Artistic Behavior in the Human Female Essay Example for Free

Artistic Behavior in the Human Female Essay The passage above comes from the article, â€Å"Artistic Behavior in the Human Female,† by Jean Robertson (2003, p. 24). Robertson (2003) argued that female artists define and interpret female sexuality in diverse and conflicting ways, and by using different artistic strategies. Robertson makes assumptions about the woman’s body as a contested terrain, wherein being a woman continues to be a subject of heated debate. For him, how female artists view themselves as women, and as artists, shape their depiction of â€Å"femininity† and â€Å"female sexuality† in their artworks. One of the quotes that Robertson mentioned in his text comes from Simon de Beauvoir. In her seminal book, â€Å"The Second Sex,† she stressed that: â€Å"One is not born a woman, but, rather, becomes one. † I want to reflect on de Beauvoir’s statement and Robertson’s belief about the woman’s body. I agree with de Beauvoir that social experiences and political conditions impact the construction of â€Å"being a woman. † Society shapes how women and men see femininity and gender roles through establishing gender roles and expectations. An example is when a girl is â€Å"conditioned† by her mother to be a â€Å"woman,† by telling her how she should act as a â€Å"woman. This includes educating her about the toys she can and cannot use, and the games she can and cannot play. The girl learns that she should act and think a certain way, in order to be â€Å"feminine. † She learns that she cannot be boisterous or get involved in sports, because that would be too â€Å"manly† for her. This girl is the perfect example of â€Å"becoming† a woman. On the other hand, I also agree that being a woman is a biological and individual construct. A woman is a product of her biology, whether she likes it or not. This is why women are also defined by their sexual organs. Their biology also determines their sex, as well as their gender. Furthermore, being a woman is a product of individual desires and needs. Any woman can define her womanhood the way she also wants it to. Robertson indicated the existence of the pluralities of femininity. It is true that a woman’s body is a contested terrain, and for me, what is wrong with that? Is it not also possible to have multiple femininities, instead of having only one approach to define and to interpret what it means to be a woman? There is nothing wrong, in my opinion, of having different ways of being a woman, because to deny one approach to womanhood undermines the very essence of being a free woman. Journal entry 2 In â€Å"A conversation about race and class,† Childers and Hooks (1990) argued that gender should be expanded to include issues of race and class. They said that: â€Å"†¦we should begin by talking about how we experienced the struggle to challenge and expand the category of gender† (pp. 61-62). For them, people cannot understand gender in its whole sense, if racial and class issues are overlooked in gender analysis. This reading challenged my view of gender, by asking me to see gender through a much broader lens. I have not considered that gender issues also intersect racial and class issues. On the other hand, Childers and Hooks (1990) compelled me to think about the politics of gender. This is related to our discussions about gender as a political object. The politics of gender demonstrate that there are hierarchies to the feminine gender that are experienced by many women. Power is also affected by one’s class and race. If white female women feel that there is a glass ceiling at the workplace, lower-class black and Hispanic women face a greater and heavier glass ceiling in society. Because of their class and race, they feel and experience multiple glass ceilings- the ceiling of racial discrimination, the ceiling of class discrimination, and the ceiling of gender discrimination. These ceilings, on top of one another, represent something more than just a hindrance to economic development, but resemble ceilings that are directly pressed on these women’s bodies. They could hardly breathe, because there are just too many ceilings that make it difficult for them to even survive. Now, I look gender as an amalgam of issues that women bring to gender discourse. As a result, race and issue not only expand gender discourse, but considering them has also broadened my understanding of gender and its diverse conflicts. Journal entry 3 When feminists speak about feminism, they mostly see the opposition between the feminine and the masculine- the yin and the yang. We also discussed the binary opposition in class, which heightened my knowledge of how women are reduced to the lower spectrum of the opposition. The binary opposition also exists in differentiating mothers from fathers. Mothers are put in pedestals, while fathers are forgotten and scorned. Laqueur (1990) complained about this binary opposition in â€Å"The Facts of Fatherhood. † This is an interesting article that argued about the repression of the history of fatherhood. Laqueur (1990) posited that while women enjoyed being the â€Å"natural† parent, fathers were regarded as mere providers, or even as a backdrop to the family. He stressed that it is time for fathers to reclaim their right to be part of the parenting history, wherein their contributions to the formation of society are recognized and respected. This polemical article amuses and interests me significantly. It amuses me because at the back of my mind, I felt gender discrimination in reverse. I believe that mothers have specials bonds with their children, but this belief, however, is marked by sexism. Do not fathers also share special bonds with their children? Laqueur (1990) challenged the notion of motherhood, because it undermined the importance of fatherhood. In my mind, it is better to not differentiate mothers from fathers, which is the same as stopping ourselves from differentiating women and men. Women and men have their own strengths and weaknesses and none is more superior. In the same line of thought, mothers and fathers are also equal. Let us just call motherhood and fatherhood as parenthood and give fathers their rightful place in the history and the practice of nurturing human society. Furthermore, this is also an interesting article, because it challenged me to talk about being a woman in relation to being a man. Being a woman has its multiplicities, and now, being a man has its pluralism too. For me, these multiplicities, acknowledged as part of gender analysis, render two steps forward for true gender equality. Journal entry 4 In â€Å"Criticizing Feminist Criticism,† Gallop, Hirsch, and Miller (1990) debated on the purposes and development of feminine criticism. Their main point is that feminist criticism writers have gone to the extreme, by pulverizing each other’s feminist views. They believe that this process is futile in understanding and improving the development of gender discourse and feminism. They asserted that feminism can be criticized in a more comprehensive manner, wherein there is no right or wrong feminism. I chose this article because it threads on sensitive issues, wherein the personal versus the collective idea of feminism clashes. Feminists have different worldviews about gender roles, sexuality, and femininity, and they criticize each other in different ways. I have never thought that feminist criticism has become too unconstructive. This is not my idea of criticism at all. I think about my own criticism of feminist criticism and I cannot help but agree that criticism is not about â€Å"thrashing† feminist theories (p. 350). Criticism is also about adding something to existing theories, in ways that can benefit the understanding of what it means to be a woman and how different understandings contribute to a wide range of feminism discourse. I earnestly believe also that feminists cannot define feminism in one way or several ways alone. Feminism should be viewed as a huge mess of ideas and values, different and special to women and groups, who fight for and because of different issues. Yes, it is a mess alright, because being a woman is a dynamic process that is also a part of being an individual and being a member of one’s race, class, and so on. Being a woman cannot ever be a tidy place, wherein women think the same and act the same. I would rather have it as a mess- wherein women are free to think and re-think feminism, in relation to their personal experiences and values. References Childers, M. Hooks, B. (1990). A conversation about race and class. In M. Hirsch E. F. Keller (Eds. ), Conflicts in feminism (pp. 60-81). New York, NY: Routledge. Gallop, J. , Hirsch, M. , Miller, N. K. (1990). Criticizing feminist criticism. In M. Hirsch E. F. Keller (Eds. ), Conflicts in feminism (pp. 349-369). New York, NY: Routledge. Laqueur, T. W. (1990). The facts of fatherhood. In M. Hirsch E. F. Keller (Eds. ), Conflicts in feminism (pp. 205-221). New York, NY: Routledge. Robertson, J. (2003). Artistic behavior in the human female. In B. Stirratt C. Johnson (Eds. ), Feminine persuasion: art and essays on sexuality (pp. 23-38). Bloomington, IN: Indiana University Press.

