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An Altering of Gender Roles
Both the folk tale Tam Lin and the creation myth Popol Vuh deal with the rebellion of societal gender roles in different cultures. In the Scottish tale Tam Lin, a maiden Janet leaves to go to the forest alone and gets impregnated by Tam Lin. She rebels the notion in society that women can not be independent and have sex outside of marriage. In the Mayan myth Popol Vuh, Lady Blood, another maiden, decides to go to a forest alone. She is impregnated by the skull of Hunahpu, stuck within a tree. Just like Janet, Lady Blood rebels her father and the notions of gender roles, resulting in both of their pregnancies outside of marriage.
Both Tam Lin and Janet are not the typical man and woman of 16th century Scotland.
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Tam Lin does not act as masculine as a man living alone in the forest would seem to be. Janet offends and saddens him when she takes a rose from his forest: She had na pu’d a double rose, A rose but only twa, Till up when started young Tam Lin, Says, Lady, thou’s pu nae mae. Why pu’s thou rose, Janet, And why breaks thou the wand? (39A.5 – 39A.6) Janet had just arrived in his forest and when Tam Lin saw her pick a rose, he becomes sad because he admires the beauty of the rose.
Usually a masculine character in a story does not have these feminine qualities. Janet also does not act like a typical woman when she leaves home to go to Carterhaugh by herself. She even rolls up her skirt and fixes her hair to make her look more beautiful because she intends to seduce Tam Lin. Her plan works and she becomes pregnant with Tam Lin’s child. When she returns home her father instantly realizes that she bears a child: “And ever alas, sweet Janet,’ he says, / I think thou gaes wi child’ (39A.13). Janet reveals to him that the father of her child is an elf, rather boldly with no shame. It’s once again another rebellious act of Janet against the men …show more content…
around. Lady Blood, a maiden and daughter of a lord, similar to Janet, decides to explore the forest alone. She finds a tree with the skull of Hunahpu placed in it. Hunahpu spits on her hand, resulting in her impregnation. When she reaches home, her father Gathered Blood notices the children within her womb. He believes that she has fornicated with a man. She argues she can not be blamed because she was unaware that Hunahpu’s spit would impregnate her: “Who is responsible for the child that is in your womb, my daughter?” he asked. “I have no child, my father,” she replied.
“I have not known the face of any man.”
“Very well then. It is true that you are a fornicator.”
“Sacrifice her, you war councilors,” the four owls were told. “Then bring back her heart inside a bowl so that the lords may examine it this day.”
Her father loses his trust in her and decides that she must be sacrificed to the gods for her wrongdoings. But her planned sacrifice is when Lady Blood is able to trick and defeat all of the lords: “Now while they were bent over, the owls went to guide the maiden up to the hole leading above the earth”. With the help of the owls and her wit, she escapes the lords as they are examining her heart. Lady Blood rebels against societal gender roles by proving that she can outsmart the men around
her. Both Janet and Lady Blood do not seem to have any mothers or maternal figures in their lives. This mainly results in both of the maidens to not act like traditional women in their societies. Although women in Mayan society like Lady Blood had important roles such as bearing children and taking care of the fields, usually all of these roles occurred after marriage. Lady Blood, on the other hand, conceived a child outside of marriage so her actions were frowned upon. Although Janet also was impregnated, she was not punished as badly by her father. It seems like Scottish societies were more loose than Mayan societies about the freedom of women. Also in Scottish culture, men were not as masculine as their Mayan counterparts. As seen in the example of Tam Lin, some of his qualities seem more feminine. Both Scottish and Mayan societies have a mythos – a belief in supernatural forces. In the case of Tam Lin, the supernatural is elves and fairies while in the Popol Vuh, it consists of all of the lords and gods mentioned in the creation myth. Both myths deal with the rebellion of societal gender roles by both men and women.
...ne in shadowy corners, of mutilated orifices. Dead sometimes. And more often, unfortunately living to remember. Or to disassociate” (141-2). At this point Bertha has begun to sympathize with the bird; it is a victim, much like herself.
In the stories the Popol Vuh and Genesis, the gods punish their creations because they “regret” it, but the punishment is very different in each story.
The united States Declaration of independence states that all men are equal, but aren’t all women as well? Nowadays, the numbers for the population are at an increase for the support in gender equality, with the capture of feminist labels. The seek for equality between men and women, and criticize the privileges that arouse by gender differences. However in Old China, males control almost everything due to a patriarchal society. At that time, not only men, but also women are influenced by male chauvinism. In the Jade Peony, written by Wayson Choy, female characters are affected by an unequal perspective despite their age group.
Gender roles have been a predominant factor in our world since the early emergence of human societies whether they are positive or negative. They are based on expectations that societies have over the people in them. The Epic of Sunjata, shows us how men and women are treated almost equally in different forms. Women are praised for their ability to birth leaders, which is similar to the early Greek Society. In most societies, women are treated less equal than men. This was prevalent in the early Indian society. No matter the gender role, it has been shown that any society cannot survive without both men and women.
