The article ‘Blame it on feminism’ by Susan Faludi sums up the main ideas of the previous articles I blogged on. It says as well that women today look for something else to worry about, since they don’t have to fight for their rights anymore. Women these days have more power than ever, but still they aren’t happy. Women might be free and equal now, but they’ve never been this miserable. Working women suffer from too much stress, which sometimes leads to infertility, and single women suffer from the lack of a man. This can be referred to one of the previous articles about the teen mags. They gain their money by talking about what every single woman wants to know: How to get the perfect man? How to know if he’s the one?
This behavior can lead to eating disorders, hair loss, bad nerves, alcoholism and even heart attacks. It seems like women need some problem they can think of, some problem that they have to overcome. And if the problem is not a war or a lack of rights, why can’t it be a man?
The article focuses on the fact that women are suppressed by men and that it isn’t the women’s fault. This strongly relates to the book ‘Handmaid’s Tale’ where women are objects to conceive children. They’re like a machine, not human anymore. The women have lost their right to control their actions and bodies. When impregnated, their body is used like an ice machine, just that instead of producing ice, it produces a child. Once the child is born, it is given to the Commander’s life, a woman with an higher status.
The article also states that the women still don’t have the same rights as men, at least not at work. The U.S government still doesn’t give a family-leave and child care programs for working mothers. On the other side this is just a small aspect in the rights and equalization of women. If this is all the women have to worry about, then why can’t they be happy, might say a woman that lived in the years where women completely suppressed by men. Surveys indicate that women still don’t feel liberated, regardless from their rights. Women still think that they are discriminated at work. This myth of men being stronger and better at everything (apart from cooking maybe), still isn’t worn out. Some men still believe that women belong in the kitchen and that they are incompetent in various jobs that involve physical work.
Jorina,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your blog about 'Blame it on feminism, and I share many of the ideas you've presented here.
I liked your interpretation "It seems like women need some problem they can think of, some problem that they have to overcome. And if the problem is not a war or a lack of rights, why can’t it be a man?"
I share a similar view, It seems as though women are psychologically in need of some problem, because otherwise they will not survive. I talked about this in my blog too, and I found a photo that related well to this concept (http://poojasivhlenglish.blogspot.com/2010/11/just-your-average-samantha-jones.html)
What is your take on this concept presented in The Handmaid's Tale?
I know you talked about how women were oppressed in the city of Gilead, but do you feel that women in these circumstances also like to create problems for themselves due to a psychological behavioral pattern? It seems as though these women have enough problems to deal with already, but do you think they still face the petty small-scale problems that most women face nowadays? (Does he think I'm pretty? Does he like me? etc.)
Pooja,
ReplyDeleteI thank you for your comment, and I'd like to answer some of your questions. In The Handmaid's Tale, it is clear that we're dealing with a different situation. Nonetheless, I recognize some similarities. The women are dealing with greater problems that seem more important than getting the attention of a man, but most of the women gave up fighting or are trying to ignore the problem. And so, they create other problems like: Today, they have oranges on the market; I need to convince the Martha to order oranges. It becomes all they think (or in this case write since it’s a book…) about and they ignore the real problem facing them: lack of power. It’s like they want to control little things (which also comes back to sexuality and power) in order to feel in control. We also find this moment in the book, where Offred starts to care about that hair that grows under her armpits and legs. A problem that didn’t even exist before is created out of nowhere.
I think that there is a lot of this subject relating to details like these in the book. What did you think the answers to your questions were?