Anthony #2

Cinderella By Anne Sexton
 I will start off using a quote from the story Cinderella "The eldest went into a room to try the slipper on but her big toe got in the way so she simply sliced it off and put on the slipper." When reading the story of Cinderella it seemed all but the same. However, their is certain things in the story that I wouldn't fathom would happen. On one instance the sisters would have done anything in their power to be with the prince, that means cutting off piece  of your own body to make someone else happy? That seems to be farfetched, but when dealing with Feminist Criticism, they would analyze it by doing anything necessary to obtain wealth, power, prestige. It would seem outlandish for females to mutilate their own bodies so that they can gain all the material possession that they crave. On the other hand criticism would argue that this has been going on for years and nothing seems to be wrong with it. I'm astonished when I finished reading it.

Feminist Criticism - Kelsey Villarino

I chose "Girl" by Jamaica Kincaid because it very blatantly showed a certain point of view. Even though I liked the structure and the way this story is told in one long sentence, you can't help but feeling like you're being yelled at. An older women is clearly teaching a young girl how to run a household and keep the man of the house satisfied. These rules are the only way a young girl in this environment will survive. Elaine Showalter, a leading voice in feminist criticism, has four models to critique and assess women's writing. I would choose the cultural model to analyze "Girl"; it investigates how society shapes women's goals, responses, and points of view. Centuries have told women in these positions how their lives are supposed to go and that they are only on this earth to provide for man. Society is a huge force against women of this time period and environment, telling them what is wrong and what is right.

-Blog post #2 Miguel - Metaphors

-Metaphors- Silvia Plath

This poem was a very interesting one because it is made in a clever way that makes the poem more complex. After I read it I noticed that not only was there a lot of metaphors in the poem itself, but that each line in the poem was nine syllables. As it says in the first line "I'm a riddle in nine syllables" it reflects the structure of her whole poem as well. Another thing that I noticed was that the entire poem was exactly nine lines long, I doubt that it was a coincidence. That number nine made me wonder about its significance in this poem and my thoughts came to the conclusion that this woman wrote the poem about a pregnancy. Due to the fact that pregnancies are typically 9 months long. Another big clue is when she says, "I'm a means, a stage, a cow in calf." what I got out of it was that she was just a stage in pregnacy which woman go through until labor. The calf is the baby of a cow so that made that idea of motherhood click in my head. The last sentence of the poem," Boarded the train there's no getting off." also gave it away because once a woman becomes pregnant, there is no turning back. It isfact that it is the point of no return but in my perspective she does not embrace the pregnacy. It made me think of a quote said by plato, a feminist critic, that  "Plato thanks the gods for two blessings: that he had not been born a slave and that he had not been born a woman."

            Plato (c. 427-c. 347 B.C.E.)

This quote makes it seem like it is a pity to be born a woman, that it is possibly the next worse position to be in next to a slave. It is wrong to think that way but it can apply to this poem because a woman is making it seem like it is a shame to be in a situation of pregnancy and it can be viewed in a positive sort of way in the point of view of a feminist critic.

Erika- Blog #2

In the poem Girl, the author does a good job of describing most of the chores and activities a women would do under a society that looks down on women. It portrays females as a robot whose only tasks are to do things for men or for themselves so they won't bother men. Their roles are to please the other sex. "When buying cotton, make yourself a nice blouse, make sure it doesn't have gum on it, because that way it won't hold up after a wash". This sentence forces the reader to think women are idiotic because who would want gum on their clothes? This sentence is asking for them to watch out for gum as if they wouldn't in the first place. This poem basically degrades women into "slaves" for men. This was an interesting poem, there were many messages behind every sentence about the roles women should play in a anti-feminism society.

Blog #2

"Girl"

This short story by Jamaica Kinkaid is representative of all the everyday oppression that besets females in a male dominated society.  The girl is constantly told she must do certain things that are simply expected of her, there is no mention of anything that she gets from doing these things.  This relegation down to a servant like status, show the girl as an object in a patriarchal society, of similar worth to other objects that perform tasks that are below a man.  Even though its supposed that this girl is doing what she is told, she is nonetheless continually referred to as "a slut you are so bent on becoming."  