A devoted mother, Anne Bradstreet is concerned with her children as she watches them grow up. “Or lest by Lime-twigs they be foil'd, or by some greedy hawks be spoil'd” Anne Bradstreet uses to describe her fear for her children. Not wanting to see her children suffer, Anne Bradstreet turns to God to help her children. Bradstreet imagines her bird’s being stuck on a branch and a hawk eating them, a grim image of all of her sacrifice being lost in a single moment. “No cost nor labour did I spare” describes how much Anne loves her children.
Janet's wife Katy, can be typically classified as a "masculine" woman. Katy is a mechanic, who likes driving fast, fixing cars, and is not afraid to go camping without a gun. "Katy drives like a maniac; we must have been doing over 120 kilometers an hour on those turns... I've seen her take the whole car apart and put it together again in a day" (Russ 345).
Both texts demonstrate the consequences associated with patriarchy, and extend to show that equality, and proper treatment of women can only be achieved in a non-patriarchal society.
	During Janet’s young years she was forced to deal with difficult conditions at home. She recalls in an interview with Steve Pond in the December 1997 issue of ‘US magazine, "My father whipped me one time when I was a kid. But there was no rape or crap like that. You can begin to see how you feel less-than, not worthy, fraudulent. And that’s how I grew up feeling."(2) Despite problems with other family members Janet was always close with her mother. She said in the same interview with Steve Pond, "Mother always could feel when I wasn’t doing well, and she was incredible supportive." In Janet’s
Women have given birth to new generations for centuries and have the common stereotype of being caring and gentle. But in the creation myth, women were given to man as a punishment. In the book of collected Greek tales, " Mythology Timeless Tales of Gods and Heroes", by Edith Hamilton, women take up important roles that shape each story. Although women are usually characterized as being helpful and motherly, Greek mythology, on the other hand, portrays them to cause distress, fear, and anxiety to numerous men. Women’s actions are shown to be influenced with jealousy and vengeance which gives them an evil nature.
The first mother/ daughter pair whose experiences were shown are Lindo and Waverly. Lindo was born and raised in China, were women have very little rights, and no say in their futures. At a very young age Lindo was promised by a “matchmaker” to be married to a man when she was 15. She was told from the time she was a toddler that he “belonged” to her future husband, and was already his property and that she needed to act accordingly. At 15 she was forced to go marry a man she had very met, whose face she had never seen and whose age she didn’t know. She was expected to be subservient, obedient and dutiful wife who would produce a son for the Huang family. After her marriage her very, very young husband made it clear to her that he “was the husband and he made the rules” (The Joy Luck Club). When, through no fault of her own, she didn’t not produce a child with him all of the blame was placed on her and she was told if she continued to ...
mythology and artwork is in direct contrast to the more subservient role of women during
In conclusion, the development of the folktales leads to the obtaining of ideas about gender. In many ways our society supports the idea that women seem underestimated as well as physically and mentally weak in comparison with the men who is portrayed as intelligent and superior. This can be shown in many ways in the different versions of this folktale through the concepts of symbolic characters, plot and narrative perspective.
In order to understand the feminist theory, we have to understand the notions that although myths are invented and that they involve fantasy, the concept of mythology does not necessarily imply that there is no truth of history in them. Some of the humans may have lived while some of the events may have taken place. Most importantly, the social customs and the way of life depicted in the myths are a valuable representation of Greek society.
Thinking back to our childhood, we all remember hearing many kinds of fairy tales. Some of them inspired us others confused us, and most of them taught us valuable lessons. Through out centuries tales and stories have been used as a valuable tool to pass on our culture to new generations. There is a strong belief that these fairy tales mirror and influence society. All cultures interpret tales in their own unique way. They add and subtract various aspects of the tale to fit the needs of their particular society. The same tale in the United States is different from the tale told in Asia. A good example of tale evolution can be seen in one of the most famous tales ever told which is “Cinderella”. As a professor of women’s history Karol Kelley points out in her essay Pretty Woman: A Modern Cinderella “There are some 700 versions of Cinderella”.This fairy tale as many others has been changing for many years, and in recent years Cinderella has come under some criticism for its depiction of women’s roles in society.
Examples of cultural constructions can be seen throughout history in several forms such as gender, relationships, and marriage. “Cultural construction of gender emphasizes that different cultures have distinctive ideas about males and females and use these ideas to define manhood/masculinity and womanhood/femininity.” (Humanity, 239) In many cultures gender roles are a great way to gain an understanding of just how different the construction of gender can be amongst individual cultures. The video The Women’s Kingdom provides an example of an uncommon gender role, which is seen in the Wujiao Village where the Mosuo women are the last matriarchy in the country and have been around for over one thousand years. Unlike other rural Chinese villages where many girls are degraded and abandoned at birth, Mosuo woman are proud and run the households where the men simply assist in what they need. The view of gender as a cultural construct ...