As a common theme in society, politics, and books, gendering originated from mythology. Hindu mythology repeatedly reinforces gendering in Indian society, in which the males have a certain point to prove and the females are forced to sacrifice their own happiness. In the Ramayana, a ruthless villain Ravan kidnaps Sita. Her husband, Rama, saves her, but then doubts her chastity because she has lived with another man for so long. Sita is then forced to prove her innocence. Stories with this same archetype are repeated throughout the Mahabharata, another Hindu mythological text. In this story, the female character, Draupadi, is the common wife for a group called the Pandavas. The Pandavas pawn her as a prize in a game against a villain named Duryodhana. The Pandavas lose, and Duryodhana takes Draupadi captive. As a standard characteristic of Hindu mythology, the female sacrifices for the male's ego. Hindu mythology epitomizes the roles of males and females, which as a result, influences gendering in modern-day society by disadvantaging females.
The Ramayana demonstrates Sita’s helplessness when she is kidnapped, which, in turn, makes the entire woman race look weak. Mahatma Gandhi once said, “The beauty of a woman did not consist in the "fineness of her dress, but in the possession of a pure heart. Such indeed was the purity of heart that Sita possessed, which led her to renounce royal life and leave for the forest with Rama” (Zacharias). Sita’s perseverance through her husband’s doubt made her an idol for all women. Before Sita’s trial, or ‘agnipariksha’, society looked at women as just objects rather than people. The Ramayana illustrates the destruction of this stereotype of women through Sita’s chastity. While the Ramayana demonst...
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Zacharias, Usha. "Trial by Fire: Gender, Power, and Citizenship in Narratives of the Nation." Social Text. Duke University, 19 Apr. 2001. Web. 18 Apr. 2014.
In the Epic of Gilgamesh, gender plays a very significant role. While women were not the most powerful gods nor the strongest or wisest of humans, they still had tremendous influence. Though the main characters of the story, Gilgamesh and Enkidu, are male, women did not play a necessarily minor role. With all the women that play a role in the Epic of Gilgamesh, gender is a topic worthy of discussion.
Men and women interact and make the world go around every single day. The idea of one gender being more important is very difficult to judge because men and women contribute equally and in different ways. The Laxdaela Saga is no exception to the interaction of men and women; much of the story depends upon these relationships. Although in medieval times women did not play a large role in society, they are very important in the Laxdaela Saga. Without the various gender related interactions the culture of medieval Iceland would not be as clearly understood one thousand years after the events have taken place.
The struggle for women to play an important role in history can be traced from the ancient Mesopotamians to the 1900’s. There has been a continuous battle for women to gain equal rights and to be treated equally in all aspects of life. The Epic of Gilgamesh is the oldest recorded account of the roles of women and their importance in a functional society. Women have been viewed as anything from goddesses to unwanted servants throughout history, regardless of a variety of changes in rulers, religions, and simply time periods. The Epic of Gilgamesh might lead one to consider the roles of women a small and insignificant part compared to the man's role.
...ard female sexuality. The female protagonists in the story—Sitt el-Husn, the old woman, and the third sister—are asexual, while the sexually potent older sisters and the Long-Haired Lady are all seen as dangerous. The men in the story feel that “giving in” to a woman sexually is allowing that woman control over them, and they are not ready for women to be equal to them. “The Promises of the Three Sisters” was told in a male-dominated society, and thus it begins with negative stereotypes of women: the conniving sisters, the extremely sensitive Sitt el-Husn. However, as the story progresses, Sitt el-Husn breaks the stereotype and is seen by her brother as an equal. Shattering the male-female stereotypes is necessary in order to achieve understanding between the sexes.
Johnson, Emily Pauline. "A Cry From An Indian Wife" Brown, Russell, Donna Bennett, eds. An Anthology of Canadian Literature in English. Third Edition. University of Oxford Press, 2010. 228.
Narayan’s article raises many questions about third world issues are perceived by western bodies. In her article, Dislocating Cultures: Identities, Traditions, and Third World Feminism, she looks at the “‘effects’ that national contexts have on the construction of feminist issues and the ways in which understandings of issues are then affected by border crossings across national boundaries” and how culture is invoked in explaining the forms of violence that stem from these issues (p.213). She explains this phenomenon by focusing on dowry murder in India. Dowry murder has caused a large outcry and shock, even on the path of the author. But there is a certain shock that stems from western individuals, which tends to ‘exoticize’ and reinforce the notion of the other regarding Indian culture. She refers to Elisabeth Bumiller’s novel, May You be the Mother of a Hundred Sons: A Journey among the Women of India, and she narrows her focus down to chapter three “Flames: A Bride Burning and a Sati.” The author provides a context for understanding her story, in which she mentions a brief account of the mythological Goddess Sita, who threw
In Nina Paley’s interpretation, the story focuses primarily on Sita and her emotional traumas during her capture and recovery, which were represented quite differently in the film than in the book. It is important to note that in The Ramayana, Sita played a much smaller role in the grand scheme of things. Sita was represented as a good little submissive wife, ever faithful and true to husband and she was eager to prove her devotion which was also characteristic of the woman’s traditional role in a patriarchal society in which she was reflective of India’s values and social norms.
