Liberal Arts Assignments

Liberal Arts Assignments

Questions from the Media Journal

Entry 1

Question 1

Judith Butler is the author of the piece. She is a gender theorist who has made significant contributions to ethics, political philosophy, and third-wave feminist. She is a professor at George Washington University.

Question 2

The author’s thesis argument is on how behavior develops gender. She argues that gender is naturalized into the social fabric through the repetition of acts that create identity. Thus, gender is a behavior produced and reproduce all time.

Question 3

The author is arguing against grounds that define gender. According to her, gender norms vary widely throughout historical periods. Hence, there should be no ground for saying that a person is doing their gender wrong.

Question 4

Butler makes her claim by describing how reified conceptions of gender can be understood to constitute differently. She does so by drawing from phenomenology, anthropological, philosophical, and theatrical discourses. As a result, she can show that gender identity is a performative achievement.

Question 5

The key passages in the article are on the Phenomenological Views. Phenomenology takes a social agent as an object instead of a subject of repetitive acts. If a person asserts “one is not born, but, rather, becomes a woman,” it implies that one reinterprets the doctrine of constituting acts from a phenomenological tradition.

Question 6

In my opinion, there is no problem with Judith’s argument. Her claims make sense because there are based on acting and performance theories. The theories are vital for understanding the variety of human identity.

Question 7

The article relates to the things learned in this course in that; it explores the approaches in feminist aesthetics by drawing on feminist theories. It offers an analysis of the emancipation of men, women, and heterosexuals. Thus, at the center of this article is the question of equality.

Entry2

Question 1

The rules to join the directors’ branch of the academy minimize the number of women who can have entry. The reason is that a member must have two directorial credits. However, female directors have fewer opportunities to direct the second film than males.

Question 2

Access to child care and the lack of it limits opportunities for women in the workplace by keeping them out of the workforce. Hollywood’s failure in childcare lead to Jenkins leaving work to prioritize family. Her opportunity ended up being taken by a man.

Question 3

Men might not vote for female-directed films because they are not interested in female superhero movies. Historically, only one woman has ever won the best director, and it is because her movie mainly stared men (Dockterman). Thus, men only vote for films that dwell on men.

Entry 3

Question 1

Warren has tried to address feminist priorities without getting personal of her experiences by presenting her feminist ambitions holistically. She does it by giving speeches that reframe policy change and the history of American organizations by foregrounding women. She also talks of other women who have experienced bias.

Question 2

Talking about marginalization became a trap for the marginalized because people have come to believe that the marginalized cannot succeed. According to the author, this has kept women from the presidency. The reason is that people don’t think a woman can win the presidency.

Question 3

For both men and women, some sort of double standards might exist in the electoral process. These include the need to be authoritative, smart, warm, and maternal. Thus, the rules acknowledge the realities of the electoral process.

Entry 4

Question 1

When Hazarian says that women are often not real when advertising, she means that women are not who they are portrayed to be in the advertisements. For example, a woman in an ad may appear as stupid. However, in real life, she might be brilliant.

Question 2

In advertising, women are stereotyped in terms of role portrayal. For example, in an advertisement for a breakfast cereal, the role of woman as a housewife is most preferred. The reason is associated with the more traditional roles of a woman.

Question 3

Women are objectified in advertising as sex objects by having them wear revealing outfits. For example, erotic female images used in advertisements present women as objects of lust. Advertisers do so because they believe sex sells.

Question4

Women are abused sexually through advertising when photographers take their images to the point of obscenity. For example, a photographer may decide to share such pictures against the woman’s rights. In such a case, such a photographer is open to facing sexual harassment charges.

Question 5

Hzarian’s piece illustrates reinforcement of traditional gender roles and patriarchal as discussed by Tyson because women are being oppressed through advertisements and not men. There are not as many advertisements of men misrepresentations as there are of women. Bulter explains that advertising reinforces stereotypes against genders.

Study Questions for Study Week 3

Question 1

Feminist criticism refers to a critique of male-dominated literature based on feminist principles. According to Tyson, it focuses on the stereotypical representations of genders. The reading allows us to understand aspects of our culture that are patriarchal and expose the misogyny in writing about women.

Question 2

The main points and themes of feminist criticism by Tyson include the patriarchal ideology, gender, and feminist activity. The patriarchal ideology is the means through which women are oppressed economically, socially, politically, and psychologically. While gender is determined by culture, all feminist activities aim at gender equality

Question 3

Tyson lists questions to help apply feminist criticism. These include; how gender roles are defined, what constitutes masculinity, and femininity? As well as how does work say about women’s creativity?

Question 4

Feminist criticism could be applied to my significant concentration by showing how modern societies discriminate against women. For instance, there are many barriers to women’s entry in specific careers dominated by men. In another example, housewives’ unpaid work in the home is for her family.