How Women Use Sexuality to Get the Power They Want - Research Paper Example

? Type Type Your Type 20 May How Women Use the Sexuality to Get the Power They Want Introduction A person’s gender encompasses infinite characteristics of appearance, movements, speech, and many other factors not solely limited to biological sex. In gender system, everyone is categorized as male or female and in some societies, third gender is also present who plays both male and female role. The phenomenon of attraction of man towards woman or man towards man or woman towards woman is natural. This attraction takes place in different ways depending on different situation, sometimes this attraction is physical, political, sometimes it is related to business, sometimes social factor is included, and sometimes the reason is economical. Now, when sexuality is discussed, it includes many factors like sex, gender identity, emotional attraction, affection, romance, lust etc. Sexuality contains two main attributes that are: sexual behaviour and sexual desire. The play Orestia-Agamemnon reflects the same in which, Clytemnestra is the wife of king Agamemnon, who planned her husband’s murder because she wanted to take the revenge for the sacrifice of their daughter Iphigenia and the another reason was that Agamemnon was out of country for ten years and thus Clytemnestra entered into an adulterous relationship with Aegisthus who was the cousin of Agamemnon. She seduced Aegisthus to such extent that they both entered in a strong mental and physical relationship. They could not stay far from each other because of all the sexual elements that attracted them towards each other. Clytemnestra used all her feminine wiles to attract Aegisthus towards herself. Aegisthus love made her so selfish that she didn’t care about her husband and made a plan to kill him in order to live with Aethisthus. At the end of the day, she got success in her plan and killed her husband. Then she began to live with her love, Aegisthus, and they were blessed with three children and lived as a king and queen. The queen’s role in this plays shows that by using her sexuality she convinced king’s cousin to such extent mentally and physically that he helped her all the time. This shows that if a woman wants, she can get power over what she wants using her sexuality in any manner. If we discuss the novel Arthurian Romances as an example, we will find out that Elaine falls in love with Lancelot when he rescues her from boiling bath. Lancelot was already in love with Queen Guinevere but in order to seduce Lancelot Elaine takes help from her serving woman named Dame Brusen. Dame gives Lancelot wine and Elaine a ring of Guinevere's in order to trick Lancelot into thinking Elaine is Guinevere. Lancelot slept with Elaine as he was drunk, but Elaine seduced him to such extent by using her feminine wiles and sexual orientation that Lancelot could not keep control on himself and she got pregnant by Lancelot. Elaine used her sexuality attributes to get Lancelot and she succeeded in her goal, by using her wisdom, gender and sex. Further discussion is given below which defines how woman use the various attributes of her sexuality to get the power she wants. Attributes of the Women’s Sexuality to Get the Power They Want 1. Personality Personality of women is one of the aspects that fall under the category of “feminine sexuality.” Tasks that are based on gender result that women exhibit more power than man to get what they want on most of the verbal and non-verbal measures while on the other hand, men displays greater power than women when it comes to non-gender-linked tasks (Dovidio, Brown, and Heltman 580-587). Personality development is not the result of parent’s teachings only, but it is developed because of the society, environment and the gatherings by which we are surrounded. Almost in every society women is brought up in an adorable way (Juschka 87). Female is an emotional gender, driven by their feelings and for them gender is a help not hindrance in any field of life or for accomplishing any task in the world. This is the fact, when we see any women on the top especially in man-dominated fields; a question appears in everyone’s mind, how did she reach the top? Ladies are successful because of their personality in every part of the world and every field whether we talk about politics, business, society, and home, etc (Brown and Carvell). Sexual Orientation Sex Sex is the need of every living creature and women throughout history have used their sexuality as a strategy to gain power they want. Some experts on male-female relations have views that women go for the option of sex to attain love while men use love to get sex. Love and sexuality are so intertwined that one cannot be separated from another but to get love, women use their feminine wiles. From birth to death, women are stronger