A Good Man is Hard to Find (Presentation, Group 4)

2015

Tennessee Williams' Cat on a Hot Tin Roof was written during a period of immense prosperity as well as socio-political upheaval in 1950s North America. The feminist as well as the Civil Rights movements were gaining rapid ground in many states in the USA. However, the Southern states of America seem to have been left in a time warp. This paper will attempt a racially sensitive and feminist re-reading of Tennessee Williams' popular play Cat on a Hot Tin Roof in order to gauge the extent to which the Southern women in the play are victims of patriarchy and also to reveal the racial prejudice casually and comfortably implicit in the narrative.

The Journal of Men’s Studies, 1994

Radio talk-show host ("In a Man's Shoes") and former dircctor of the National Congress for Men Jack Kammer scoured the country to find twenty-two women who agree with him that the current poor state of male/female relations is caused by women's bad attitudes toward mcn. If women would only lighten-up, tell men that thcy value them, be more supportive, the gap would be closed, the wounds healed. Is neo-conservative, backlash rhetoric more palatable coming lrom the mouths of women? Not really. Kammer is at least open in seeing his book as a direct response to Kay 1,eigh Hagan's Women Respond to the Men's Movement, a book Kammer calls "nasty." This defensive attitude makes Kammer's statement that "No one connected to this book denies or has forgotten the existence ol sexism against women" (p. xix) extremely suspect. In reality, sympathy for or understanding of women as objects of sexist behavior is sadly lacking here. In fact, the label "sexism" is reserved for negative attitudes toward men. Kammer's ultimately self-defeating assumption is that the feminist agenda is so firmly in control of contemporary discourse that it rcally docs not nccd acknowledgment, a view symptomatic of the book's paranoia about women's power. Kammer is so intimidated by the very idea of women's critiquc of patriarchy (a term he consistently condemns) that he Lad to find a collection of "good mommies" to replace and silence the bad, devouring fcminist ones. As my rhetoric here indicates, the real failure of Kammer's book is that it infantalizcs men. "We nccd assurancc that we can vcnturc forth without losing women's love and acceptance" (p. xviii), Kammer pleads. But why should the onus of providing this assurance fall once again on women? Shouldn't adult human beings be able to listen to the conccms, criticisms, complaints, and even the painful accusations of others without falling apart Permission to reprint a book review printed in this section may be obtained only from the reviewer.

OALib, 2021

The present study focuses on the popularly established idea that women are almost always oppressed under the patriarchal system while all men enjoy its benefits. Concerning some selected literature, the study argues the possibilities of “certain” men being the victims of patriarchy, carrying both manly and womanly qualities (according to patriarchal interpretations) to be more successful in their roles as men. Victims of patriarchy in this context refer to those who do not satisfy the gender stereotypical characteristics drawn by the patriarchal system and whose voices are unheard in society. The sample of the present study which falls victim to their effort to act upon the gender expectations of their culture includes Okonkwo in the novel “Things Fall Apart” by Chinua Achebe, Macbeth in the drama “Macbeth” by William Shakespeare, and Viscount Gontran-Joseph de Signoles in the short story, “A Coward” by Guy de Maupassant. The analysis of the protagonists’ failure of these literary w...

Humaniora

This study aimed at describing the violation of gender ideals of the main female character in Margaret Mitchell’s Gone with the Wind in relation to domestic and economic life and describing the possible reasons of why she violated them. The design used was content analysis in qualitative paradigm. Codifications and indicators were established to help to analyze the data. The theories used to analyze the data were the expansionist theory in gender, the Freudian Psychological theory, and the self-actualization theory. The finding shows that Scarlett O’Hara has violated the domestic ideals as a belle, wife, mother, and widow. She also violates the Victorian rules dealing with women and economic life. Scarlett’s violation of the rules in her society is caused by the internal factor and the external factor, the Civil War. It is the emergency, the occasion, and the condition at that time that makes her violate them. Her controversial acts in her society can be considered as a constructive...

Proceedings of the ESIDRP International Conference: English Studies at the Interface of Disciplines: Research and Practice (ESIDRP), 2022

The objective of this paper is to show the presence of toxic masculinity in the characters of Raymond Carver9s short stories and consequently, the pursuit of freedom of the women in his stories. To do this, we will be looking at the timeline with which the concept of masculinity and toxic masculinity developed in the 20th century and their negative implications against women. Through this theoretical prism, we are going to examine two separate analyses of the short stories <Fat= and <So Much Water So Close to Home= and analyze them through the social context of the time in which they were written, specifically referring to gender dynamics in the household. To fully understand Carver9s characters, we are going to consider the age in which he wrote and the social implications that framed the experiences of both female and male characters in his stories, while taking in consideration the presented theory on masculinity and toxic masculinity.

Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research), 2007

According to Feminism Theory the society has been dominated by patriarchal ideology, an ideology which positioned men as the superior group and women as the subordinate group. Women in society mostly have been positioned as inferior almost in every institutions such as social, economic, law, education, health, and religion. Due to literature is a product of the society, feminists believe that a literary work has a possibility in adopting patriarchal ideology and provides important proves on the process of patriarchal ideology socialization within the society. The Glass Menagerie as one canon in literary work, written by Tennessee Williams during 1940-1941, has a possibility to carry the idea of gender concept as one product of patriarchal ideology. There is a tendency that the author has adopted gender values and socialized its to the society by using the description of gender role socialization process between the female characters in his work. This literary work has been chosen since this study aims to find out and analyze the possibility of gender role socialization process within a mother-daughter relationship as been described in this work. This study has used gender analysis, a gender perception that emphasized that motherhood can be the primary institution in patriarchal society in socializing patriarchal ideology and its values in form of gender roles, which caused the differentiation of societal roles between men and women. Feminism approach here is used since this approach has focused on the gender analysis on women in literary study. As a result, it is proved that there is a description of gender role socialization within mother-daughter relationship, that Amanda has been socialized certain gender roles explicitly to Laura, by using specific ways in socializing those gender roles.

Overview of theories and practices of patriarchy and matriarchy in U.S. literature with overviews of the 18th, 19th, and 20th century. Suggested readings included.

Leksika: Jurnal Bahasa, Sastra dan Pengajarannya, 2022

The purpose of this study is to disclose the sexist oppressions experienced by the female protagonist in a story, to observe the solidarity she received in going through the oppression, and to examine her personal basic power to release the oppression. This study uses a qualitative descriptive method. The method used is analyzing the source of data is in the form of the characters’ monolog, dialog, and author’s narration which are collected intensively in the short story. This study is based on the perspectives of bell hooks (1984) that elaborates sexist oppression, solidarity and personal basic power. The sexist oppressions experienced by the female protagonist in a story that is caused by the social value embedded in the patriarchy society that puts woman as the subordinate and Anita’s father is the male antagonist who shows domination over her. In the story, Anita’s husband is the male protagonist who gives his empathy to Anita to go through the oppression. The last result elabor...