Introduction
The creation account describes men and women as equal parties made by the Maker fearfully and wonderfully. Such suggests the necessity for the two sexes to live together impartially. The male is not to suppress or victimize the female, while the latter should experience the same measure of freedom as the former. However, many cultures do not appreciate women and men as equal entities. Females continue to fight for their rights and recognition as an equal sex. The war seems endless as all the triumphs realized last only briefly before the patriarchal cultures establish new ways to pin women down. Systemic gender-based discrimination further makes ending females’ mistreatment hard. The matter is normalized across many societies, including the western communities associated with liberty. The standardization makes many women accept victimization without questioning their plights. Accordingly, dynamics related to the female’s body, cycles of oppression, and the erotic reveal the significantly distant realization of the females’ true freedom. The following discussion covers these three themes to tell about women’s continued suffering even in modern days, where laws supporting equity exist in many cultures.
The Body
The standardization of sex-based treatment towards women makes realizing their plights substantially hard. Peroni and Rodak (2020) note that women often accept the difficulties they face in patriarchal societies as usual life issues meant to test their character. Peroni and Rodak (2020) argue that binding specific oppressive traits to good conduct and manners make it hard for females to protest. Peroni and Rodak (2020) state that the female’s body constitutes a critical facet that society uses to propagate universal feminine-related inferiority. For instance, many cultures teach their women to occupy smaller spaces in public and pose a harmless posture. Therefore, the gender complies with these cultural requirements by keeping their stances tight in public areas. Peroni and Rodak (2020, p. 5S) say that “women generally walk with their feet inwardly pointed to occupy a minuscule space as much as possible” and give men the much space they need, based on their cultural training. The matter makes many women familiar with the second-rate feeling that compromises the ability to stand for one’s rights.
Society’s requirement for specific female body figures also promotes sex-based torture among women. Miller (2019) maintains that being slim does not imply beauty or health as purported by many cultures, especially in the western evolution. The beauty and fashion campaigns held globally by various beauty industries unconsciously support the patriarchal mentality that some shapes are better than others. The matter causes significant pain among many women who try to fit in. Miller (2019) describes women of color and minority females in the U.S. as groups that naturally exhibit big bodies. The desire to obtain a slim body thus causes significant torture to these two groups (Miller, 2019). The naturally big women experience interpersonal oppression as they feel inferior to the modeled white women whose figure the society accepts and cheers as healthy and modest.
Moreover, females with over-size bodies suffer disrespect from those with the appropriate shapes. Due to their size, terms such as unhealthy and lazy apply to the former group of females. Seeking to fit exposes women of color to pressure, with diet and physical exercise the most utilized tools to realize the desired bodies. As per Bartky (2020), women often fast and try dangerous diets in search of better shapes. The matter implies noteworthy dependence on men, who judge the other sex’s attractiveness based on appearance.
Today’s economy-based patriarchal culture’s objectification of the female’s body amounts to gender-based violence. Economism and the desire to lure customers into purchasing products lead many businesses to use sexualized female bodies on billboards and televisions as sex idols (Peroni & Rodak, 2020). This aspect results from the belief that males are the owners of money and thus constitute the most critical customers to businesses (Miller, 2019). Flight and restaurant attendants also suffer substantially from this culture.
Requiring employed women to portray sexualized figures leads to the sexual objectification of the female gender. Many males sexually harass ladies with such shapes due to pornographic mentalities that disrespect the women’s feelings (Bartky, 2020). The normalization of females’ nudity due to the frequent naked pictures in public also makes the few reserved women feel outdated. The matter causes significant duress as the dependent feminine gender struggle to win males’ attention, love, and approval. Bartky (2020) insists that the problem affects even the learned and supposedly free women who continue suffering in the name of fashion and modesty. Consequently, sexual objectification of the female’s body continues to cause pain among the gender, with very little that women can do due to the normalization of the matter.
Cycles of Oppression
Oppressions constitute a significant part of females’ life throughout the world. The “four “I’s” of oppression” (n.d) provide a set of four kinds of repression that women suffer due to their gender and association with male-dominated societies. For example, women suffer ideological oppression due to the culture-supported belief that they are naturally inferior to males. The conviction subconsciously pushes females to grant men the opportunity to control them, even when such involves open mistreatment and oppression. The “four “I’s” of oppression”, (n.d) describe “more intelligent, stronger, harder working, nobler, more capable, more advanced, more deserving, chosen, superior, and normal” (n.p) as the terms applied to justify males’ dominance over women. On the other hand, patriarchal societies associate femininity with “stupidity, laziness, weakness, incompetence, worthlessness, less deserving, backwardness, inferiority, and abnormality” (“The four “I’s” of oppression”, n.d, n.p). The erroneous profiling of the two sexes by societies leads to unconscious branding, which justifies the female’s inferiority, thus promoting gender-based violence.
