2. Last lesson we looked language
associated with women and men
The language associated with women, both
negative and positive, is often about sex
appeal.
For women, there is a paradox between being
sexually alluring and available and not having
too much sex or too many sexual partners.
Language associated with men is often
reductive (synecdoche), reducing him to an
organ (female or male), but plays little
attention to sexual propriety. In fact, sexual
experience is often held in high regard.
3. Learning Objectives
To understand and analyse the article on
Feminism in the Critical Anthology
To understand and analyse the article
about Feminist Critics in the Critical
Anthology
To select the most pertinent concepts
from the articles
4. Feminism and gender
Feminism can be linked to Marxism in that both
schools of thought see socio-economic ideas at
the heart of their thinking
While Marxism sees working people as
historically disadvantaged, it has traditionally
failed to take much notice of another group who
have been significantly disadvantaged through
history, namely, women
5. Literature helps construct views of
women
Marxist ‘takes’ on literature have tended to see
how literature reflects the social world.
Feminism, by contrast, has tended to take a
stronger line
Feminism says that literature helps to construct
views of women that are unfair.
This is why the difference between sex and
gender is so important, even though the words
are often confused in everyday use. (See
definitions)
6. Men too were potentially
disadvantaged
As ideas around feminism developed, it became
clear that men too were potentially disadvantaged
They were also expected to perform within
stereotypical roles that create their own problems
As gender studies developed, they have tended
to look at the notions of masculinity, and the way
it is represented, as well as femininity.
7.
8. Précis...
Each paragraph to a sentence
Each paragraph to a word
The article to a sentence
The article to a word
9. Reading from the critical
anthology
After reading, make sure you can say something about the following
points:
Why literature is associated with social and historical
circumstances.
The 1970s and Kate Millet’s book
Why the private sphere is bound up with the political
What stereotypes existed, according to feminist literary critics?
Good Why are female characters in literature considered to be a
1. Have a clear comment on the point linked to
constructions? about Feminism
quote
Better 2. Have a detailed evaluative comment that embeds
supportive references from the text