Blog #2 Dekoekkoek

I chose Girl by Jamaica Kincaid because it shows the marginalization of women, and how society coercively places them into inferior roles.  Girl is basically a long list of do's and don'ts for how a girl is supposed to behave.  If analyzing it through the lens of feminist criticism, I would focus on the nature of the tasks that the girl is admonished to learn and do--all menial work related to keeping a home, or working as a maid, or some other position of small power.  It is not mentioned once that the girl is taught math, reading, philosophy, or anything else that might have to do with higher education.  It is implied that she won't be needing those things.  Also, the girl is constantly admonished not to be a slut, which brings up the old double standard of the man who is studly vs the women who is slutty if they are promiscuous.  I liked the part that says, "this is how you smile to someone you don’t like too much; this is how you smile to someone you don’t like at all; this is how you smile to someone you like completely" because it demonstrates the powerlessness of the girl to do anything but smile at people she doesn't like.  She is not allowed to voice her opinion or stand up for herself.  She is also taught to make medicine to end a pregnancy, by a mother who is sure that she will end up a slut.  What is sad about this, is that it shows how it is not just men, but other women who perpetuate negative stereotypes about women.  I think my initial reaction to this reading, was that it seemed pretty grim.  Plato said that he "...thanks the gods for two blessings: that he had not been born a slave and that he had not been born a women."  Reading Girl made me feel the same way, I would not want to be born a woman, at least not the one that Girl was written about!

Post on feminist by Adrian

Cinderella by Anne Sexton
when I read this poem, I could get a sarcastic opinion on feminist. According to the poem a her mother told her "Be devout. Be good. Then I will smile down from heaven in the seam of a cloud." From my point this is a suggestion that women are suppose to be submissive and silent, I don't see this as a positive aspect for feminist. According to feminist both women and men have the same rights and should be look as equals, but this poem suggest the opposit in different instances. The poem describes Cinderella as a weak woman, because he let her siters and step mother to take advantage of her. This poem makes a portrait of a antifeminist portrait of a woman, because it tlaks about a woman who is considered as less than a man, who does't express her opinion, who leaves others to take advantage of her, and finally a woman who is very dependent.

Blog #2 Tyler C. "Metaphors"

On Sylvia Plath's poem "Metaphors"

The poem can be summarized as a string of metaphors for pregnancy.  My first reaction to the poem was noticing how clever its structure is.  Each line is 9 syllables, and the entire poem is 9 lines, which I'm guessing signifies the 9 months of pregnancy.  The first line, "I'm a riddle in nine syllables." I assume is referring to each line of the poem, since the concept of a "riddle" and a metaphor are somewhat similar in that the purpose of both concepts is to reveal deeper meanings that require deep thought to figure out.  It's also interesting that in six of the lines, she uses an animal or food as the object for her metaphor.

The message I got from the poem is that she feels pregnancy is viewed by society as a means to an end.  From the chapter on feminist theory, I believe it can be related mostly to Showalter's gynocriticism. "By exposing these inaccurate pictures (often caricatures) of women, gynocritics . . . provides . . . critics with four models that address the nature of women’s writing: the biological, the linguistic, the psychoanalytic, and the cultural."  The first few lines of the poem use metaphors to show how pregnancy is depicted visually, and offers a caricature-like image of a pregnant woman.  From the fourth line onwards, she transitions her imagery to refer what she's pregnant with.  A fruit, a loaf, etc.  On the sixth line, "Money's new-minted in this fat purse." this can be interpreted as her being the purse which contains money, or value.  Her metaphors from this line and the next ("I'm a means, a stage, a cow in calf.") can basically be interpreted as herself being worthless and the entity she's pregnant with being the only thing of true value,  i.e. pregnancy being a means to an end (as viewed by men/society.)
The last two lines, I think, are metaphors for some type of regret regarding the pregnancy.  "I've eaten a bag of green apples" makes me think she feels sick, and "Boarding the train" where there's no getting off seems like regret or unpreparedness.  Either she doesn't feel ready and/or doesn't want to deal with the "burden" of her pregnancy.

