Domains and Domesticity - Class Project ENG 227
Sesayo
232
Female domesticity accrues from male patriarchy. This principle reveals itself even in contemporary society. When we look to female domesticity, however, we ought analyze it in regard to society at large--what principles attribute to female gender roles, how female domesticity reveals itself in literature, and what are the affects on society.
CIVILIZING VIOLENCE: "THE HAUNTED VALLEY"
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I chose this piece because
it details how an American patriarchy must adapt as it meets foreign
influence. This adaptation allows potentially deviant behaviors to
enter society, whereby affecting both male and female gender roles. How
males respond to these unknowns may correlate with why domesticity
became so prevalent.
"The Haunted Valley" speaks of Asian American immigrants. These immigrants, because they appear frequently in domestic roles, seem demasculinized or less male than perceived male gender roles permit. Because Asian Americans fail to exude a sexuality in their presence, however, they fail to inherently promote a female gender identity. As Americans attempt to civilize Ah Wee, the story's minor protagonist, their techniques primarily involve domestication. An individual who is less male cannot ascribe to fulfilling a male role. Therefore, said individual must fulfill a lesser role. Females who fail to achieve their prescribed tasks, the novel calls "greasers" or "pagans"--less than human in a heteronormative, Christian nation. |
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Animal Bodies: Corporeality, Class, and Subject Formation in The Wide, Wide World
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Critics here assert the establishment of femininity being similar to horse training. The horse appears, at first, a wild and untamed creature. When taming a horse, therefore, men turn to permit the horse freedom in a self-regulating environment. This environment reinforces a perceived role via oppression. Here, critics assume oppression as any societal force that limits the self. In limiting the self, society forces the individual to be less of the self and more of expectation.
This process regards women when the female self becomes less expressive due to patriarchal oppression. By increasing the gender gap between males and females, the primary benefactor of patriarchy, males, only increase their domain and rule. |
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"Fiction in Color": Domesticity, Aestheticism, and the Visual Arts in the Criticism and Fiction of William Dean Howells
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This piece of criticism
analyzes the work of William Dean Howell. First and foremost, the
article describes females as possessing a vast amount of intelligence.
This intellect, Howell notes, is largely based on the amount of leisure
women may partake in. Females may use this time to read. The important
question, therefore, becomes "What are they reading?"
Males largely contribute to authorship in the nineteenth century. Females of the era inevitably aspire to patriarchal ideals and principles due to male authorship. Whereas males limit the scope of a woman's education to a set of male scruples, a female may be intelligent on a subject without knowing why. Without a well founded thought process, aesthetics and pleasure largely become the same goal in feminine reading. Whereas authors must look to their base demographic to continue selling, said authors will look to popular ideals. These ideals may reflect what pleases women. Whereas what appeals to females makes a profit, the author may regurgitate these principles. The scope of topics females read, therefore, may decrease as more authors seek the same incentive. All else equal, this process appears self-perpetuating. |
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Doctoring "The Yellow Wallpaper"
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The Yellow Wallpaper relates the tale of a husband and wife. The wife, bound to her home, gradually becomes depressed and hysterical. Fearing his status in society, the husband takes his wife up to a cottage on a hill and locks her in a room with yellow wallpaper. As her solitude increases, so do her hysterics. The protagonist notes a general fear of the outside realm with its unknowns. In time, she believes herself part of the wallpapers design.
Here, the female finds the true results of domesticity. Being bound to the home reinforces a solitude from the outside or foreign world, whereby alienating any foreign influences. These influences become crucial in any sort of education-based process. Without this education, the female loses the potential to analyze surroundings or socialize with others. All she becomes is part of the house. |
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The existence of an ideal necessitates the perpetuation of the ideal. As male patriarchy became dominant in the United States of America, masculinity set a higher precedence than any conflicting principle. If an individual cannot fulfill masculine roles, the individual must aim for a lesser standing--femininity.
As females find themselves limited, the sole means to find their "self" falls to what oppressors permit them to read and their narrowed environment. This principle fails to allow them the fulfillment and development of a proper intellect, whereby degrading the female psyche. If this ideal continues, it will only further degenerate the female ideal, bringing feminine potential to a realm of hysterics.
As females find themselves limited, the sole means to find their "self" falls to what oppressors permit them to read and their narrowed environment. This principle fails to allow them the fulfillment and development of a proper intellect, whereby degrading the female psyche. If this ideal continues, it will only further degenerate the female ideal, bringing feminine potential to a realm of hysterics.
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