and can attract any male towards them by using their sexual tactics, and this is a fact that sexual curiosity is men’s driving emotion. Women use their sexuality in different ways, for different reasons, under different circumstances to achieve their goals and to get their desired outcomes. Attractive and beautiful women have a great potential to exert a lot of power over men. By nature, women’s beauty and their beautiful bodies are man’s weaknesses, at this point; woman plays a dominating role over men. Sometimes in particular societies, women are underestimated for their intelligence, authority, shrewdness and aggression. They are not taken seriously and on this level women are compelled by the society to use their only power “sexuality” (Makombe). Elaine also trapped Lancelot by sex. She slept with Lancelot deliberately and did sex. She seduced him all the night that resulted in pregnancy. She used her gender and body as a power to get him. Romance Romance is the emotional satisfaction between two people with optimistic ending. It is a pleasurable feeling of excitement that is exhibited by a couple for each other. In romance, a woman plays a vital role through her emotional nature, seductive body and by using her feminine wiles. Even the novel named Romance explains that it was a woman was intended and ever dreamed for romance. Elaine wanted to have romance with Lancelot so she used wine for that, Lancelot was given wine by Elaine serving woman. Then, she had romance with Lancelot that turned into sex. Lancelot was not willing to have sex or romance with Elaine, but she was Elaine who made his mood by using the wine trick. So, if a woman wants to make any man agree for romance, it depends on her wisdom and skills that how she uses her sexuality to make a man eager for it. Romance is expressed by number of ways. For example, by giving a flower to the loved one, by giving gifts, by a hug, by spending some time with your loved one in the garden, etc. These all examples are related with the feelings and emotions and it is vivid that women are emotional. Hence, when it comes to romance women are more romantic than men and by the help of this nature; a woman can dominate any man she wants (Jeanette 71-77). Emotional Attraction Sexual desire, sexual attraction and romance fall under the category of emotional attraction. Woman’s body and attitude help her to create sex appeal and sexual interest in another person. The attraction of man towards woman may develop by woman’s movements, looks voice, smell or body. The interest of the man varies enormously from society to society. Emotional attraction is basically a psychological factor, which can increase or reduce the desire for sex. The factors which can reduce the emotional attraction and sex desire comprising “less privacy and/or intimacy, stress or fatigue, distraction or depression and sometimes religion issue also occur” (Abelove and Barale 50-97). Nature has created a woman with various attractive attributes and nature has also created a woman as a mother, sister, daughter and wife. This is natural that from a young age, girls tend to enhance the ability of seduction to get what they want by being stubborn or by emotional blackmailing to the loved ones. In this way, they are trained to use “emotional attraction” aspect to fulfil their wishes and they get the power to achieve whatever they want (Burton). Self-Esteem, Values and Attitudes Self esteem is related to psychology, basically, it reflects a person’s overall appraisal of his or her own worth and overall personality evaluation. Self esteem can be positive or negative evaluation of any person. Self esteem is not the fact about oneself, but it is an image and perception one has about oneself. Self worth, self regard, self respect, self concept and self integrity are synonyms of self esteem. Individuals who have relatively high self-esteem, self worth and self concept at a stage boast self-esteem years later. According to different scholars and studies, this type of stability is called “rank-order stability is somewhat lower during childhood and old age than during adulthood, but the overall level of stability is comparable to that found for other personality characteristics and personality factors” (Robins and Trzesniewski 158-162). Those women with higher family income, family status and worth have higher self-esteem, regardless of their marital status. These factors build up a woman’s personality that falls under the category of sexuality. Mostly women use their self esteem and values as a power to get what they want (Mandara, Johnston, and Murray 1188-1199). Way of Communication and Gender Role The process of conveying information is called communication. The style and medium which is used to communicate is the “way of communication”. Various verbal and non-verbal means of communication are present