Introduction: Feminism across Time
The gender issue has been brewing seemingly forever, yet the problem has not been resolved even to date, sparking conflicts, and misunderstandings. Numerous attempts at considering the subject matter have been undertaken, the readings under analysis being a graphic representation of these endeavors. Shedding light on the evolution of feminist thought processes, as well as the philosophy of feminism, the authors of the excerpts in question point to the problems in the perceptions of the feminist movement, the obstacles that its proponents face, and the means of addressing the identified issues.
Message: Exploring the Implicit and Explicit Ideas
The issue of gender conflict, as well as the evolution of feminism, has been rendered in a variety of ways, yet the essential message regarding the necessity to establish the balance between the perception of men and women, as well as provide both parties with equal rights and responsibilities, has been on the global agenda for years. Platt, May, Showalter, Gilbert and Gubar, and Ehrenreich and English shed light on the subject matter, providing their opinions on the problems related to the development of feminism.
Although each of the authors strives to get across the idea of equality as the foundation for relationships between the two genders as the only possible scenario, Platt setting the tone with her disturbingly real description of women held under social constraints, the underlying concepts, such as the political and social forces that create obstacles in the way of feminists, also shine through. For example, Ehrenreich and English reflect on the suburban environment as a breeding ground for stereotypes about the roles of women in society, thus pointing to the difficulties that women face when endeavoring to make a change.
At the same time, the authors manage to convey the tension that has been building up in the environment of American suburbia up until recently: “A new genre of female literature developed out of the mounting domestic discontent” (Ehrenreich and English 308). Although the domestic environment, in which the three novels are set, contrasts sharply with the workplace setting described by Platt, it could be argued that the latter’s novel foreshadows the events that will occur in the novels by May, Showalter, Gilbert and Gubar, and Ehrenreich and English.
For instance, by creating two side characters that will serve as the friends of the protagonist throughout the novel, Platt describes two coping mechanisms that women can use in order to put up with the unfair judgment of their abilities and the lack of opportunities. Thus, the authors point to the urgent need for change that contemporary American society experiences.
Similarly, May explores feminism-related issues, particularly, the perception of the movement by society through the prism of social and political contexts, i.e., the lens of “domesticity” (May 18). At this point, however, the overall idea behind the analysis becomes somewhat convoluted. Because of the complexity of the relationships between the USA and the Soviet Union at the time of the Cold War era, the analysis of feminism-related problems shifts into the area of political confrontations.
As a result, the general idea becomes slightly blurred. At first glance, it can be assumed that May suggests opportunities for peaceful negotiations by means of fighting the same problem, i.e., gender inequality. Indeed, the fact that both states were handling the same problem could be viewed as the prerequisite for building a stronger bond in the process.
However, as May continues analyzing the strategies used by the Soviet Union and the USA, it becomes apparent that the differences in the mentalities of the two cultures did not allow for joining forces in the fight against the lack of equity. Therefore, while May’s analysis considers the social and political issues, it also becomes a sad commentary on human nature. The identified approach aligns with the ideas of women being suppressed by the tendency for domesticity as explained by Platt: “That’s one of the reasons I never wanted to get married. The last thing I wanted to be infinite security and to be the place an arrow shoots off from” (Platt 7). The constraints that the domestic environment sets for women are, therefore, viewed as the obstacles that need to be dealt with in order to promote equality.
Gilbert and Gubar, in their turn, also tend to view the feminist movement, as well as feminist ideas, through the prism of time, thus, showing its development. However, the authors mostly confine their analysis to the discussion of 19th century poetry, therefore restricting their evaluation of the subject matter to a very specific time period. It could be argued that an overview of several authors’ biographies and works does not create a fair representation of the issues that women were facing at the time, which is partially correct. Indeed, the analysis carried out by Gilbert and Gubar lacks objectivity.
However, it should be borne in mind that the narrators never claimed to provide a detailed assessment of the societal context in which the feminist movement existed in the 19th century. Instead, they provided several deep insights into female roles as viewed in the works of Dickinson and Sexton, and they did so brilliantly. For example, the unceasing confrontation between the matriarchal and the patriarchal elements in the poems under analysis helps represent the challenges that women, in general, and the proponents of the feminist movement, in particular, were facing at the time:
Finally, such traditional metaphorical matriarchal anxiety ensures that even the author of a text, when she is a woman, may feel imprisoned within texts – folded and “wrinkled” by their pages and thus trapped in their “perpetual seams” which perpetually tell her how she seems. (Gilbert and Gubar 452)
Gilbert and Gubar’s message also rubs shoulders with the idea suggested by Platt. For instance, the authors mention explicitly that women are not even allowed to define themselves, leaving the others to tell them how they seem. Platt, in her turn, is more explicit with the message of the social control that women are exposed to on a regular basis. Although she does not state directly in her novel that women are not permitted to make their own decisions, the fact that the boss of the leading character answers the questions directed at her shows the power of prejudice and the suffocating control that women were exposed to at the time:
“When they asked me what I wanted to be I said I didn’t know.
“Oh, sure you know,” the photographer said.
“She wants,” said Jay Cee wittily, “to be everything.” (Platt 9)
The message that Platt sends, therefore, can be viewed not as contrasting with the ideas of May, Showalter, Ehrenreich and English, who tend to focus on the household aspect of women’s lives, but as extending their argument by placing women in the environment that has been comparatively hostile to them for a significant amount of time.
