Womens oppression in womens perspective - Essay Example

Women’s Oppression in Women’s Perspective Introduction Simon de Beauvoir, Jeanne Hyvrard, Darina Al-Joundi, and Mary Wollstonecraft, even though a dedicated all-time existentialist, claim restrictions to the existentialist principle of self-definition and self-creation, reinforce the total freedom of Sartre. On the contrary, these feminists represents an unclear image of human freedom, where in women endures the evident weaknesses of the female body. In the novels of these feminists, namely, (1) La femme rompue by Hyvrard, (2) Le Jeune Morte En Robe De Dentelle by Al-Joundi, (3) and Le jour ou Nina Simone a cesse de chanter by Simon de Beavouir, they outline a form of existential development of a woman’s existence: a narrative of how an attitude of a woman towards her being, body, and societal roles transforms, and of how society shapes this belief. In their novels, they discuss the core of the central issue of female representation: Are the alleged weaknesses of the female body ‘real’ weaknesses which are present objectively in every society, or are they only ‘interpreted’ to be disadvantages by the human society? These feminists resolve this issue by examining empirical evidence of the different levels of female existence. In these pieces of empirical evidence the female body is embodied as both negative and positive, and females as both free and oppressed. The female body is the place of this uncertainty, because she can employ it as a means to here liberty and feel demoralised by it. There is no fundamental reality of the issue: it relies upon the degree to which a woman views herself as a liberated entity rather than society’s object of denigration. Hyvrard (1990) remarked that whatever we see, such as other individuals, is made an ‘object’ of our scrutiny and is stereotyped by us. De Beauvoir adopts this argument and relates it to men’s view of women. The core idea of ‘woman’, as argued by de Beauvoir (1997), is a masculine notion: the female is constantly the ‘other’ because the man is the ‘seer’ (Alison 2005, 81): ‘he is subject and she the object—the ‘meaning’ of what it is to be a woman is given by men’ (ibid, p. 81). In the aforementioned novels, which will be the sources of the analysis of feminist themes in French literature, it was argued that it is not the natural position of women as such that comprises a disadvantage: it is how a woman sees this situation which makes it negative or positive. As shown in Al-Joundi’s novel, none of the unique experiences of women, such as the menstruation, pregnancy, have a significance in themselves; however, in an oppressive or antagonistic society they can acquire an essence of being a disadvantage and a weakness, as women decide to accept the stereotypes of a patriarchal society. De Beauvoir (1997) stresses that pre-adolescent girls and boys are actually not especially different: they “have the same interests and the same pleasures” (ibid, p. 295).This essay will review the feminist themes of the French novels mentioned above, with an emphasis on the works of De Beauvoir and Wollstonecraft. The Oppression of the Female Body De Beauvoir (1997) claims that as the development of a female’s body takes place, each new phase is endured and separates her ever more roughly from the opposite sex. As the female body develops, society responds in a more and more aggressive and threatening way. Wollstonecraft (2004) refers to the dynamic of ‘becoming’, which is the mechanism whereby an individual understands oneself as a bodily, and sexual being open to the scrutiny of others. This does not have to be detrimental, but inopportunely, girls are frequently compelled to ‘become’ against their free will (De Beauvoir 1997): The young girl feels that her body is getting away from her... on the street men follow her with their eyes and comment on her anatomy. She would like to be invisible; it frightens her to become flesh and to show flesh (ibid, p. 333). According to Al-Joundi (2008), there are a lot of other similar occurrences in the life of a maturing girl which strengthen the idea that it is unfortunate to become a ‘woman’. The female body is viewed as a pain, a burden, a humiliation, a disability to contend with, unpleasant, discomfited, and so on. Even when a young girl decides to ignore that she possesses a female body, the larger society will eventually tell her again. De Beavoir provides a number of instances of this (Alison 2005): ...the mother who frequently criticises her daughter’s body and posture, thus making her feel self-conscious; the ‘man on the street’ who makes a sexual comment about a young girl’s body, making her feel ashamed; and a girl’s embarrassment as male relatives make jokes about her menstruation (ibid, p. 116). Nevertheless, Wollstonecraft (2004) provides encouraging instances of possessing a female body. She argues that there are circumstances where in women can be secure with their bodies—certainly, not just secure, but proud and blissful. Imagine a young girl who likes strolling in the woods, sensing a deep bond to nature. She bears a remarkable sense of bliss and liberty in her being which she does not experience in a social setting. In the natural environment there are no male scrutiny, there are no mothers to disapprove of her. She does not reflect her own self through the eyes of others, and hence is at long last free to characterize her own body. However, according to Hyvrard (1990), she cannot forever take her refuge to the natural world. As part of being a member of a patriarchal culture she should sooner or later experience a further upsetting episode—introduction to sexual activities. Sexual encounter is physically more distressing for women because it requires penetration and normally some resultant pain. In a cultural sense, it is more painful because girls are imprisoned in a higher state of unawareness than boys, and are usually not prepared for the future. Culturally as well, there are particular processes of sexual encounters which prevail, which may not be best for the enjoyment of female. De Beauvoir (1997) stresses that the sexual education of girls has a tendency to be largely of the ‘romantic’ type, which highlights the courtship stage and the bliss of gentle touch, but certainly not the intercourse; hence when sexual penetration finally takes place, it looks like very far from the passionate feelings a girl has dreamed of. De Beauvoir sarcastically remarks that for the surprised woman “love