Undoing Gender Essays Example

What do you think is her purpose in doing this?

In the book Herland, Gilman indicates a society without men. She thinks society is unfair to women and cannot appreciate the capabilities of women. She states that because of women’s responsibilities such as giving birth, caring for the children, and raising children, they cannot be fully humans like men. Women do not have impending progress. The reason for this is that Gilman thinks that women can just do things like men; they can be strong, intelligent, and independent. Gilman wants to show that even without men; women can still be stronger and can do better.

Do the women of Herland differ from the women of “Ourland”? How? Why?

Women of Herland are not different from women of Ourland because they both have similar tasks such as giving birth, caring for- and raising children. Moreover, both good and bad sides of racism are represented in Ourland as well as in Herland. Gilman describes various human races as being at different levels of development. She uses the equality required for democracy as an excuse for racism. All women in Herland are described through utopia. Gilman states that democracy requires “the intelligent conscious co-orperation of a great many persons all ‘equal’ in the characteristics required to play that kind of gamethe human race is in different stages of development, and only some of the races have reached the democratic stage” (Gilman, p.121). I think in this sentences Gilman is trying to use the fairness essential for democracy as a reason for discrimination.

Has Gilman succeeded in creating a convincing one-sex society? Why/why not?

I think Gilman has succeeded in creating a convincing one-sex society because she was able to develop a society that focuses entirely on women. All systems were concentrated on women. Moreover, she has shown that if equivalence is recognized between men and women, both of them can attain happiness and preference. However, the women in Gilman’s world have little interest in sexual relations with each other and all of them focus of motherhood. Moreover, she does not describe how women intermingle with one another in such a calm land because no friendships are formed between them.

Are there any blind spots (overlooked issues) in Herland?

Although Gilman is trying to emphasize the power of women without men, her portaray of women seems to be a completely constructed idea with the goal of pleasing men. For instance, once women of Herland marry, they are still shown as de-sexualized. Their concentration is still on motherhood and they do not have interests in sexual relations with each other. Women are shown to be creatures that are only focused on continuity and maternity (Butler). They cannot understand that romantic love is something not designed for propagation of humanity, Gilman says “they are making peopleand they made them well.”
#2
The film is about a vision of human existence. It answers questions such as what it means to be born as a woman or a man, what it means to be born at one time instead of another, what it means to be born into wealth, into traditions of a certain nation or into poverty.
Orlando as a man is able to own an estate with a great home in it and during a visit by the queen; he is told that he can keep the estate forever only if he remains young, fresh and ageless at all times. Orlando changes in a dream from one era to the next. The movie skips about 50 years a head and Orlando attempts different careers, for instance as an ambassador in the Middle East as a man he is more educated. When he becomes a she, as a woman, those in power inform her that she can no longer own her great estate legally because only men were allowed to hold the title to property in those times. Moreover, the authorities tell her that having lived more than 200 years, she will be presumed dead. However, even without the property, life appears simple. In modern times, Orlando falls in love with a modern man and chooses a more high-class lifestyle.
Orlando is s film about a person who attains a lot in one lifetime: observing four centuries of occurrences through the eyes of both sexes. It is a long and unusual lifetime. Born as a man during the time of Elizabeth I, Orlando becomes a woman in the middle of the journey. Orlando becomes old, travels and transforms from one gender to another. Orlando reflects how people change from moment to moment. Although Orlando changes, it is the inner life of the characters that gives Orlando her identity and not the social trimmings of her clothing or her body. Her changing gender results in limitations as her sexual desire also changes, which forces her to cope with discrimination that she never faced as a man.
I think the film emphasizes that it does not matter who you are, either a woman or a man, what is important is that life is about nature and living (breathing). Moreover, the film reminds us that gender enables us citizenship only in one country. On the other hand, Orlando offers us an opportunity to travel freely between different genders. Orlando is engaged in various activities both male and female individuals. It further (the film) explores social norms, which are based on children as well as marriage and suitable economical activities for the women. Her journey to womanhood, takes Orlando through oppressive discrimination. However, she learns the importance of writing what she endures in life or rather, experienced lessons from nature. Presenting his writings in a man’s discern does portray the issues more vaguely. On the other hand, from a woman’s perspective more essential details and facts about the true lived experiences are revealed. It does not provide a plan for transformations in sexual stereotype but it identifies some limitations that are inborn in each role. It challenges us to respect the impulse of being united as one human race.
#3
Reproduction of the human species is controlled very carefully. A child is born only when someone dies in the community dies. People are disheartened to live many years. When people die, there is mourning but also joy because the community is excited to welcome new members. Parenting understanding is different. There is no mention of fathers. Women volunteer to be mothers and they are allowed to breastfeed and bond closely with the child.
The outcome of this is that children are not entirely behaved and most of them are determined and want to get away from the calm of their mothers long before a child of our time would. In this world, men and women form friendships without much view for the gender of their partner. They call each other “sweet friend” with most of them having numerous sweet friends, but each has a main friend. There is evidence of jealousy when one sweet partner has a unique relationship with another to the perceived exclusion of a third. This informs us that although human social practices may change, the basic human emotions will stay.
In using androgyny Piercy is focusing on a society where the conventional family dynamics are altered so that both male and female parents have an equal relation to the child.“The male parent[] counteracts the limitations of the maternal particularly until[]the male child can[]proceed to take his place in the larger male-dominant society that meets the young man’s need to become a patriarch himself.”(Piercy)
Piercy presents a parental observance that closes the fatherly gap between male parent and child, which cancels out the beliefs of motherly ‘restraints’ and thus, the young man’s need to become a patriarch.’ The utopia in the book is used to elaborate on modern political and scientific experiments in organizing and computer technology. Pronouns are non-gendered, no one bears children, and male people are able to produce milk. Every kid has three co-mothers until they turn 13 and choose their own name in the forest. Everyone has a room of his or her own and nuclear or hierarchical relationships are absent.
The journey with Connie with her ward mates sympathetically indicate to us the resilience of a team of women who are labeled ‘mad’ and are facing persecution. In the future that Piercy takes us (2037), past racism is healed into a blur of under-utilized ethnic references. As far as it can be seen, the current racism that are still oppressing stem from colonialism and slavery and they will not go away into casual celebration of cultural differences. A continued critique and struggle against white supremacy will be necessary in order to make it disappear.
Piercy takes us to a journey through resistance and revolution by expressing the personal in the political through exploration of the body as a place of resistance. The book indicates the limitations of human revolution and Piercy calls the attempts to change the world a war.

Works Cited

Butler, Judith. Gender Trouble: Feminism and the Subversion of Identity. S.l.: Routledge, 2014. Print.
Gilman, Charlotte P. Herland. , 2012. Print.
Lee, Janice W. Gender Roles. New York: Nova Biomedical Books, 2005. Print.
ORLANDO. Dir. Sally Potter. Perf. Tilda Swinton, et al. 1992.
Piercy, Marge. Woman on the Edge of Time. New York: Fawcett/Ballantine Books, 1976. Internet resource.