Institutional oppression towards women occurs due to the discriminatory treatment that the gender experiences in established organizations. According to The “four, “I’s” of oppression” (n.d), societal establishments such as the police units, legal systems, education structures, political formations, and housing developments have laws that treat women differently from men. Most of these institutions have male leaders, with the few women in the executive occupying less essential positions. Furthermore, Romero (2021) notes that many women succeeding in occupying top organizational positions, such as the CEO docket, do not enjoy themselves like their male counterparts. The females regularly suffer pressure and reduced self-esteem, leading to resignations due to the incapacitation they face from the patriarchal organizational cultures.
Carol Bartz’s case at Yahoo provides an excellent example of a lady with a brighter career that ended due to the glass cliff issues. Romero (2021) reports that the performing woman’s promising career crumbled after becoming the CEO of Yahoo, during whose time the company underperformed greatly due to previous management issues. Romero (2021) describes the glass cliff as a significant problem among many multinationals. Women get top management positions mostly when the males shun the slot due to known challenges. Women take up such chances in the struggling organization, thinking that such is the only chance to fulfill their potential, but regret it after facing reality (Oliver, 2021). Yahoo, Pepsi, and Google provide the best examples of multinationals with hidden patriarchal organizational cultures that once gave the CEO position to minority women during crises (Romero, 2021). The aspect results mainly from the corporate oppression that affects women to date.
Women also face interpersonal and internalized oppression in daily endeavors and have normalized the pain. The “four “I’s” of oppression”, (n.d) defines interpersonal harassment as the acceptance of insults and mistreatment from the dominant group because one is naturally weaker. Women’s perpetual interaction with sex-based pain from a young age makes them accept their fate. Growing up in cultures that promote male chauvinism and female minorities also contributes to the gender’s acceptance of the plights. The “four “I’s” of oppression”, (n.d) argue that sex-linked jokes, harassment, and beatings constitute part of some women’s daily experiences with little that one can do. Even educated and employed females bear such hurting encounters because they are typical aspects of many societies. The “four “I’s” of oppression”, (n.d) provide “sexual exploitation and harassment, violence directed at women, and belittling or disregarding of women’s thinking” as other sad experiences forming the gender’s life resulting from interpersonal oppression. The “four “I’s” of oppression”, (n.d) reiterates that women surviving the masculine cultures “ultimately come to adopt the destructive messages about themselves.” The facet causes internalized oppression, adversely affecting females’ self-esteem and self-worth.
The Erotic
Over time, misbranding the female’s body as a sex object leads to confusion between the person and the idol. Many cultures still believe that the woman’s place is the kitchen and bedroom, where she serves the needs of her husband and children. The aspect upsets males’ relationships with women at work and in public. For example, many irresponsible men sexually harass women because they believe that their bodies are ever ready for sex, according to Lorde (1978). The male-controlled lewd sector generates money because men cherish exploiting women. Everything happening in the dirty tapes seems fun to the unfeeling society that mistakenly relates women’s nudity to pleasure.
The sex industry is distasteful to females, and the gender always wishes for an end of the same. Lorde (1978) notes that the confusion caused by pornography and the association of the erotic to sex perpetuates females’ sufferings. Accordingly, Lorde (1978) defines the erotic as a female’s inborn power whose realization can bring a lasting solution to the many plights faced by the gender. Lorde (1978) maintains that: “…the erotic provides a well of refilling and stimulating force to the woman who does not dread its disclosure, nor yield to the belief that impression is enough” (n.p). Lorde’s (1978) statement insists on the need for women to overcome their dependent nature, where everything they do targets the male audience. Pillow (2020) dislikes the point that women try hard to slim and appear beautiful because male approves of such figure and looks. Consequently, women can overcome the gender-based mistreatment they receive from the patriarchal cultures because that proceeds due to the gender’s erroneous search for approval from the very people who oppress them.
Conclusion
The above work uses the themes of the body, cycles of oppression, and the erotic to describe the struggles faced by the transnational feminist movements today. The plights exist despite the many strides realized by the gender through the many years of activism. A major drawback challenging the group’s success is culture, which forms an enormous block for women seeking freedom. However, the females’ unending desire for approval from males creates an equally massive challenge to the gender’s realization of absolute liberty. For example, the group strives to realize slim bodies, have attractive faces, and wear tiny dresses and skirts to appear beautiful to the same men.
References
Bartky, S. L. (2020). Foucault, femininity, and the modernization of patriarchal power (pp. 342-352). Routledge.
Lorde, A. (1978). Uses of the erotic: The erotic as power (pp. 53-59). New York: Out.
Miller, L. J. (2019). Gender blindness in American Society: The Rhetoric of a System of Social Control of Women. Rowman & Littlefield.
Oliver, J. J. (2021). Chronic corporate performance in media-tech firms: A new perspective. Journal of Media Business Studies, 1-21.
Peroni, C., & Rodak, L. (2020). Introduction. The fourth wave of feminism: From social networking and self-determination to sisterhood. Oñati Socio-Legal Series, 10(1S), 1S-9S.
Pillow, W. S. (2020). Erotic power futures/relations that matter. Departures in Critical Qualitative Research, 9(2), 40-52.
Romero, G. J. (2021). Just Not that Likable: The Price All Women Pay for Gender Bias. Post Hill Press.
The four “I’s” of oppression. (n.d). Grand Rapids Community College.