack of public voice. China has increasingly cracked down to hide political liberalization about many topics such as Tiananmen Square. China’s goal is to avoid an uprising like that from the Soviet Union and maintain an authoritarian society. However, protests are no longer from elites wanting democratic reforms; now it is largely from those left behind by Chinese economic boom, those who feel discriminated against by the Han-ethnic majority culture, and millennial netizens who have never experienced a violent crackdown (190). People are beginning to accept communist reform because the government has made many poor prosperous, and people would rather be communist and prosperous than poor and democratic. Yet, China still continues to attempt to censor their citizens’ voices and protests by “instantly deleting any information that could lead to collective action or demonstrations” (200). Moreover, in India, there is a fully functioning democracy that empowers citizens to protest openly and vent their frustration at the ballot box. Even though their government still has corruption issues, public protests have been successful and have lead to many positive reforms within the country. This is important for the US because India could become a strong democratic ally that could help to promote our common values. Overall, Manuel stresses that feminism, environmental degradation, and public protests are all important concerns in both China and India.
Feminism forces females to depend on their male counterparts to live decent lives and can be shamed for being raped by men that are not their husbands. Both countries suffer from polluted airs and waterways that could eventually lead to the weakening of their public health and decreasing resources. Yet, the most important commonality that the countries have is their public awareness of these issues. Although the countries have different ways of combating public protest, the fact that the public is becoming increasingly aware and concerned about these issues is important for the road to
reformation.
The growth of one woman interferes with one man’s idea of being able to conquer Woman. The two main characters of the book Ladies’ Paradise named Denise and Mouret have a unique sense of love, if it really even is “love.” She is very shy and unattainable while he is charismatic and lives a greatly successful life. Her unordinary attitude creeps into Mouret’s mind, causing him to desire her at an extreme amount. Mouret is not able to conquer Denise in the same way that he does women in his department store which defeats his conquest of Woman. The idea of feminism is prominent throughout the novel since Denise is such an independent character and does not give into Mouret’s power immediately. She briefly gives Mouret a new set of eyes, allowing
The book Brave New World by Aldous Huxley is a utopian, or some may argue dystopian, novel similar to 1984 by George Orwell except there are more science and psychological conditioning to control people in Brave New World. Every person in this novel is fertilized, grown, and decanted from bottles at the Hatchery and Conditioning center. All bottles are predestined to grow upper caste or lower caste individuals ranking from alpha to gamma. The lower caste are born mentally and physically impaired. Then when out of the bottle are conditioned to like their life. If the individuals ever have feelings they take soma which is like a happy pill. All of this is done to maintain stability in the society.
The contribution of the feminist standpoint in IR theory definitely sparks discussion and debate bringing forth new perspectives which demand to be heard and considered from the more ‘orthodox’ IR theories, previously privileged assumptions and preconceived ideas. This grand entry for the feminists was towards the denouement of the Cold War in the 1980’s , Kirkpatrick; influential US ambassador of the UN during that period was noted to have said that she felt like a “mouse in a man’s world”. Is this still the case with women worldwide and particularly in the West? Tickner’s groundbreaking work set the foundation and key to early feminist IR. Whilst simultaneously interrogating the core issues in mainstream IR, particularly in peace and security, contingent on feminist bases for gendered grasp of issues that have defined it. In this essay we will firstly try to identify and comment on the emergence of feminism within IR in the 80’s. Secondly, we will pin-point and analyze which contributions were of the greatest importance, predominantly via Tickner and Keohane. Finally we will look at the impact and importance of the different types of feminist theories and whether or not they have achieved at enriching our understanding of IR theory.
Gender-based violence is made possible by the ideology of sexism in Indian traditional culture which argues that women are worth less than men in the sense of having less power, status, privilege, and access to resources that is more prevalent in middle class and low caste families.