like eye contact, body language, paralanguage, sign language, gesture, posture, facial expression, etc. This is a fact that a woman exerts a lot of power over man when it comes to body language, gestures, eye contact etc. In short these are all the symptoms of attraction and woman attraction is man’s weakness. By using these means of communication and by taking the benefit of the emotional and seductive gender, a woman gets whatever she wants (Rosener 11). Body Image, Biological Sex and Relationships A woman is referred to as the “sexual symbol” and it is because of the humps of woman body and body structure. Women also dominate in mass media because of their seductive body. Their sexy pictures are used in ads, movies, dramas, newspapers, billboards, etc. Even in offices usually female receptionist is demanded who must be good looking in order to give a good image of an organization. This image of women is present in every man’s mind. Because of this perception, every woman tries to keep herself physically fit and hot. Sometimes woman tries to expose herself deliberately to attract man towards her. Sometimes it is due to the lust, sometimes in a romantic mood, sometimes in order to have intercourse etc. In some organizations, women also use their body image, personality, physical relations and sex to get the higher designations. A woman uses her body and image as a power to get whatever she wants. Many women regard their breasts. According to men, breast part is the sexual attractiveness of women. Women of various societies use different tactics to attract man by their bodies. In some societies, sexy bras are referred to a sex symbol, while in other societies, being topless is considered more attractive attribute of a woman. While in some religious societies, these perceptions are totally opposite but when it comes to legal or illegal relationships between men and women, breasts play an important role in woman’s body. Through body image, a woman gets control on man’s mind. Because of this power, she gets whatever she wants. Elaine made the relationship with Lancelot all night by giving him wine, she had sex with full lust and romance that resulted pregnancy. She used her feminine wiles to get Lancelot and at the end of the day they lived happily in a husband and wife relationship (Ganeva 1-25). Conclusion The whole discussion explains that women use sexuality and sexual tactics to get the power for what they want. Woman’s gender has never been a hindrance; it has always helped them to get their desired goals. All the aspects favour woman to dominate especially over man’s mind. A woman’s intellectual skills must be present along with the sexuality to achieve anything. A woman has several attributes of sexuality that she uses to gain power; those include sexual desire and sexual behaviour. These two broad categories are further divided in other factors too. Those factors include emotional attraction, romance, lust, feminine wiles, body image, facial expressions, verbal and non-verbal measures, sex, gender benefit, wisdom, personality, communication style, relationships and many other factors too. Woman must be wise enough to use her sexuality or sexual orientation and attributes to get the power and must be bold and brave enough to implement this power to get whatever she wants. Hence, this is concluded by the whole discussion that woman’s gender is the help and not the hindrance in their lives. Their sexuality that is given by nature is their plus point and if a woman is wise enough to use her sexuality in optimistic manner than she can rule the world and can achieve whatever she wants. Sexuality itself is woman’s power that she can use to get whatever she wants. Works Cited Abelove, Henry and Michele Aina Barale. The Lesbian and Gay Studies Reader. New York: Routledge, 1993. Print. Brown, Eryn and Tim Carvell. “Women, Sex & Power We'll Get Right To The Point. This is A Politically Incorrect Story About Seven Remarkable Women--Each Better Than All The Men (And Women) in Their Chosen Fields.” 1996. CNN Money. Web. 20 May 2012. . Burton, Vanessa. “The Sexual Power Of Women.” AskMen. Web. 20 May 2012. . Dovidio, John F. et al. “Power displays between women and men in discussions of gender-linked tasks: A multichannel study.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 54.4 (1998): 580-587. Print. Ganeva, Mila. “Fashion Photography and Women's Modernity in Weimar Germany: The Case of Yva.” NWSA Journal. Gender and Modernism between the Wars 15.3 (2003): 1-25. Print. Jeanette, Maino Gould. “Praierie.” Jeane Schooner (1947): 71-77. Print. Juschka, Darlene M. Feminism in the Study of Religion: A Reader. London: Continuum, 2006. Print. Makombe, Kudzai. “Is it ever okay for a woman to exercise her sexuality to gain political power?” Gender Masala, 2010. 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