The Feminist Critique
Feminist Theory
The beliefs
Gender is socially constructed
concepts with narrow definitions
and expectations
The work
Highlight how texts illustrate and
encourage oppression with
evidence
The cultural work of women is
treated differently than the work of
men.
To question and re-consider the
canon and its formation.
Literature and Culture constitute a
POTENTIAL field of resistance to
the hetero- and phallo-centric
cultural forces.
To explore how cultural
production creates narrow gender
expectations
Literature (and culture) contributes
to the oppression of women.
To understand the extent to
which gender is socially
constructed
In order to empower the
disempowered we must understand
the mechanisms of sexism within
the literary discourse.
To examine the representations of
women in literature.
PATRIARCHY:
"Sexism is perpetuated by systems of patriarchy where male-dominated
structures and social arrangements elaborate the oppression of women.
Patriarchy almost by definition also exhibits androcentrism, meaning male
centered. Coupled with patriarchy, androcentrism assumes that male norms
operate throughout all social institutions and become the standard to which all
persons adhere" (Joe Santillan - University of California at Davis). In every
domain where patriarchy reigns, woman is other: she is marginalized, defined
only by her difference from male norms and values. All of western (Anglo-
European) civilization is deeply rooted in patriarchal ideology, for example, in
the biblical portrayal of Eve as the origin of sin and death in the world.
GENDER:
While biology determines our sex (male or female), culture determines our
gender (masculine or feminine). Gender issues play a part in every aspect of
human production and experience, including the production and experience of
literature. Gender stereotypes create expectations regarding emotional
expression and emotional reaction. Stereotypes generally dictate how and by
whom and when it is socially acceptable to display an emotion. Reacting in a
stereotype-consistent manner may result in social approval while reacting in a
stereotype-inconsistent manner could result in disapproval. It should be noted
that what is socially acceptable varies substantially over time and between
local cultures and subcultures.
SEXUAL OBJECTIFICATION:
Refers to the practice of regarding or treating another person merely as an
instrument (object) towards one's sexual pleasure, and a sex object is a
person who is regarded simply as an object of sexual gratification or who is
sexually attractive. Feminist theory would argue that men are constantly the
subject, whereas women are the objects of literature.
BODIES:
In western thought, bodies have been historically associated solely with
women, whereas men have been associated with the mind. The notion of the
body (and not the mind) being associated with women has served as a
justification to deem women as property, objects, and exchangeable
commodities (among men). For example, women’s bodies have been objectified
throughout history through the changing ideologies of fashion, diets, exercise
programs, cosmetic surgery, etc. The race and class of women can be a
determinate of whether one body will be treated as decoration and protected
which is associated with middle or upper-class women’s bodies. On the other
hand, the other body is recognized for its use in labor and exploitation which
is generally associated with women’s bodies in the working-class or with
women of color. Women’s ability to carry and birth children plays into these
concepts.
EXAMPLES:
 What would a Feminist say about: Maxim Magazine, the WNBA, global
warming, Justin Bieber?
 What about this commercial? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ntk-VGsEAgs
 What about the M’KIS administration?
Typical Feminist Questions:
 How is the relationship between men and women portrayed?
 What are the power relationships between men and women (or
characters assuming male/female roles)?
 How are male and female roles defined? Expectations of genders?
 What constitutes masculinity and femininity? Ideal of each? Betrayal
of each?
 How do characters embody these traits?
 Do characters take on traits from opposite genders? How so? How
does this change others’ reactions to them?
 What does the work reveal about the operations (economically,
politically, socially, or psychologically) of patriarchy?
 What does the work imply about the possibilities of sisterhood as a
mode of resisting patriarchy?
 What does the work say about women's creativity?
 What does the history of the work's reception by the public and by
the critics tell us about the operation of patriarchy?
 What role the work play in terms of women's literary history and
literary tradition?
Limitations/Weaknesses of Feminist Readings:
1. prioritizes (sometimes) gender as THE issue regardless of the text
2. individuality can become less significant than gender
3. reinforces binary gender and sexuality categories, often competitively
Two Sisters of Persephone
Two girls there are : within the house
One sits; the other, without.
Daylong a duet of shade and light
Plays between these.
In her dark wainscoted room
The first works problems on
A mathematical machine.
