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Transcript

The Feminist Lens

Examples

Link to Othello

Class Questions

Activity

Women as Possessions of Men

In Othello women are constantly

described as pieces of property that belong to men

"If to preserve this vessel for my lord/ from any hated foul unlawful touch/ Be not to be a strumpet, I am none" (4.2.84-6).

Desdemona is referring to herself as a vessel that has not been used yet it is sealed and pure and the only one that can use it is Othello. Desdemona believes she is Othello's

property, and only he can use her.

http://padlet.com/lalax_9/othello

Women as Possessions

of Men

What gender holds power in society?

Women are the one's at fault

With naught but truth. I have wasted myself out of my means. The jewels you have had from me to deliver Desdemona would half have corrupted a votaress (4.2.186-89).

Would you NOT trust someone based on their gender?

Are girls responsible for how men view them?

Roderiogo essentially wants to buy Desdemona with money like she is an object that can be purchased for himself. Then he says the amount of money he has spent can even corrupt a nun. Woman in the play are constantly referred to as objects and not people. They can be bought by money like a house or a car.

Othello and Desdemona

  • Act 4 Scene 1

Desdemona: Why, sweet Othello-

Othello: (Sticking her) Devil!

Desdemona: I have not deserved this.

....

Othello: Oh, devil, devil!

If that the earth could teem with woman's tears,

Each drop she falls would prove a crocodile.

Out of my sight!

Desdemona: I will not stay to offend you.

Do you think women play an equal role in society?

How do you differ between masculine and feminine?

Women are the one's at fault

Woman as Possessions

of Men

Iago

  • Act 4 Scene 1

Iago: Good sir, be a man,

Think every bearded fellow that’s but yoked

May draw with you. There’s millions now alive

That nightly lie in those unproper beds

Which they dare swear peculiar. Your case is better.

Oh, ’tis the spite of hell, the fiend’s arch-mock,

To lip a wanton in a secure couch,

And to suppose her chaste. No, let me know,

And knowing what I am, I know what she shall be.

In most Disney movies women go from the possession of their fathers right into the possession of their husbands

In Disney movies Ariel is handed over from her father to Prince Eric, Jasmine to Aladdin, and Belle to the Beast.

In The Little Mermaid Ariel is the property of her father, he is the one who grants Ariel permission to become human and marry Prince Eric.

Women as Possessions

of Men

Portrayed as Whores

In the bible it is shown throughout that women are not the owners of their own body but that they are just possessions of their husbands or father.

Women are often seen as objects in patriarchal societies, husbands or fathers own them and they can do anything they want with them.

"If a man finds a girl who is a virgin, who is not engaged, and seizes her and lies with her and they are discovered, then the man who lay with her shall give to the girl's father fifty shekels of silver, and she shall become his wife (Deuteronomy 22:28).

If a man rapes a woman who is a virgin he has to pay 50 shekels to the father because the daughter is of no purpose to the father anymore. The rapist has to compensate the father for the damage he has caused to the fathers property.

It is seen in both examples, the disney movies and in the bible that woman do not have control over themselves, they are the belogings of men who can chose what they want to do with them.

Act 4, Scene 1

" Good sir, be a man. Think every bearded fellow that's but yoked may draw with you" (Othello lines 64-66)

"She gave it to him, and he hath given it his whore" (lines 166-167)

  • third woman character
  • she's a prostitute

Women Are Submissive

  • inevitable it is for women to cheat
  • undermines the role of women by generalizing that all women are whores

Act 4, Scene 2

"I cry you mercy then. I took you for that cunning whore of Venice that married Othello" (lines 88-89)

"She says enough; yet she's a simple bawd that cannot say much. This is a subtle whore, a closet lock and key of villainous secrets and yet she'll kneel and pray; I have seen her do't" (lines 20-23)

  • makes women look weak
  • as if its acceptable to talk to your wife like that
  • dosen't even ask Desdemona about the situation
  • Othello talks about Emilia after Emilia tries to tell Othello that Desdemona is loyal

Act 4 Scene I

Work on, My medicine, work! Thus credulous fools are caught,

And many worthy and chaste dames even thus,

All guiltless, meet reproach.—What, ho! My lord!

My lord, I say! Othello! -Iago

(punished)

If you are so fond over her iniquity, give her patent to offend, for if it touch not you it comes near nobody. -Iago (permission)

Truly, an obedient lady.

I do beseech your lordship, call her back. -Lodovico (obedient)

Girl In A Country Song (2014)

  • Current country songs are objectifying women
  • Singing about girls denim shorts and bikini tops
  • Exposes the stereotypes women face
  • Feminist view of country music

Feminism and literature

The Little Mermaid

Feminist perspective

Vs

Domestic violence, the media and stigma

North Country (2005)

  • portrayed as a whore
  • touched inappropriately
  • no value in the workplace because of her gender
  • "take it like a man"

- Feminism is apparently only for women in the eyes of the media

- Drastically changes her physical appearance to be more fulfilling for the mans wants

-the price is that she cant speak, no problem! She has nothing valuable to say anyways.

-saved by her prince

All rules and principles should be applied equally to both men and women

Double Standards

The feminist view urges the elimination of double standards in literature

Double standards are views that are applied to different people in different ways

“When a man gives his opinion, he's a man. When a woman gives her opinion, she's a bitch.” -Bette Davis

"The worst thing you can call a girl is a girl. The worst thing you can call a guy is a girl. Being a woman is the ultimate insult. Now tell me that’s not royally fu**ed up” -Jessica Valenti

Purpose

  • Explore the roles of female characters in writing
  • Representation of women
  • Exposing stereotypes

Equality

FEMALE

male

Theory

  • how the role of women are undermined
  • comparing her role the the role of a man

liberal

marxist/social

radical

Concerned which literature (and other cultural productions) reinforce or endermine the economic, political, social and

cultural

eco-feminism

Othello: Act 4

Through a feminist lens

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