Separation Or Cooperation :: essays research papers fc

Separation or Cooperation One ever feels his twoness, -an American, a Negro; two souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideas in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder. -W.E.B. Du Bois The Declaration of Independence and the Declaration of Black Churchmen both held out the great promise of rectifying injustices in America. The Declaration of Independence came in response to the tyranny of English rule. It trumpeted the lofty goals of equality for all men, an end to English rule, and the end to high taxes on colonists. The Declaration of Black Churchmen was drafted in response to the continued low socio-economic status of African American's after the demise of the Civil Rights Movement in the late nineteen-sixties. It has as its goals: integration, an end to the exploitative control of African Americans, and the more amorphous goal of an end to the institutional violence of White America. Even though both declarations sought an end to a particular kind of injustice, one failed and the other succeeded in bringing about its goals. My thesis is that the Black Churchmens' Declaration of Independence struggles to both setup an us-them and a we modus operandi. The Black C hurchmen's' declaration tries to cooperate with White America in order to win support for economic development in Black communities. The declaration also tries to vilify White America as a demonic force that for hundreds of years has destroyed the hopes of Black Americans. By oscillating between these opposite modes of thought the documents rhetorical power and tone changes significantly from the original Declaration of Independence. The fundamental structure of the original Declaration of Independence relies on an us-them dichotomy. England is classified as the them, and the colonists as the us. The grievances listed in the document create a clear delineation between colonists and colonized. The grievances also place blame squarely on England. They site the taxation policy, the lack of self government, the tyranny of England, and the abuse of the colonists: "The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations" (Jefferson 1) to justify their right to succeed. As the list of grievances goes on the us-them dichotomy becomes more pronounced until the document explicitly delineates as "us" and a "them", "They too have been deaf too the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce" (Jefferson 3).

