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Feminism in Art Feminism is a movement, which is generally aimed at allowing women to have equal rights with men in every aspect of social life. The main issues of feminist movement today are equality of women in politics and employment. Women never before had equal rights with men in these fields, but today the situation is changing. Some radical feminist ideas rely on the transformation of patriarchal social and economic system into the domination of women in all social hierarchies and by creating a gerontocracy.
Feminism can be also viewed as the difference between womens and mens perception of the world and usually claims that the first womens is a right one. This different perception of world can be observed through feminist art. Originally, it was considered that women were inferior in terms of physical power and mental ability, which resulted into monopolization of power and knowledge by men. Men were developing the world and this had resulted into what we have today including different achievements and problems. It is actually hard to find what form of hierarchy came first patriarchy or gerontocracy.
In my opinion, there is no need to seek an answer to this question. However, the interesting thing is to know what was the motive or reason for the creation or gerontocracy. It is suggested that it was a patriarchal need to secure resources for sexual satisfaction by less energetic older males. It was primarily due to the reason that older and more experienced males could use their cunning over males and females of all ages, while younger males generally relied on physical power over both men and women. Besides, women are physically disadvantaged by their reproductive roles.
Western domination of women and nature was conceptually linked into the processes of making them inferior and had mutually reinforced each other. For example, Merchant (op. cit. p. 165) argues that from its beginning the discourse of modern science in the West was informed by imagery that portrayed nature as female. Given womens status this both aided and made erotic the domination of nature for men of science. Woman was interconnected with the exploration of nature having love for plants and animals.
Man was identified with spirit, mind, and power over both, woman and nature. Power must be analyzed as something, which circulates, or rather as something, which only functions in the form of a chain. It is never localized here or there, never in anybody's hands, never appropriated as a commodity or piece of wealth. Such different associations can be easily found in various examples of feminist art.
In a world where a womans sphere was defined by their duties of motherhood, child-rearing, and homemaking; the beginnings of industrialization posed specific concerns on the impact that factory work would have on family life, even more specifically on women. The nineteenth-century witnessed a crucial change in the established pattern of society. Women were at crossroads where their domesticity, in the early period of industrialization, became challenged. Women started to enjoy social and economic independence thus creating new pressures not only economically, but also culturally, which made art more popular among women. Women became more interested in different forms of art available during that period of time and made their first attempts to express their vision of world mainly through writing.
Through the XX century women obtained more rights and therefore, were more respected by male part of society. This allowed women art to have more influence and more publicity. Indeed feminism in writing can be found much earlier than in XX century. A classic example can be Jane Eyre, which according to various researchers greatly inspired women in the future to express their feminine feelings and emotions through writing, painting, photography etc. Although feminism seems to the modern reader a phenomenon of the 20 th century with the suffragettes of the 20 s and the womens liberation movement of the 60 s and 70 s, it has always existed. It was not always called feminism, nor did believers in equality always have a refuge with like-thinkers.
In Charlotte romance novel, Jane Eyre, the protagonist, Jane, had a definite feminist bent. In 1800 s, behavior followed such straight-laced regulated standards that most modern women would be considered excruciatingly radical and unconventional. Thus Janes version of feminism was much milder by our expectations, but it exists nonetheless. Jane strove for what Websters dictionary describes as, the doctrine advocating social, political, and all other rights of women equal to those of men, except of course, there was no doctrine in the 1840 s. But seeing as there was no standard to follow, why was Jane a feminist? She was not exposed to men while she was growing up, she had no female role models to learn submission from, when she tried being independent and demanding equality, it worked, and her education perpetuated her beliefs.
There are many reasons why Jane Eyre was a feminist. Although it seems logical that not being exposed to men would eradicate the need for equality with men, Jane was never one to follow expectations. Throughout her entire childhood and adolescence, she never interacted with men in a way that would be conducive to submission. As an orphan, she lived with her uncles widow, Mrs. Reed.
The only male figure in the household was her older cousin John Reed who was unnecessarily cruel to Jane on a regular basis. From very early on, Jane had a keen feminine sense of justice. Jane learned to respect herself, to forgive, and to calmly take what injustice is given. This balanced out Janes hasty sense of injustice, and helped form her into a composed and introspective person, as Helen was.
Another role model of a strong and independent woman at Lowood was the principal of the school, Miss Temple. She was very kind to all of the students, especially Jane and Helen, and was a stark contrast to the cruel and hypocritical Mr. Brocklehurst who owned Lowood. The students liked Miss Temple because she gave them extra meals whenever she could and her general presence was very kind and dignified. Jane said that Miss Temple "impressed me by her voice, look, and air. " When Miss Temple got married and moved away, Jane said, "she had stood me in the stead of mother, governess, and, latterly, companion, and was very sad when she left. She made Mr.
Brocklehurst, and quite possibly, in the eyes of a ten year old, most men appear downright contemptible. The society of such women truly raised Janes standards: she made a friend by the name of Mary Ann Wilson, whom she seemed to like well enough, but she was inferior to my first acquaintance she could only tell me amusing stories, and reciprocate and racy and pungent gossip I chose to indulge in; while, if I have spoken the truth of Helen, she was qualified to give those who enjoyed the privilege of her converse, a taste of far higher things. After Miss Temples departure, Jane chose to seek employment as a governess. The housekeeper at Thornfield Hall where Jane was to be employed, Mrs. Fairfax, was also an example of an independent and self-supportive woman. She took care of Thornfield year-round because the owner of the house did not spend much time there.
In essence, for years, she ran the household without benefit of a male counterpart, as she was a widow. This lack of traditional female role models left Jane to act the only way she knew how when it came to her place with men: to be equal to them which is the main goal of feminists, but not of feminist artists, who attempted to be better than men and eventually succeeded in it by showing the soul of woman in the way men could not. Just as there are many aspects that go into making a person an individual, there were many reasons why Jane Eyre was a feminist. She said, Nobody knows how many rebellions besides political rebellions ferment in the masses of life in which people earth. Women are supposed to be very quiet generally: but women feel just as men feel; they need exercise for their faculties and a field for their efforts as much as their brothers do; they suffer too rigid a constraint, too absolute a stagnation, precisely as men would suffer; and it is narrow minded in their more privileged fellow-creatures to say that they ought to confine themselves to making puddings and knitting stockings, to playing on the piano and embroidering bags. It is thoughtless to condemn them, or laugh at them, if they seek to do more or learn more than custom has pronounced necessary for their sex.
That does not at all seem like a very radical proposition, but it was at the time. This honorable statement still holds true, and, while not exactly radical, is often not observed. Through Jane Eyre set an example that was followed by many feminists in the future. The story was written by woman and it was very successful, which showed that women can create great things as well as men.
This idea was more than inspiration to create something for modern feminist artists, such as Audrey Flack. During the period of Feminist Movement feminist art started to develop more rapidly. As the early 1970 s brought about a revolution for women and the Feminist Movement, one of the most significant contributions to the era came from the new avenues of feminist...
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Research essay sample on Social And Economic Jane Eyre
