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History of women's role in ancient years
Gender roles in ancient society
History of women's role in ancient years
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Throughout history, women have been consistently perceived as weak, unknowledgeable, and obedient; Eve, Mother Jones, and Billy Tipton do not encompass that kind of woman. Eve, the main character of the story of Genesis, begins the entire existence of women with her disobedience which, in turn, made women guilty of all the worlds sin. Mother Jones was an activist, a cleaver and intelligent woman who fought for the rights of child and adult laborers. “Billy” Tipton was a jazz performer, who to progress his career, decided to pose as a man. Billy Tipton, whose intentions may have seemed narcissistic, remodeled the way that gender was perceived. These three woman opposed authority in a way that society was not used to seeing, and that makes each …show more content…
one of them the revolutionary women that they are. All three women were marginalized by their culture, which caused them to act the way that they did.
Culture, according to Richard H. Robbins, the author of Cultural Anthropology: A Problem-Based Approach, the system of meanings about the nature of experience that are shared by a people and passed on from one generation to another. In all of their cultures, it was expected that they would not cause riffs and be obedient to everyone, especially men. These women fought harder against these ideas, and this fight created a new culture. The culture in the United States that we have today, one of growing equality for women in which we can say anything, love anyone, and be anyone that we want, was formed from the ideals and actions of these radical …show more content…
women. Eve encompassed the language that society deems to be for women, as a symbol, and this effected the way that Billy Tipton and Mother Jones changed the societies that they each lived in. As stated by Robbins, Totemism is the use of a symbol, generally an animal or a plant, as a physical representation for a group, generally a clan: Eve is the symbol that encompasses women. Billy Tipton had experienced the being symbol of being a woman, and saw that to get the recognition that she desired in the Jazz community, needed a different symbol, but she brought some of Eve with her. Tipton became a man, but still remained deceitful and insurgent. Mother Jones, also felt what it was to be related to the symbol of Eve, and used that negative connotation to her advantage. By being seen as a feeble, confused, old woman the forces she was apposing rarely anticipated her attacks. Eve begins all of human creation with her opposition of God’s simple rule, but this is exactly why God put the tree in the garden.
The language used to describe Eve, gullible, unintelligent, and especially weak. The Sapir-Whorf Hypothesis is the idea that there is an explicit link between grammar of a language and the culture of the people who speak that language, according to Robbins. Eve, it has been perceived, was weak to her impulses and desires. Eve is the tipping point for the rest of the women of the world to see opposition to authority as a necessity, rather than a sin; Eve creates a new culture for women. Billy Tipton redefined what it meant to be called a “man”, “father”, “husband”, and “musician” by showing that without biologically being a man he could do and be all of those things very well, opposing what society expected from him. Mother Jones, from simply being named “Mother” opposed the way one traditionally thinks of a “mother”. Mother Jones was a caring and nurturing woman mixed with strength and intelligent, typically believed to be qualities of
men. The myth that goes along with Eve’s story is one of forward thinking and defiance, and encircles everything that is a myth, for Billy Tipton and Mother Jones. A Myth, defined by Robbins, is a story or narrative that portrays the meanings people give to their experience. Eve is the tipping point for these women to show them that going against authority for the greater good, and creates a healthy society. Billy Tipton and Mother Jones did what Eve did for them, for the current and future societies. Billy Tipton and Mother Jones have shown us that what can be done when you work for what you want, and not to let anything stand in the way of that. The myths of Eve, Billy Tipton, and Mother Jones have given meaning to their own experiences and, in turn, have given meaning to each of our lives. These three revolutionary women have shaped the society that we live in today, and without their contributions I do not know where our society would be today. These three women showed us all that revolution and opposition are a necessary part of life and made it typical. This idea of “typical” is something that has and will continue to change society. Changing what is believed to be typical is what allows people to continue to make abnormal ideas typical, and that is no easy undertaking. Appreciation and admiration is what all three of these women deserve, but let us truly reward them with continued societal reform.