Blog # 2 Cinderella

I was actually kind of surprised by this poem. I felt that its message was feminist. While the story that she is telling isn't feminist her opinion of the story gives an underlying meaning to the poem. At first glance I thought that it was just a poem describing the story of Cinderella and then I began to read it. What let me know that it was a feminist piece was the repetition of the phrase "that story". She isn't just saying "this is what happens in Cinderella,. The End" she is saying we all know that story about the beautiful girl that is abused by family or loved ones and in the end she gets to live with prince charming. I felt that the point behind this piece was that yes, we have all heard the story and it is ridiculous. Who would cut of their toe or their heel to fit into a shoe? Since when do birds give you beautiful dresses and shoes?
Despite its ridiculousness as little girls we cling to these stories, we all want our happy ending, our prince charming but as adults we have to see that we make our own happy endings and we are our own prince charmings.

Cinderella

               After reading the Cinderella poem not so sure that it paints a good picture for Feminists. The poem portrays women trying to win over a man in order to improve their life. A man holds a ball aka "marriage market" to where all the women get dressed and don't look like they usually do in order to impress the man. Early on you get the feeling that man is far superior to women and that all women need to put on a costume to impress men instead of being themselves.
              Also talks about how the women hurt themselves in order to make the glass slipper fit.  One of the sisters cut her toe off and the other her heel, so that they could fit into the shoe. I think a feminist lens would be dissapointed in the way this poem portrays women being weak and willing to do whatever to win the man over. It didn't make women strong or independent, but instead manipulative and fake. In the beginning of the poem the author gives examples of different stories about rags to riches which I felt foreshadow the poem on how Cinderella was going to come up.
               I thought the poem was an interesting portrayal of the story most of know from growing up. It  threw for a loop when it talked about the sisters cutting themselves so they could make the shoe fit. No feminist would think that is a positive way to represent women in general. That was the most obvious point in my eyes.

Denai Adams Feminism (Blog #2)

Cinderella by Anne Sexton


  I feel that a Feminist would most likely disagree with this poem because the beginning provides both men and women being powerful and successful. I would think that if she were going to demonstrate Feminism, using both males and females, she would provide examples which show the woman being dominant on her own, not by using a man to achieve a higher status. To me, this suggests that the man already is higher than the woman, and that she is simply "riding his tailcoat" to gain a higher status. The author, being a female, seems to focus mainly on the "get rich quick", and "happily ever after" type of relationships. However the "happily ever after" doesn't come until there is a monetary, or social gain. The Feminist section states that, "men and women are not equal." It is clear, even in this poem, that they are not. However, the man takes a seemingly more superior stance in this fairytale. The poem states, "the wife of a rich man was on her deathbed" implying that the woman is property of the man. After this woman's death, she is replaced by another woman shortly after. Simone de Beauvoir believed that the woman than became, "the Other, an object whose existence is defined and interpreted by the dominant male." In this poem, that belief seems to be accepted by the author, not questioned.

Blog Assignment #2: due by 10/13

For this post, choose one of the following and explain, using a few quotes/ideas from the chapter on feminist criticism, how you would analyze it through the lens of feminist criticism. You should also provide a brief summary and your reaction to the text. (These are short; your readings should be very focused in the sense that you deal specifically with multiple lines of the poems.)

Choices:

Jamaica Kincaid's "Girl", a stream-of-consciousness narrative in 2nd person recounting the many "rules" a girl of Kincaid's ethnic/racial identity must follow

Sylvia Plath's "Lady Lazarus", a self-confessional poem in which Plath recounts several suicide attempts and her "coming back" from them (she did eventually commit suicide, as did her son, at 47 . . . as did the woman with whom Plath's celebrated poet husband Ted Hughes had an affair and married after Plath's death. An interesting family, to say the least). 