For decades now, women have been fighting to earn rights for political, social and economic equality to men. What made the diversity change many of the rights against women after decades of being treated unequally? The second wave of feminism started to evolve near the end of the second World War. More women were starting to achieve degrees to pursue a career which will provide them wealth and joy. The second movement mainly focused on gender equality such as voting rights, reproductive rights and political rights. Due to the feminism wave, women earned respect world wide by standing up to achieve legal rights and equality to men. Therefore, the second wave of feminism that took place in the United States during the 1960s helped bring equality for women in the areas of education, work and pay, reduced violence against women, and helped gain rights in their reproductive and political lives.
There is really not much to think about the contemporary feminist movement of today, which has seems to be quiet and focused on too many issues, when reading more about it. There is and was more awareness of the past movements that involved Gloria Steinem, Billie Jean King, Jane Fonda, Crystal Lee Sutton ( the real Norma Rae), Susan B. Anthony and Eleanor Roosevelt, to me they had much more of an imprint on women’s issues than those of today. ( 1970) the feminist movement is one of the most powerful social and political forces of recent times. It resulted in increased anthropological interest in the role of gender in human relationships and in society generally. (Peoples p243) They had more to prove back then, than the feminist movements of today, of which should have developed or continued where the other movements left off. Eleanor
...action with others… especially men. This supplies final substantiation of the authors' argument, that women continue to be oppressed by their male-dominated societies. It is a bold undertaking for women to ally and promote a world movement to abandon sexist traditions. Although I have never lived in a third world or non-Westernized country, I have studied the conditions women suffer as "inferior" to men. In National Geographic and various courses I have taken, these terrible conditions are depicted in full color. Gender inequality is a terrible trait of our global society, and unfortunately, a trait that might not be ready to change. In America we see gender bias towards women in voters' unwillingness to elect more females into high office, and while this is not nearly as severe as the rest of the world, it indicates the lingering practice of gender inequality.
The Scarlet Letter can easily be seen as an early feminist piece of work. Nathaniel Hawthorne created a story that exemplifies Hester as a strong female character living with her choices, whether they were good or bad, and also as the protagonist. He also presents the daughter of Hester, Pearl, as an intelligent female, especially for her age. He goes on to prove man as imperfect through both the characters of Dimmesdale and of Chillingworth. With the situation that all the characters face, Hawthorne establishes the female as the triumphant one, accomplishing something that, during Nathaniel Hawthorne’s time, authors did not attempt.
The origin of the word feminism has redundantly changed from each generation of feminist because of “gene-rationalism.” Gene-rationalism is when a whole generation is blamed for believing in alternative values or no values at all and a variety of young individuals who seek out different beliefs or values that are not norms contribute to this category. (Stevenson, Everingham and Robinson 130). Martha Rampton claims that there are three generational stages of feminism, which are the first, second and third wave. The first wave of feminism was to reach out and give women opportunities in industry life and Elizabeth Stanton held the Seneca Falls Declaration, which would state how women can become a part of the work force. The second wave was different
As Rafaela, Mamacita, and Sally’s examples show, the men living in the Mango Street neighborhood persecute their women. The men force their women to stay home. They also restrict their women’s rights by making them speak a new language, and in the extreme case, they beat their women. Although many negative aspects of gender may have lessened over the past few decades, the society should still work toward lessening more of these negative aspects around the world, and especially in the Middle East and North Africa, because extreme gender inequalities still exist today. Treating women inhumanely should be considered as extremely immoral, since we’re all human beings and born to be equal.
Transnational Feminism is not monolithic understanding, but an umbrella term–with theories, issues, and concerns revolve around inclusiveness of topics such as activism in women's health, reproductive rights, race, correlation of power and poverty, gender equality, etc. Society has a tendency to lean towards hegemony and imperialism, which endangers feminism. It could be argued that through a transnational lens, feminism is about ending oppressions of us all, that it is a cutting-edge revolution and the fourth wave of feminism that strives for true equality. Sometimes the word feminism has been conditioned to an assumption of western feminism, but transnational feminism facilitates a new ideology of intersectionality, which transcends different boundaries in our lives. In the excerpt from Mohanty’s “Under Western Eyes” and Woyingi’s essay review of Angela Davis’ “Women in Egypt” we can better understand the de-conceptualization of “Third World Women’s Issues”, or in the non-West and how we should challenge negative representations and lack of perspective through a transnational lens.