assumes the aspect of a surgical operation” (De Beauvoir 1997, 404). In the end, it is the biological intercourse as such which brings about the frustration, or is it the socially- and culturally-conditioned unawareness of women? Wollstonecraft (2004) believes the biological realities do not have to be upsetting: the frustration is because of the absence of kindness in the sexual actions of a man, alongside the woman’s fear of turning into an object before a hostile sexual scrutiny. She proposes that the means to a more encouraging sexual encounter for both sexes is through each side behaving in sexual kindness towards the other, instead of self-centred sexuality. The experience of bearing a child is more encouraging, but still an uncertain event for women. As stated by Hyvrard (1990), it can be both an unjust incursion of her body and also an amazing development. As the pregnancy of a woman matures, society has a tendency to view her less sexually appealing, as not sexually accessible anymore. This implies that she for the time being breaks out of the other sex’s sexual scrutiny. This is an encouraging episode for a woman, as argued by De Beauvoir (1997) since “now she is no longer in service as a sexual object, but she is the incarnation of her species, she represents the promise of life, of eternity” (ibid, p. 518). How about if a woman matures? The aging female is portrayed by De Beauvoir (1997) as “intent on struggling against a misfortune that was mysteriously disfiguring and deforming her” (ibid, p. 595). This is quite a discouraging portrayal of the process of aging. It brings to mind the ambiance of a cosmetics ad which forces women to purchase their products to fight time. Yet, the description of De Beauvoir is a truthful one. It is known from her autobiographical works that she actually had difficulties accepting her aging self: she was attractive, she was fond of clothes, and felt depressed when she sees that she was becoming unattractive (Alison 2005). However, as a scholar she was successful in contemplating and realising that this belief was because of an excessive value given by society on such short-lived qualities. She had recognised the definition of society of her value as her personal character. De Beauvoir, similar to Al-Joundi, does recognise that as a woman continues through the approaching age, she might discover herself in a more encouraging phase of existence: “She can also permit herself defiance of fashion and of ‘what people will say’, she is freed from social obligations, dieting, and the care of her beauty” (De Beauvoir 1997, 595). Therefore, according to Wollstonecraft (2004), even though old age has numerous demoralising features, it can offer a form of escape from the tension and demands of society. Likewise, Hyvrard (1990) argue that the urge to obey the rules is raised, and freedom enhances. The point of the four novelists is that freedom requires room to move. In the female embodiment’s situation, there is usually no space for women to actually view their bodily qualities through their own scrutiny, because the male scrutiny dominates everywhere. The interconnections of the mind and body contribute in the explanation of women’s oppression. According to Wollstonecraft (2004), women do not want to see their bodies and physical developments in a negative way; instead they are compelled to do so as an outcome of being entrenched in an antagonistic patriarchal culture. On this perspective the body is not merely the entity we can control and play with, it is influenced by a range of beliefs. Similarly, Al-Joundi (2008) argues that the way we think reflect on it is not an issue of free will unless we belong to a culture which allocates room for that liberty. What these four feminist thinkers aim to bring about is the creation of a space for that liberty to thrive. Now, what strangely indicates the condition of a woman is that she, as an independent and free human being, nonetheless discovers herself inhabiting a world where the other sex force her to accept the position of the ‘other’. They suggest to pacify her as a lesser being and to force her to ‘remain within’ since her being is to be overwhelmed and for all eternity surpassed by another conscience which is fundamental and supreme. As similarly shown in the four French novels, the narrative of woman rests in this disagreement between the core ambitions of every conscience—who constantly considers the self as the vital and the pressures of a situation where in she is the insignificant. How can an individual in the situation of a woman achieve realisation? What paths are available to her? Which roads are inaccessible? How can autonomy be restored in a condition of dependency? What conditions restrict the freedom of women and how can they be surmounted? These are the core questions that formed the themes of De Beauvoir, Wollstonecraft, Hyvrard, and Al-Joundi. This implies that they are all concerned with the lucks and destinies of human beings as characterised not in terms of contentment but with regard to freedom. Conclusions Quite apparently the issue of women oppression would be without relevance if people are to think that the fate of women is unavoidably predetermined by economic, psychological, or physiological factors. Thus feminist scholars talked about, above all, the situation where in women are seen by historical materialism, psychoanalysis, and biology. Future feminist writers should then attempt to show precisely how the notion of the ‘genuinely feminine’ has been formed, or why the female body has been stereotyped as the ‘other’, and the implications of all of these from the point of view of the opposite sex. Then from the perspective of the woman feminist scholars should portray the world where in women should inhabit; and hence we may be capable of envisioning the predicaments in their context as, attempting to make their flight from the world assigned to them until now, they desire absolute membership in the contemporary humanity. References Al-Joundi, D. Le jour ou Nina Simone a cesse de chanter, Actes Sud, 2008. Alison, H. Simone de Beauvoir’s Fiction. London: Peter Lang, 2005. De Beauvoir, S. The Second Sex. New York: The Vintage Classics, 1997. De Beauvoir, S. La Femme Rompue: L’Age de discretion. Pennsylvania State University: Gallimard, 1999. Hyvrard, J. Le Jeune Morte En Robe De Dentelle, Des Femmes Editions, 1990. Wollstonecraft, M. A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. London: Penguin Classics, 2004. Read More