Sylvia Plath's "Metaphors", a short poem that highlights pregnancy in an unexpected way

Anne Sexton's "Cinderella", a rather ironic retelling of the classic Cinderella tale.

Anne Sexton's "Her Kind", which examines stereotypes of women

Blog Post #1 - Samantha Hoyt

                  The Marxist idea of the economic base relates directly to the struggle between the bourgeoisie and the proletariat, the oppressor and the oppressed.  John is a professor at a university where he is influenced by his respected position as an author and a potential tenure recipient. Carole is a current student at the same university but her position is lower in the institution giving her less power and oppressing her overall academics.

         As Karl Marx puts it in his Manifesto of the Communist Party “the oppressor and oppressed stood in constant opposition, carried on in an open fight." The professor in this case is in the role of the bourgeoisie and the student is in the role of the proletariat. In the beginning of the play Carole continuously states that she doesn’t understand what John is lecturing about. John has put himself into a dominating position because he is receiving a paycheck for his works while ultimately Carole and students like her are paying his salary. Money is what makes the university run therefore, if John is helping to bring in the money he has a direct relation with the economic base and is important to the super structure as a whole. 

Annie Hooper- Question #7

I agree with Curry that the problem with Oleanna is not mainly about sexual harassment but about false allegations. This is about women, using their supposed "weaker" status, to get what they want. In Oleanna, Carol knows that this professor is a good target for her agenda by him saying things like "Aren't you fetching today" or "have a good day dear". She purposely puts herself in a situation to be alone with him so she can bait him into harassment. I am not saying that John is not guilty, because he is, but she baited him and was partially to blame. She used her status as a lower class, little shy girl as a tool to get him to do something inappropriate because she knows that he likes his power over her. As soon as he does something inappropriate, she immediately cries to the tenure board saying she was sexually harassed, but her allegations of attempted rape were way out of line and totally false. Instead of just using what she already ligitimately had against him, she had to take it to the next level to really drive the nail home. She seemingly wanted to make an example of him and it was easy because he was not totally innocent. Curry said, "Playing to the fears of the audience, the work seems to argue that the real issue of sexual harassment is that an unsubstantiated charge could ruin the career and life of an absolutely innocent individual." Well, John is not absolutely innocent but he is certainly not guilty of attempted rape. That is the problem with the play, if John had been innocent then everyone would feel bad for him because she was ruining his life by a lie, but since he is guilty of sexual harassment and battery (however slight) her claim held water. Both John and Carol are to blame for what happened next, because he was stupid enough to think that by meeting again, he could charm her into dropping the complaint and she was clever enough to meet with him to give herself another opportunity at a harassment claim. What is so irritating about this whole thing is that it wasn't about making an example of him and standing against sexual harassment, because she would have dropped her claim if he backed her censorship agenda. She used her false allegation to blackmail him into doing what she wanted. It was never about harassment, it was about her using her status as a woman to get what she wanted which was censorship of the books. Another irritation is that, either way, Carol wins. If he does not give in to her blackmail, then she wins because he is still fired and loses his status as the rich and powerful white man. If he does give in, then she wins by getting the books censored and having him labeled with sexual harassment even if she drops the charges, he still has the stigma.

David Jacobo- blog #1 QUESTION #4

The text reveals conflict between the lower social class and the upper /middle social class. Seeing as Carol came from a lower social class than John, she feels oppressed by his language and his teaching methods/ styles. She is blaming him for her not learning and not understanding the concepts and methods that he speaks of in class. When going into a high prestige college or university, one is expected to know high level vocabulary, if one doesn't know something then he/she should ask not stay quiet until he/she receives a bad grade. Him knowing a higher level of vocabulary shouldn't cause a feminist to overreact and and make accusations of sexism.  I don't believe that Carol was oppressed at all, she just wasn't smart enough to get through the class. i think it was selfish what she did, it seems that she wanted to just get rid of the professor for her own benefit.