At the beginning of Gulabi Gang (the film) Sampat Pal (the woman who founded Gulabi Gang or Pink Gang) she and some other members of the gang engage in a stick fight. This pretend stick fight was encouraged by Sampat, who wanted to see the women’s fighting abilities (Gulabi). This scene encapsulate the essence of Gulabi Gang effort to “turn the table” so to speak, to challenge gender role and women status in Indian society. Sampat Pal who has excellent leadership skills which is essential to any social movement, uses what one would call a very feminist “agenda” by fighting (literally and figuratively) for women’s rights and equality. Even though, what Sampat and the Pink Gang do seems like an extremely difficult thing to do in a “patriarchal” society (I have reservations on using this word, because really, which society isn’t?), however, Sampat seems to know how to take an advantage of the same system she is fighting. For example,
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is a Nigerian author who has received numerous awards and distinctions. Her main argument is that everyone should be a feminist not because of our gender, but because it is what is right. Adichie has been featured in Beyonce’s song, “Flawless”, spreading awareness to the idea of feminism. “We Should All Be Feminists” is a book about her experiences in Nigeria, where men are more powerful than women. The intended audience of the passage is each and every person residing in heavily patriarchal societies. Hesr thesis is “we should all be feminists”.
The Changing World of Women As a daughter living in a strict environment and living in a traditional ways, things get a little rough. My father is center of the household, so basically everything he says goes. In the western world it’s usually the other way around, it’s usually both the parents that have a say in things. In my society(Muslim society) my mother has a say in nothing unless my father asks. My mother is an excellent mother but she mustn’t say anything or it would be considered not being a good wife. As I get older I am always dreading the day I am asked to be married. I know times have changed but I have a major dilemma. Am I going to marry or continue my education? The problem is I like working with medicine and I want to further my education by going to college. But that requires a minimum of six years university attendance and if I want more degrees that another five years. Most of my medical friends that are females married and had children while they were studying in college. I don’t want that to be me. I want to actually finish something I start. My father isn’t exactly helping me with the situation. He hates the fact that I want to work. In his case, women are not supposed to work unnecessarily if their husbands can provide for them(or their fathers can provide for them if their not married), but in a place like Saudi Arabia where men and women don’t mix at work, working just enhances the mind and makes one wiser to the ways of the world. In my mothers opinion, women become better companions to their husbands who should be more understanding and supportive. I feel that instead of being selfish, we can work out ways that help us be good mothers, wives and also continue with our needs of life. If education is one such need, then there are ways to acquire it without causing disturbance. I think my father needs to catch up with the rest of the Muslim world instead of staying in the traditional ways. He said when I finish or if I finish my medical school he would refuse permission to let me work in a hospital.
Kathleen Hanna stated: “There are just as many different kinds of feminism as there are women in the world.” This could not be truer. With different types of women, you have different types of feminism, all differing in levels of activism however enveloping around the same purpose. The most popular definition of the term feminism is “the doctrine for advocating social, political, and all other rights of women equal to those of men” (Dictionary). These would include perception of appearance and attitude, equal pay for equal work – constitutional equality, reproductive rights, ending violence against women, and more. Early thinkers, including Sappho, Hildegard of Bingen, Christine de Pisan, and more are considered the “foremothers of the modern women’s movement” (Rampton). There are three waves of feminism spanning from the late nineteenth century to present day. They encompass the first through the current attempts and successes of what women have fought for in their role in modern society. Roles of women have changed over the past 150 years in the home, the workforce and workplace, the church, and in the educational system. Despite great improvements in equality