Education Expenditure and Economic Growth in Nigeria Essay

Education is a process in which knowledge and social capabilities demanded, are acquired. It is to a nation, what the mind is to the body, just as a deceased mind is handicapped in the co-ordination and direction of the bodily activities setbacks in the education system would act as a hindrance to economic development. Thus, the single most significant complex of social-control tools for national development is found in the educational system; be it formal or informal. (Uwadia , 2010). It is also accepted that the development of any nation depends largely on the development of the human population in that nation which can majorly be improved through education. Smith (1937) stressed the significance of education in human capital formation. Therefore it follows that a reduction in the investment in education would affect the stock of the overall human capital base and productivity. Thus investment on education is considered to be a critical element to alleviate poverty, reduce unemployment and increase economic growth (Chukwu, 2011). It is with this knowledge that The UNESCO recommended that 26% of the annual budget be allocated to the Education sector and the agreement between the Federal Government and Staff unions on October 22, 2009 was also aimed at the improvement of the education sector. However in our study we would realize that a country like Nigeria has been operating below the percentage recommended by UNESCO as our expenditure on education usually lies around 5.3%. According to the Federal Ministry of Education (2003), the educational system in Nigeria faced ill periods between 1979-1995 due to resurgence of instability and financial inadequacies in the management, and was affected by the general economic downturn of the 1980s. In response to this, the Federal Government subsequently increased the budget allocation to education in the following years. These increments can be observed from 1995-2004 whereby education expenditure increased from N12,816,400,000 in 1995 to N93,767,886,839 in 2004. A total increase in expenditure by 631.63%. Such a huge increase in education expenditure should initiate a relatively large increase in the Nigerian education system. It is however apparent that the growth of the Nigerian economy has led to an increase in the National budget allocation to education over the years but how this in turn has played a role in the development of the Education sector, remains a puzzle unsolved. All these provoked the conduct of this study. In this vain, it is expected that in a developing country like Nigeria that seeks to achieve economic development, the increasing amounts pumped into the education sector will be utilized effectively and in turn will result to the development of Education in Nigeria. However, this is not the case. A cursory glance at the quality of our education reveals that Nigeria is a long way from reaching neither the promised land of Education for all by 2015 nor its wide dream of being one of the 20 best world economies by 2020. With more money driven into the sector and nothing to show for it, one can then infer that the cause of our torpid education system is not financial inadequacy. On the other hand, it may be a contributing factor. Hence the need for our study arises. In the light of this, this study is carried out with the aim of highlighting the relationship between education expenditure and the development of the education sector. Also, we shall show how the education standard is deteriorating despite the increment in budgetary allocations from 1995 to 2004. Explicitly, the objectives are as follows; a.To determine and assess the pattern of Government expenditure on education. b.To ascertain the performance of the education sector in comparison to Government expenditure in the sector. This study is carried out on the Nigerian education sector with emphasis on Nigeria’s budget allocation to Education and so all resources and observations to be made are restricted to Nigeria. Data and information to be used in this research are secondary data obtained. These data are to be gathered between May 30th and June 17th, 2011. This research on the Nigerian Education sector shall be based on data from 1995 to 2004 (ten years). It was in this period that a steady increase in the budget allocation to the education sector was observed. Data required to carry out this research shall be extracted from; †¢The National Bureau of Statistics publications: Federal budgetary allocations. †¢Ministry of Education, Awka Zonal Office †¢The Joint Admission Matriculation Board (JAMB) Zonal Office †¢The National Examination Council (NECO) – zonal office †¢The West Examination Council (WAEC). †¢The Central Bank of Nigeria –Annual publications on the National budget. In this research paper, the ordinary least squared method will be employed using annual time series data (1995-2004), in order to assess the impact of education expenditure on the development of the sector. This work will be done in the form of a research paper because it is an expanded essay that presents out own interpretation, evaluation and argument. We have succeeded in building upon what we know about the statement of the problem at hand.

The Influence Of Gender Roles - 1404 Words

The Influence of Gender Role Stereotyping Shawn Berkley Santa Fe College Abstract Study on gender role stereotypes has shown that there are several negative effects of stereotyping. The study on how gender role stereotyping effects children is not as prevalent because most believe that it doesn’t matter, since children are just forming their stereotype so children do not care. However, some psychologists have done some research on it, and from their research found out that children used a mixture of moral and social conventional reasoning (Including stereotypes), to evaluate complicated situations that called for judgments about both the inclusion of someone and the exclusion. That included information about the children s past experiences. Other studies have stated that the parents also have a huge impact on children’s gender role stereotype. From having an absent father to having parents argue about money or their children, could have effect on how children see their own or the opposite gender. This paper will review the current literature on how the gender role stereotypes effect people. Keywords: gender stereotypes, emerging adulthood, role congruency, backlash effects The Influence of Gender Role Stereotyping Gender role stereotyping has been shown to reduce performance of men. However, when women are put in similar situations for them, it was in some ways elevating their social status, and thus this may not haveShow MoreRelatedThe Influence of Gender Roles700 Words   |  3 PagesThe Influence of Gender Roles â€Å"Girl† by Jamaica Kincaid is a short story contained in her collection of stories written in 1983,â€Å"At the Bottom of the River.† This story is about a mother giving advice to her daughter on how to survive and succeed in the society that they are living in at about 1950-1960. 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