Historical Context: Through the Lens of the Epoch
Although the idea of feminism implies protecting women’s rights, it could be argued that the excerpts under analysis are meant for anyone who is concerned with the current concept of social justice, in general, and gender equality, in particular. For example, the narrators address both women that are enthusiastic about the feminist movement and those that cannot be described as active participants of the movement.
It is quite remarkable that some of the studies of the subject matter place the gender issue in historical contexts that serve as the foil for the development of other social, political, and economic issues. As a result, the authors make it clear that the problem of gender equality exists in a conundrum of societal and socioeconomic issues and events, therefore, being affected to a considerable extent by the identified phenomena. Therefore, the authors clarify that the assessment of the problem and the further choice of the appropriate measures to be taken are inseparable from the analysis of the socioeconomic and political environment.
For example, May overviews the issue from the perspective of the Cold War era, shedding light on the factors that made the problem evolve during an identified time period. According to May, in the Cold War epoch, the issue of gender inequality was addressed on a statewide level in both the United States and Russia, though different approaches were used. For instance, the American government suggested that technological progress, which apparently aided women’s efforts in doing chores that are usually unrecognized, should be used to manage the situation: “Nixon called attention to a built-in panel-control washing machine: ‘In America,’ he said, ‘these [washing machines] are designed to make things easier for our women’” (May 12).
The author draws parallels with the strategy used by the government of the Soviet Union that, though declining to adopt the same approach of using technology, also proclaimed that women should be provided with equal rights. Set in the exact same time period as May’s work, Platt’s novel also points to some of the most obvious flaws of the era, though not as explicitly. Comparing the experience of being married to being “a slave in some private, totalitarian state” (Platt 7), the author creates a hyperbola that both sets the novel in a very specific time period and at the same time makes the story somewhat timeless, making it clear that, no matter what epoch, women have been facing the factors that set very rigid boundaries to the roles that they played in the household environment.
The historical context that other works are placed in is not as evident as the one in May’s study; however, most of the narrators tend to consider the issue of feminism from the perspective of a particular era. For example, Gilbert and Gubar examine the poetry by Emily Dickinson and Anne Sexton, thus, traveling all the way back to the 19th century. As a result, a deeper insight into the nature of the issue and the phenomenon of gender inequality becomes a possibility.
Showalter, in her turn, does not pick a specific time period to carry out her analysis of the problem. One might argue that the identified choice – or, to be more accurate, the lack thereof – makes her argument less constructive and much vaguer. However, a closer look at the subject matter will show that an overview of the history of feminist ideas, which Showalter creates by assessing the concept of the “female malady” (Showalter 1), makes her statement all the more powerful.
The narrator switches from diving into the depths of world history to analyzing modern feminist philosophers, making her messages all the more compelling: “Contemporary feminist philosophers, literary critics, and social theorists have been the first to call attention to the existence of a fundamental alliance between ‘woman’ and ‘madness’” (Showalter 3). Thus, an objective assessment of the phenomenon under analysis, as well as the evolution of feminist ideas, in general, is possible. Despite the fact that the identified approach contrasts strikingly with Platt’s story, which is set in a specific era, the timelessness of the message conveyed by Platt makes the two works somewhat similar to each other.
Eventually, Ehrenreich and English return the reader to our time, placing the issue of feminism and the lack of gender equality in the context of the modern world. However, by refusing to plunge into the depths of feminism history, the authors do not make their argument any less solid; instead, they permit the reader to focus on the topical issues, therefore, directing attention to the need to make changes to the current environment.
In fact, the authors deviate from the analysis of the current situation at some point, addressing the nature of some of the more recent gender-related issues: “Between 1950 and 1960, television invaded nearly every American home, with its standardized image of how Americans should live, and how you too could be living right now” (Ehrenreich and English 310). By refusing to carry out a historical analysis of the gender issue, Ehrenreich and English keep the audience grounded in the contemporary environment and allow connection of the factors that define feminist views, as well as the development of the tools for resolving the conflict, in a more efficient manner.
Conclusion: Equality as the Priority
Although the problems related to the gender conflict have been in existence since the dawn of time, they remain unresolved even nowadays, as a brief overview of the recent works by feminist authors shows. Using Platt’s The Bell Jar as the model description of the problems that women face in the society, one may conclude that the works by May, Showalter, Gilbert and Gubar, and Ehrenreich and English depict the futility of efforts to promote gender equality quite clearly. The numerous links to social, political, and cultural contexts prevent such authors from addressing the problem in a successful manner.
Since conflicts related to gender and inequality cannot be viewed outside of the context of the society that they exist in, a complex approach involving a detailed analysis of the associated societal issues is required. Several writers handling the topic of feminism and its development in different cultures and eras have shown that the problem needs to be interpreted from an objective perspective that will help abstract from the stereotypes foisted on the members of society. Thus, premises for a successful resolution of the dilemma can be created.
Works Cited
Ehrenreich, Barbara, and Deirdre English. For Her Own Good: Two Centuries of the Experts Advice to Women. New York, NY: Anchor, 2005. Print.
Gilbert, Sandra M., and Susan Gubar. The Madwoman in the Attic. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2011. Print.
May, Elaine Tyler. Homeward Bound: American Families in the Cold War Era. New York, NY: Basic Books, 2008. Print.
Platt, Sylvia. The Bell Jar. 1963.
Showalter, Elaine. The Female Malady: Women, Madness and English Culture, 1830-1980. Virago Press, Ltd.: London, UK, 1987. Print.