Some effective strategies of reading political texts

When the whole semester is about political texts reading, and then is not it become mandatory for students to know what political texts are and how to read them? The word “political” comes from “politics”, so it is understandable that when a text provides political issue or concern, or political process explicitly or implicitly mostly with any implied idea of responsibility of government or people regarding that issue, then it is entitled “political texts”. Besides, a political text has some specific characteristics like a political view providing title, a clear and informative abstract along with sufficient evidences and an effective conclusion. Next, what is the strategy of reading a political text?

The answer might be easy in case of the text like “Women’s Capabilities and the Right to Education in Bangladesh” by Mary Arends-Kuenning and Sanjeda Amin. Because, it is a chronologically organized text where writers raise their claims in various sectors with some unambiguous titles. In addition, each and every sector has a clear topic sentence which effectively contributes to provide writer’s messages. As a result, it is not detrimental to skip the writings of body paragraphs. But, presented evidences including facts, researches, and testimonials should be noted to understand the support of regarding claims. For example, in “Women’s Capabilities and the Right to Education in Bangladesh”, writer emphasizes her claim of providing a fact that convinced parents let their daughters to continue studies for hoping to get benefit from educated daughters instead of thinking about daughters’ empowerment; as a result, the “schooling attendance” of women rapidly increased between 1992 and 1996 (Mary Arends-Kuenning and Sanjeda Amin, 128). So, analyzing texts’ evidences and arguments is indispensable while reading a political text.
In contrast, when the text is confused or hard to understand like Amartya Sen’s “More Than 100 Million Missing Women” as it is not a well-organized text, more attention sould give on the title and the abstract. Because, the title of a political text hold the main points of the text and the abstract gives the main idea of those points briefly. As, in this type of essay, writer’s claims are not presented sector by sector, more importance has to give in evidences like data, facts, and testimony to easily catch the writer’s point of view. For instance, in “More Than 100 Million Missing Women”, writer claimed that in the West the number of women is higher to men where in the East the rate of women is low providing sufficient ratio like he says, “. . . the ratio of women to men is typically around 1.05 or 1.06, or higher” where “in South Asia, West Asia, and China, the ratio of women to men can be as low as 0.94, or even lower” ( Sen 1). Moreover, at the end of the text, Sen talks about political process saying that “If this situation is to be corrected by political action and public policy, the reasons why there are so many “missing” women must first be better understood”(Sen 12).

Above all, when we are reading any political text, we have to keep attention gradually to the title, abstract, introduction, sector titles, topic sentences, evidences, and conclusion. Then we will get a brief idea about writer’s claim. Furthermore, we have critically analysis writer’s point of view evaluating the content of the text.

Works cited:
Arends-Kuenning, Mary and Amin, Sanjeda, “Women’s capability and right to education in Bangladesh .” International Journal of Politics and Society, Vol. 15, No.1, September 2001. Print.
Sen, Amartya. “More Than 100 Million Missing Women.”Nybooks Archives. Dec, 1990. Mar 4, 2013.

Each and every paragraph contributes in a same way providing evidences to raise Sen’s main argument in “More than 100 Million Missing Women”

To support his claim, in 9th Paragraph of “More than 100 Million Missing Women, economist Amartya Sen brings the cultural issue combining with economical analysis and compares this issue to East and West as he realizes, “A combined cultural and economical analysis would seem to be necessary” (Sen 3) to make his argument clear. He provides the example of Japan which is now the most economically industrialized country in the world, but in 1899 and 1908, Japan’s economical condition was not stable. That time women’s ration was lower than men. But eventually, it enhances and it is now quite same as Europe and North America

He presents testimony including the condition of Japan in these three years- 1899, 1908 and 1940 mentioning how the ration of women raised and how the ration of men and women became equal. Besides, he talks about the example of Thailand and Indonesia that there also “women substantially outnumber men” (Sen 3) compared to West. So, he clearly compared the ration of women to men in West and the countries of East including Japan as well as Thailand and Indonesia to prove his claim that cultural issue combining economical analysis within the East and West “diverge so sharply”.

Before, in his essay, as he mentions that economical development is one of the major issue which is responsible for the unequal nutrition and health care facilities provided for women. Because in these countries, there economy was poor and the societies are also patriarchal, there is a huge neglect for women. As a result, women do not have any access for proper care and medical facilities. So, these issues are also related beside “East-West divisions” and “economic development” to the lower ratio of women. Finally, it is comprehensible that Sen raises his main arguments providing sufficient evidences in each and every paragraph of his essay.
Work cited:
Sen, Amartya. “More than 100 Missing Women.” Nybooks Archives. Dec 20, 1990. Mar 4, 2013.