Society continually places specific and often restrictive standards on the female gender. While modern women have overcome many unfair prejudices, late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century women were forced to deal with a less than understanding culture. Different people had various ways of voicing their opinions concerning gender inequalities, including expressing themselves through literature. By writing a fictional story, authors like Charlotte Perkins Gilman and Henry James were given the opportunity to let readers understand and develop their own ideas on such a serious topic.
Octavia Butler’s trilogy Lilith’s Brood contains a myriad of characters who would be marked as “different” in contemporary American society, whether it is because of their race, gender, sex, or species. Their differences are often the catalyst for conflict between others who see themselves as more normal and, therefore, better and higher ranked in the human hierarchy. Butler’s disdain for human hierarchical tendencies is clear in Lilith’s Brood as she often calls human intelligence and hierarchy “the human contradiction”. Using the protagonists Lilith, Akin, and Jodahs, Butler criticizes the misconceptions formulated about race, sex, and gender and, through their interactions with others, underlines the illogical harassment that often derives from the fear of what we do not yet understand.
In the article, “There is No Word for Feminism in My language” written by Laura Tohe, introduce the dine women culture to the world. Before reading the article, Indian American or Native American’s culture was either about gambling or living deserted away from civilization, but I was wrong. Unlike my first thoughts about Tohe’s culture, dine women felt proud, strong and honor in their society that make it unnecessary for a term such as feminism to be in their language. The term Feminism leads to the women right movement to be equally with men socially, politically, and economically in the western world. Why there is no word for feminism in Tohe’s language? There are many elements
In her article, “Feminist Hermeneutics and Biblical Studies”, Phyllis Trible discusses the issues centered toward women in the bible (Trible). She addresses issues not just concerning equality, but also how men viewed women in biblical times. Trible examines the role of women in the bible, and the misconception they carry, that leads many into harms way.
In conclusion, Gilman shared her story through a work of fiction, showing how women were really seen in society. The stereotypical man did not see women as an equal, but more as a puppet. Women would go along with whatever their husbands or male family members would say, because they were not allowed to voice their opinions and the men would not listen to them.
The existing notion held by some men at that time was that men were superior over women and that women are inherently the feeble gender. However, de Pizan questions this claim by alluding to the Bible. De Pizan asserts, “There he made Adam fall asleep and formed the body of woman from one of his ribs, which signifies that she should be at is side as a companion and not at his feet like a slave, and also that he should love her as his own flesh” (de Pizan 132). De Pizan provides a new, provocative interpretation of this bible excerpt by contending that God Himself intended for women to be equal to men, rather than inferior. Because Eve was formed from Adam’s flesh, De Pizan concludes that men and women, who both have the same flesh, blood and of the same constitution in all respects, are equal powers. She challenges the misogyny that has plagued her time by referring to a literary text that men cannot state as false. Although de Pizan’s beliefs that women are not inferior to men were considered unconventional during her lifetime, they helped serve as a model for feminism centuries later. Jill E. Wagner from the University of Iowa, argues in her scholarly journal, “Christine de Pizan 's City of Ladies: A Monumental Reconstruction of, by, and for Women of All Time,” that, “Christine builds a feminist framework for the future. She can be considered the founder of the modern women 's movement, [by]
Rosaldo, Michelle Zimbalist, “Woman, Culture, and Society: A Theoretical Overview”, in Lamphere, Louise & Rosaldo, Michelle Zimbalist, Ed. Woman, Culture, and Society. Stanford CA: Stanford University Press. 1974.
