[pixiedust]

Ok...I mentioned this in the forum and it was agreed that we could start a thread about how feminism is portrayed in pop culture. I am starting it with a lecture Mr. Pixie was emailed in his online literature class in grad school.

There are a lot of different angles in feminist literary theory, so I'm going to give you the basics for this week's discussion. One thing I want to clarify right now, A FEMINIST IS NOT A MAN HATER. A feminist is a person who thinks people should be treated equally regardless of gender. Most of the men I know are feminists. Many women are angry about the idea that they are inferior because they are women, but they do not represent the intellectual attitudes of feminism. In fact, these women are sexist pigs. So I hope to avoid any shrill invective in this discussion. Let us look at the book intellectually, not emotionally.

All of this information is from Bressler, Charles E. "Literary Criticism: An Introduction to Theory and Practice." 3rd ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2003. 142-156.

The basic premise is that while sex is determined biologically, gender is determined socially, and women have been oppressed for millennia. Various feminists have tried to figure out exactly how women have been represented in literature, and that is the gist of feminist theory.

Kate Millet (1960s-70s) noted the following treatment of women in canonical literature:
1. In literature of the past, women have been considered "the Other." This means that the literature is written from the male point of view and that women are not men; therefore, they are "other" than men.
2. Women are stereotyped as "sex maniacs, goddesses of beauty, mindless entities, or old spinsters"
3. Few female authors appeared in literary anthologies, so women's writing was overlooked
4. The roles of female fictional characters were limited to secondary positions, more frequently than not occupying minor parts within the stories or simply reverting to the male's stereotypical images of women.
5. Female scholars were ignored
6. It was assumed by male literary scholars that all readers were male, so women reading these works were unconsciously duped into reading as a male.

Elaine Showalter concentrated on uncovering examples of misogyny (hatred of women) in texts. There is plenty of misogyny to be uncovered.

Gilbert and Gubar identified two types of women in fiction: the angel in the house and the madwoman in the attic. In Victorian fiction, the angel in the house was the wife who spent all of her energy making sure that her husband's house (it was not her house) was a refuge from the horrors of industrial society. It is this idea that we see in 1950s TV shows, where the loving wife brings his slippers and pipe to her husband after he gets home from a long day at work. The madwoman in the attic is an idea from Bronte's Jane Eyre where Rochester's first wife is locked in the attic because she has gone insane. Gilbert and Gubar maintain that she is actually a liberated woman who doesn't ascribe to the angel in the house model, so people thought she was insane. Bressler says: "Gilbert and Gubar assert that either of these images--the angel or the madwoman--are unrealistic representations of woman in society. One canonizes and places the woman above the world, while the other denigrates and places her below the world. Further, the message is clear to all women: If you are not an angel, then you are a monster" (151).

NOTE: The word "canon" indicates that books and women are made into saints or are superior to the common mold. Canonized books are those that are studied often because they are considered to be the best. Canonizing a woman makes her a saint.

Bressler gives some questions for analysis of a work according to feminist theory:
1. Is the author male or female?
2. Is the text narrated by a male or female?
3. What types of roles do women have in the text?
4. Are the female characters the protagonists or secondary and minor characters?
5. Do any stereotypical characterizations of women appear?
6. What are the attitudes toward women held by the male characters?
7. What is the author's attitude toward women in society?
8. How does the author's culture influence her or his attitude?
9. Is feminine imagery used? If so, what is the significance of such imagery?
10. Do the female characters speak differently than do the male characters? In your investigation, compare the frequency of speech for the male characters to the frequency of speech for the female characters.

Thoughts or discussion?

[WalterDogOfActio...]

Hey ladies

I didn't know where else to post this and I couldn't start a new thread. Anyway, my husband wrote this short about Ms. Pac-Man as a feminist icon. If you like it, please forward it along!

- Betsy

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dA1PY8YVk7I