Dry ticks mark time
As she calculates each sum.
At this barren enterprise
Rat-shrewd go her squint eyes,
Root-pale her meager frame.
Bronzed as earth, the second lies,
Hearing ticks blown gold
Like pollen on bright air. Lulled
Near a bed of poppies,
She sees how their red silk flare
Ofpetaled blood
Burns open to the sun's blade.
On that green alter
Freely become sun's bride, the latter
Grows quick with seed.
Grass-couched in her labor's pride,
She bears a king. Turned bitter
And sallow as any lemon,
The other, wry virgin to the last,
Goes graveward with flesh laid waste,
Worm-husbanded, yet no woman.
Sylvia Plath, American Poet, 1956
1. What are the main characters in the poem? What is their relation? (are you
sure?)
2. How does contrast function as a literary device here?
3. What would a feminist do with the Persephone myth?
4. What is the text saying about women and sex?
5. How might Plath’s use of double meanings connect to a feminist reading?
6. Why does the first sister turn out to be “no woman?”
7. Why are there so many references to dualities and two’s?
8. Ultimately, how does Plath represent women?
9. Is this poem hetero-normative?
10.How might we connect Plath selection of imagery to a feminist reading?
Leda and the Swan
A sudden blow: the great wings beating still
Above the staggering girl, her thighs caressed
By the dark webs, her nape caught in his bill,
He holds her help less breast upon his breast.
How can those terrified vague fingers push
The feathered glory from her loosening thighs?
And how can body, laid in that white rush,
But feel the strange heart beating where it lies?
A shudder in the loins engenders there
The broken wall, the burning roof and tower
And Agamemnon dead.
Being so caught up,
So mastered by the brute blood of the air,
Did she put on his knowledge with his power
Before the indifferent beak could let her drop?
W.B. Yeats, Irish Poet, 1924
1. What is the poem’s attitude toward women?
2. How does this poem deal with sexual intercourse?
3. How is male sexuality depicted here? Female sexuality?
4. What is the significance of the penultimate line?
5. Is it possible to read the poem as feminist argument?
6. To what extent is the poem hetero-normative?
7. What is the significance of the Leda myth?
To His Coy Mistress
Had we but World enough, and Time,
This coyness Lady were no crime.
We would sit down, and think which way
To walk, and pass our long Loves Day.
Thou by the Indian Ganges side.
Should'st Rubies find: I by the Tide
Of Humber would complain. I would
Love you ten years before the Flood:
And you should if you please refuse
Till the Conversion of the Jews.
My vegetable Love should grow
Vaster then Empires, and more slow.
An hundred years should go to praise
Thine Eyes, and on thy Forehead Gaze.
Two hundred to adore each Breast.
But thirty thousand to the rest.
An Age at least to every part,
And the last Age should show your Heart.
For Lady you deserve this State;
Nor would I love at lower rate.
But at my back I alwaies hear
Times winged Charriot hurrying near:
And yonder all before us lye
Desarts of vast Eternity.
Thy Beauty shall no more be found;
Nor, in thy marble Vault, shall sound
My ecchoing Song: then Worms shall try
That long preserv'd Virginity:
And your quaint Honour turn to durst;
And into ashes all my Lust.
The Grave's a fine and private place,
But none I think do there embrace.
Now therefore, while the youthful hew
Sits on thy skin like morning glew,
And while thy willing Soul transpires
At every pore with instant Fires,
Now let us sport us while we may;
And now, like am'rous birds of prey,
Rather at once our Time devour,
Than languish in his slow-chaptpow'r.
Let us roll all our Strength, and all
Our sweetness, up into one Ball:
And tear our Pleasures with rough strife,
Thorough the Iron gates of Life.
Thus, though we cannot make our Sun
Stand still, yet we will make him run.
Andrew Marvell, English Poet, 1681
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What do you imagine about the speaker? What do you KNOW?
Why might a feminist focus on the quality of “coyness” so central to the text?
What does the poem suggest about the role of women in society?
What is the speaker’s position on this role? (does he agree?)
What is the relationship of female gender and sex in the poem?
Who seems to hold the power in the poem? What is your evidence?
What are the poem’s assumptions about sexual orientation?
Does the attitude of the speaker shift in the poem? Does this offer us clues about the poem’s
larger project?