The number of feminist scholars critically assessing Biblical narrative has risen since the second feminist movement of the 1970s (Scholz 2014). A common theme of their scholarship has been to what extent the Bible may be seen to favour men. Some feminist scholars may not be able to legitimately assess the Bible and remain faithful to it because of such outdated views on women in a time when women’s equality is encouraged. I will firstly discuss the difficulties of being a feminist scholar and a Christian or Jew with particular reference to belonging to men, being of less value in society, and finally with a focus on key issues arising from Genesis 2 and 3 whereby gender roles and woman’s blame for the Fall of Man have been central to feminist interpretations. I will then assess ways in which such difficulties may be overcome with a different interpretation, beginning with refuting claims concerning the Creation story. This will be followed by analysing how the Bible is read and the value of historical context when doing so. By discussing these aspects, I will reach a conclusion as to how far you can be both a feminist scholar and a faithful Christian or Jew.
Elizabeth A. Johnson draws attention to how, despite being considered equal in Genesis, women had their worth ignored “Consistently subordinated and demeaned in the theories, symbols, rituals,
In our present era, there is no doubt that the evolution of women's rights has come a long way. It is in the Western Culture that these values for which women have fought for generations, are in conflict with Genesis 1-3. The events that occur in this "creation story" are crucial in that it begins when God creates man in his own likeness and man is given domination over all living things. The significance is the prominence given to men; God is male and his most important creation is male. The biblical account underlines the supremacy of man while making it clear that women play an inferior role. Furthermore, the biblical account also describes how woman are disobedient and yield to temptation, the result of which is the expulsion of both Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden. In the poem "How Cruel is the Story of Eve", Stevie Smith's castigation towards the biblical story of Eve demonstrates how women have been victims of despair and suffering since the beginning of time. She holds it responsible for cruelty towards women in history, she implies that the values derived from the story of Eve were forced upon women without choice, and finally, she challenges the authenticity of the religious tale on a whole. Without a doubt, women have fallen victim to an untrue, religious tale from the beginning of time, and the poem is an outcry representing the suffering of women throughout history.
As Virginia Wolfe once stated, “For most of history, Anonymous was a woman” ( ). The word female has had countless meanings throughout its lifespan. Females can be seen as lowly and cheap, regal and sophisticated, or weak and underutilized. It has only been in the last 70 years that women have gained a foothold in society, to gain the rights they deserve. In the late 1800’s a new writer Charlotte Perkins Gilman questioned society’s views on the idea of being female and tried to make them understand that females are a force to be reckoned with and not a doormat for men to step on. She would not stand to be labeled anonymous.
Anthropologists define the term culture in a variety of ways, but there are certain shared features of the definition that virtually all anthropologists agree on. Culture is a shared, socially transmitted knowledge and behavior. The key features of this definition of culture are as follows. 1) Culture is shared among the members of that particular society or group. Thus, people share a common cultural identity, meaning that they recognize themselves and their culture's traditions as distinct from other people and other traditions. 2) Culture is socially transmitted from others while growing up in a certain environment, group, or society. The transmission of cultural knowledge to the next generation by means of social learning is referred to as enculturation or socialization. 3) Culture profoundly affects the knowledge, actions, and feelings of the people in that particular society or group. This concept is often referred to as cultural knowledge that leads to behavior that is meaningful to others and adaptive to the natural and social environment of that particular culture.
What is culture? Culture refers to the cumulative deposit of knowledge, experience, beliefs, values, attitudes, meanings, hierarchies, religion, notions of time, roles, spatial relations, concepts of the universe, and material objects and possessions acquired by a group of people in the course of generations through individual and group striving
Rhode, D. (2000). Culture Establishes Gender Roles.Male/female roles: opposing viewpoints (pp. 22-24). San Diego, Calif.: Greenhaven Press
Cultural feminism is important concept to our society. This idea is in favor of females, and brings out the benefits of being a female and not taking anything away from them, that women can live equal in a masculinity environment. Females and males both have qualities that society points out that the certain genders should have, and cultural feminism embraces those qualities instead of changing our society’s views. Cultural feminism is important because it embraces the idea the women and men are different and that the differences are okay, and that we should embrace the differences of both and become more humane.