Women and Society: Emerging from Sexual Politics - Essay Example

English 29 March Women and Society: Emerging from Sexual Politics Sexual politics is defined as the ideas and activities that are concerned with how power is shared between men and women, and how this share of power affects the relationships. Since the dawn of civilization, women have been battling against societal norms and beliefs to prove and to claim a rightful place in the society with equal recognition with men. The ignition between the battles of the sexes has been raised since then. Women and feminists of great will power and courage to change the biased sexual politics, deviated against the real power of women in the society, emerged from all corners of the world making the whole world realize of what women can truly do and contribute. Women nowadays are far from the stereotype women of the past, the ones who are behind the protective shadows of men and are bound to domestic and household chores and are stripped of the chance for education. The turning point has come of age and women finally were able to free themselves from the shadows of men and started marking their own mark in the society. One cannot deny the obvious examples of women’s propagation in the society today. Nowadays women have gained a lot of ground in many fields such as education, research, politics, labor force, and even more power within the households. Many women have championed in the fields of education, science and research. Most educators today are women despite the fact that education was not given for women in the past. Many women nowadays are in societal and political positions despite the fact that their voices were shut during the early years. Modern women are no longer stereotyped for household chores for they have started taking over man’s job as well. These are just some of the many things that can attest of women’s coming of age from a lame man’s assistant figure to a sophisticated, femininely strong symbol. The advent of the phenomenal modern day women indeed changed the way society looks upon the feminine populace. But the struggle for true freedom did not really stop and still continues to persist until today. Indeed women are recognized of the many societal contributions but the stigma of the past somehow still remains. Discrimination against women, sexual abuse, rape, power trip, sexual harassment, and physical and emotional battery against women still occurs. This is the very reason why feminists still struggle to push and implement rightful and better laws today. Such laws will protect equal rights of men and women that will eradicate the power struggle over who is the more dominant sex. Sylvia Plath and Adrienne Rich are just two of the millions of women that move for true feminine freedom from societal exploitations expressed through art and writing. Their literary works expressed an opinion of how women are viewed in the modern society. Sylvia Plath’s poem, Lady Lazarus, shows how today’s women are vulnerable to events and that are often taken for granted by the society. Plath describes a woman as a walking miracle after managing a tragic experience depicted in the poem as death. This only shows how women of today have managed to be strong amidst unfavorable events. Plath also somehow described a strong figure of a survivor in every woman after a terrible situation characterized by strong will to stand up again that continues to fight as if threatening the enemy with a sweet revenge (Plath as cited in Scholes et al. 2010). Women in Plath’s poetic description undergo in to transformation from every piece of suffering they feel from every experience. Death therefore does not only pertain to death per se in the physical aspect but rather entails the many angles of women’s struggle and existence today —physical, emotional, intellectual and even sexual sufferings from people within the society. Women have grown stronger and stronger from the abuses and exploits made against her. There is a charge for everything as Plath wrote; this charge may take account for how the justice system today accounts for the protection of women’s right and freedom from all injustices done upon females. There is a charge, a very large charge for a word or a touch as poetically written—today the society is no longer blind of the justice and has developed respect for women as an important figure in the society thus many laws were made and are pursued for the protection of women against many abuses (Plath as cited by Scholes et al 2010). Plath also depicted in the poem how women of today is of great value, described poetically as an opus, a valuable and a pure gold. Women needs to be valued for their contribution in the society and instead of doubting women’s capabilities rather it should be enhanced and supported. Women today contribute as much as men do much in terms of labor and income in households and economic point of view. Indeed women now have more grounds in terms of decision makings. In the household she is now in partnership with her husband and takes an important part in deciding for the goodness of the family. Both parents are sharing the responsibilities that come with the house and family. Women’s voices are now heard and have importance and value. Now equally, women and men can both be the bread winners and the societal role of women slowly changed. Though a great leap have happened in the societal role of women, somehow the dual sided dominant culture of men still lingers. Men in the words of Plath can be a doctor to cure and an enemy to cause injury. The end of the poem leaves a warning that once a woman is reborn, will rise out of the burdens and will eat men like air. This show how strong willed women of today is that once fed up will stop at nothing to get what is due of the abuse committed against her (Plath as cited by Scholes et al 2010). Plath’s Lady Lazarus is a deep analysis that reflects the suffering of women inflicted the society upon women and is a plea for a change, a revolution, and a reborn. Another feministic poem can be attributed of how women are treated by the society today and were written by Adrienne Rich. The poem “Rape” was originally published in a collection of poems titled Diving into the Wreck (1971-72). This poem gives an illustration of how women are on power struggle against men as the figures of authority today. It is a sad truth that amidst the fight against violation in women, most of the times the system of authority that should be the ones protecting women violates them instead. Taking for example the rape and battery cases filed against prominent figures of men. These injustices show a continuous battle of women until today against the tendency of men to dominate the sexual arena. Sometimes lack of sympathy can be felt among the authority for women. When a woman is raped the litigation process seemed to doubt her in her pursuit of justice. The sad truth wraps the two-faced society women are faced today. One face of the society confidently believes in women and their power and capabilities to bring forth change and betterment in the society. The other sad facade covers the violation committed against women, the disbelief that they can outran men in terms of power and abilities that leads to abuse of power. Still some sees women as the weak and vulnerable species that can be manipulated easy, and such beliefs often result in violation against women such as battery, rape, sexual harassments and power trips. This shows the truth that even though men today see women way beyond their beauty still the dilemma of men’s superiority over women often leads to violation against them. Work Cited Scholes R., Comley N., Klaus C. and Staines D. Elements of Literature: Fiction, Poetry, Drama. 4th Canadian Edition. Ontario: Oxford University Press, 2010. Print Read More