Womens Voices, Feminist Vision, by Susan Shaw and Janet Lee - Essay Example

The collection Women’s Voices, Feminist Vision, by Susan Shaw and Janet Lee, and the novel The God of Small Things, by Arundhati Roy, both explore the constructs that women face within various societies. Women’s Voices, Feminist Vision focuses mostly on the gender roles that are present in western society, as women are often silently oppressed without really even knowing it. These gender roles are so deep within our culture that we often do not see what is happening until we examine it closer. Women are not treated the same way as men in a variety of different facets of society and these essays explore how and why this happens so frequently in our seemingly progressive western culture. Even with laws to prevent this sort of treatment of women, we suffer from this deep-rooted system that allows for men to hold a dominant position. The God of Small Things also explores the oppression of women, but it is present in a much more flagrant manner in this novel. Ammu is not even given a chance to succeed in life, as she is not permitted to pursue an education and her only realistic goal in life is to marry someone and do what he wants. When Ammu divorces, she becomes an outcast and she spends the rest of her life waiting to die. These works show that women are oppressed in a variety of ways in different cultures and that gender constructs are causing this oppression. The essay “Oppression”, by Marilyn Frye, examines how women are oppressed in society. Often times, this oppression is not flagrant, but is rather a series of small privileges that are taken away from women in order to benefit other social groups. The author makes the claim that women live within a birdcage, where each of the individual wires is meaningless but when they are all put together, it is impossible for the bird to escape. The oppression of women has two main features, according to Frye. First of all, they are place in positions of power where they hold a great deal of responsibility, but they are not given enough power to effectively use this position. Also, women know that they are limited in these positions of power, so they make sure that they do not exceed the limits that society has placed upon them. The system is in place, according to Frye, to privilege men and oppress women. In Judith Lorber’s essay, entitled “The Social Construction of Gender”, the author agrees that the roles of each gender are defined by society and there is very little that can be done to alleviate these constructs. Lorber traces these constructs back to the gender expectations that are assigned during infancy, and continue on throughout an individual’s life. She also argues that despite the fact that gender roles have changed over time, people are still categorized according to their gender in every culture. These gender roles are also responsible for creating the social context in which he interact, which means that men and women interact the way they do because of the social constructs that are present. Also, the inequalities between the genders are a construct of society and are not something that simply comes naturally. It just seems that way because our culture has made us believe that is it natural. The Mariah Burton Nelson essay “Boys Will Be Boys and Girls Will Not” examines how girls are unable to find equality, despite laws that are in place that prohibit discrimination in federally funded education. This means that despite the fact that women are legally protected against discrimination, they are still discriminated against in other, less obvious, ways. Many educational institutions continue to treat boys and girls differently, which is another example of social constructs determining how people are treated in society. These constructs runs so deep within our society that they are still present when laws prohibit them and even lawmakers are guilty of violating them. In the essay “Girls, Media, and the Negotiation of Sexuality”, by M.G. Durham, the author examines the factors that influence young girls as they reach adolescence and begin to enter adulthood. This period contains great amounts of psychological and emotional stress because it is during this time that they begin to seriously explore their gender identities, values, and sexual attitudes. At this time, young adults wish to begin exploring themselves by reaching a new level of independence, which can lead to a great deal of uncertainty. Gender constructs during this time can lead to girls feeling a decreased sense of attractiveness and self-esteem. They become distressed by changes to their bodies and they get a great deal of information from pop culture. Pop culture is how these young women define their roles in society and this is unfair because it paints an unrealistic image of reality for them. Things like television, magazines, and movies give young women unattainable standards to reach and they add to the constructs that oppress women in society. The novel The God of Small Things, by Roy Arundhati, also shows how constructs can negatively influence the lives of females, but does so from the viewpoint of a much different culture. The society that is depicted in this novel is a caste society where people are segregated based on race and gender. Certain characters, like as Ammu, Rahel, and Estha, resist the hierarchies that are in place, but it does very little to change the outcome. This society is a patriarchal society, which means that the men have many more rights than the women do. Ammu was not able to pursue an education and, therefore, she does not have much in terms of life skills when she goes through her divorce. Previously, her only reason for living was to be someone’s wife, which is a very common thing in this culture. She was expected to just wait around for a marriage proposal and then become someone’s wife and live her life in that manner. This gender construct is nearly impossible to escape because it is so deeply rooted in this culture and those with the power do not wish to see it change. In Ammu’s case, she accepted the first marriage proposal that she received after being courted for only five days. After she accepted, she was bound to this life because it offers very little chance for escape. It is similar to Frye’s analogy of the birdcage, except for Ammu’s cage is a solid steel cell that she cannot even see out of. Ammu’s husband turns out to be a drunk and her marriage ends in divorce. Unfortunately for her, however, this society has created a construct where divorced women are ostracized from society and family. Rather than supporting her, her family makes her aware of how wrong it is to divorce her husband, although they pretend to do so in a sympathetic manner. In this society, divorced women do not have the right to pursue any sort of happiness after they separate from their husband and, therefore, their only course of action is to sit around and wait to die. If she attempts to go against these cultural constructs, she risks upsetting the entire community. This should not have mattered, however, as she was already made into an outcast in the community because of her divorce. This novel also contains other gender based injustices, as Ammu’s mother, Mammachi, has been forced to ensure her husband’s abusive attitude throughout her marriage and she also ignores Chako sexually exploiting female workers. This novel also explores the attitudes that are present when people attempt to go outside of the constructs of society in order to achieve some sort of happiness. When Ammu meets Velutha and attempts to begin a relationship with him, he is killed by the police because he is an “Untouchable”. Ammu is also banished from society, even more than she already was, and dies alone when she is only 31-years old. This novel does an effective job of examining the constructs that are present in this society in a time when most of the world views itself as progressing beyond these colonial attitudes. Each of the works explored here shows that women are oppressed in a variety of different ways, regardless of the culture or area of the world that they come from. In western society, the constructs are in place to keep men in a position of dominance and they are so prevalent in society that they are rarely even questioned. In other cultures, the oppression is much more visible and is also rarely ever questioned, since it keeps men in control. These two works show that gender constructs can ruin women’s lives by not allowing them to progress and find their own happiness. Through literature like this, we are able to identify what is happening and hopefully work towards changing things in the future because that would create an equal society where everyone has the opportunity to be happy without dealing with gender constructs. Read More