Whereas the relationship between Maha and Harb is one of passion and love, Ihsan and Nadia are the complete opposite. Nadia hates how Ihsan looks at her as a woman always and never a person. She struggles to prove her capability of being an individual and forming an identity of her own that is separate and goes beyond Mrs. Natour. She proves that she can ‘think and feel’ for herself and by herself. In the West where we have women out on the streets rallying for equality between men and women, fighting in the armies, present in the workforce, these victories may seem minute. However if one pays close attention to social structures and social norms in different cultures one can realize that this challenging and questioning is as important and holds as much weight as getting equal wages for women in America.
“The general subject of [Jamison’s] book is the conceptual position of women in early Indic culture, but it is not designed as an inclusive overview of women in ancient India and all the institutions and attitudes affecting them. Rather it focuses on a single, apparently marginal female role-the activities of the wife in solemn ritual… and isolates a set of conceptual functions the wife fills in ritual practice” (Jamison 4).
Comparatively men are not subject to gender constraints. Rama asserts that, “I am a king and my first and final dharma is toward my people”(Valmiki,649). In contrast Sita endures extreme events of calamity dependent upon Rama. Rama mentions, “Do not think of a moment Sita that I came for your sake” (Valimiki, 494). Therefore women are portrayed as secondary to honor and status of men. The role of women is predetermined to exemplify a paradigm wife, with contrastingly miniscule reciprocal behavior from the role men. Women are viewed as property of men vulnerable to suffering and hardship at the demands of the male characters. The men are liberated from gender constraints whereas women are sexually oppressed with a role dependent upon their relationship and subordinate nature to their
Women chose to Sati voluntarily because they want to bring competence to their clan. Also it is one of way to show the death of heroism is instructive. But, there are some different from Sati, the Brahmin women should join with husband and should die on his pyre. On the other hand, Julia Leslie emphasizes that understanding and judging. Understanding how Sati importance is in women and men’s mind. Furthermore, judging how patriarchal society and women persecute themselves.She divides the definition of Sati in two ways, victim and victor. She figured out the conclusion is that “A strategy for dignity in a demeaning world”. Normally, Sati is an only chance for women to confer a posthumous title and increase the level of status in Hindu society. The issue is due to values and gender ranking in Indian
The t0pic 0f the research paper is 0n KAMALA DAS as a C0nfessi0nal p0et with special reference t0 her P0em DANCE 0F THE EUNUCHS. Kamala Das is perhaps the m0st interesting and c0ntr0versial figure in p0st-c0l0nial Indian English p0etry. She writes with 0utsp0kenness and truthfulness unusual in Indian c0ntext. Her private experiences and 0bservati0ns are portrayed in her poems but those familiarities and interpretations appear t0 bec0me universal. Her v0ice als0 symb0lizes the m0dern w0men’s v0ice wh0 wants t0 free her fr0m the religi0us 0rth0d0xy (d0s and d0n’ts). Being a c0nfessi0nal p0et, Kamala Das takes the reader int0 the w0rld 0f her private life and unveils the delicate facts and even the bedr00m secrets.
The fact that goddesses play such a vital role in the mythology of Hinduism, command the same amount of worship, and are allowed to act independent of gender politics is strange, considering the almost totally subservient role expected of women in Hindu society. There is great disparity between the power, freedom wielded by, and worship directed towards these goddesses, and the actual human women who adhere to its beliefs. In the world of myth, goddesses like Parvati are equal to their husbands; their marriage a greater whole made up of the sum of its parts. But in reality, Hindu women are expected to act more in line with human characters in their mythology like Sita, who existed solely to serve the whims of her husband. Despite the revered
Most of socio-cultural and religious traditions in their original form regarded a comparatively low position to woman. Controlled by patriarchy, woman has suffered discrimination, subjugation, otherness either as a lesser being or as a super being. A number of social and literary movements have helped women attain equality and independence. 20th century has witnessed an increasing awareness amongst women about their sexuality, desires, discovery of self-identity and existence. The contemporary writers are striving to provide the desired liberation to women from the socio-cultural confines and the dictatorial myths. In order to achieve gender-equal epics, there has been a resurge in countless revisits/ re-tellings of The Ramayana and Mahabharata. Amish Tripathi, Devdutt Pattanaik, Volga, Kumaran Asan, Vijaya Dabbe, Vayu Naidu and Kavita Kane are some of such authors who have attempted to re-visit/re-tell Ramayana from Sita’s perspective. These writers have emphasized on her humanity, they have perceived her indulging in day-to-day activities, highlighting her involvement in the ordinary works. Sita is portrayed as someone with agency. She is a resourceful woman and an inspiration to other women. She chooses her own actions instead of blindly following someone’s commands. Instead of being a passive character, she actively learns things from different situations and continues to find herself at different phases in her life. The study, for the detailed explication of its hypothesis, would focus on the following as primary
In ancient India, the apotheosis of traditional Hindu womanhood was the concept of pativrata, which called for total subordination of a woman in the service of the supreme deity in the form of her husband. There was no corresponding concept of conjugal loyalty spelt out for husbands as a man had the supreme power in society. Subjected to unprecedented subordination, women were not only deprived of the right to formal education, but also denied the right to property and were treated as mere items of property.1 In the backdrop of this patriarchal society, the practice of Sati gained popularity, especially among the upper classes2. The word Sati refers to the burning of a widow on the funeral pyre of her husband, often seen as a manifestation