Why Women’s Access to Literature Was Not Evident in Shakespearean Time

In “A Room of One’s Own”, Virginia Woolf compares her imaginative character, Judith Shakespeare to the whole image of “women” according to her readings that she has been reading. She shows the literal and figurative position of women in men dominated literature field. She has been reading that, “. . . it was impossible for any woman, past, present, or to come, to have the genius of Shakespeare” (42) and “women cannot write the plays of Shakespeare” (42). From her readings it is clear that women were not genius rather than fully dull. But Woolf gives an idea through her creation Judith Shakespeare about why women were not capable of producing or writing anything like Shakespeare where women had to stay in limitations; they were not free to do anything and they did not get the chance to do as men. Woolf makes clear women’s position using her artistic character that women are treated as unintelligent, but though they are qualified to write as Shakespeare, they do not get the opportunity from family and society. That is why they cannot express and explode their merit.
Woolf uses fictional character Judith Shakespeare rather than use original character, because that time there was not any prominent woman using whom she could shows her argument that though a woman has same quality as Shakespeare, she cannot express her genius as Shakespeare rather than being a woman including women characteristics.

Work Cited:
Woolf, Virginia. “A Room of One’s Own.” Fort Washington: Harvest Book. 1981. First published 1929.

Plato was not concern about women’s right

Symposium is one of the master pieces of Plato where he puts his own thoughts about women’s status in ancient philosophy. Now, the question is if Plato a feminist or not which is one of the controversial issues in the world. So, who is feminist? According to the Dictionary of Feminist Theory, the definition of feminist is someone who has “both a doctrine of equal rights for women and an ideology of social transformation aiming to create a world for women beyond simple social equality” ( Humm 74).

If we think about Symposium, then we would find out that Plato did not support women characteristics and he showed throw his speeches that women are inferior to men. Some might argue that he used Diotima to give importance on women, but the fact is that Diotima was not present in the Symposium physically (Plato, Symposium, 209bc); her speech which was delivered by Socrates was Plato’s own philosophical view. Although Plato wanted women to put in the ruling class, he wanted this by altering the womanly characteristics.

Even though he considered souls to be gendered; he stated in his writings, “A cowardly man allows his body to control his soul so his weak soul is reborn in woman’s body” (Spelman). This fact reflects that a man who bears a feminine soul is coward. All these ideas reveal that Plato is not a feminist. Though he dreamed of having powerful and acceptable women in society, he did not talk about equality of women.

Gender inequality in Workplace

Ghanaian diplomat and the seventeenth Secretary- General of United Nations, Kofi Anan Stated that, “. . . gender equality is critical to the development and peace of every nation.”  Generally, gender equality is an essential element of making a developed country, because without the contribution of both men and women it is quiet impossible to make a developed state with all kind of facilities for countrymen. But unfortunately, gender inequality is still present in every society. It is a big obstacle in the way of developing a nation. Each and every sphere of life, gender inequality is obvious. For instance, in job sector women are largely limited to low-paid and poor status occupations and most of time they get less salary than men even doing the same job.

Basically, works define the class or social status of a person in a society, but in present world, women’s condition is undermined there. When a woman want to get into any work, at first she has to take permission from her family or husband, because women are not allow to do everything that men can do. After that she has to deal with competition in job intense with male competitors as there is a grand misconception about women’s physical condition that women are physically weak, they cannot work hard. So, men are more preferable than women in workplace.

After passing a challenging situation when a woman get job, she is offered less money than a man. Besides, fulfilling all requirements of getting a job, she gets less opportunity also. This is a common picture of women in workplace. In entire life, women always have to face such kind of challenges in every step of all-purpose. So what is the solution? Actually solution is in women’s hand. I strongly believe that women can change their condition if they want. They should not acknowledge everything what society suggested them. They have to speak up everywhere (it can be in family, workplace . . . anywhere) against all injustice towards them; they have to learn how to say ‘no’ when they are under discrimination. They have to be strong enough to acquire their own rights.

Work Cited

Anan, Kofi. “International Rights for Women.” National Women’s Council. Web.16 Feb. 2013                 <http://nationalwomenscouncil.org/international.php&gt;

Love is………!!

It is really tough to answer the simple question-what is ‘Love’? Though it is a simple question, but to come up with a solid definition of love is not easy. In Symposium, according to Phaedrus love is one of the gods, it is the sponsor of mankind. Besides, love is the combination of respect and the spirit of self-sacrifice. On the other hand, Pausanias, another speaker of Symposium showed two types of love where he stated love between man and woman as common love and between man and man as heavenly love. Personally, I prefer Phaedrus’s definition of love, because I think in his definition he gives almost all characteristics of love that I mean and in Pausanias’s speech, he emphasize more on homosexuality that I don’t mean as love. 

Girls in Society (Barbie Dolls by Marge Piercy)

The first stanza of the poem, Barbie Dolls discusses the expectation of female role in man dominated society and all girls are not fit for this social role. Next, the second stanza states that if a girl is not beautiful enough though she is physically strong and intelligent, she will be a thing of fun. The third and fourth stanzas express that the girl should be make her according to the demands of society. So, she tries her best to be acceptable to the society even by sacrificing herself. In the last stanza, Piercy shows an irony that the girl is looking pretty at last. In fact, she is accepted by all when she is death.
Actually, Marge Piercy shows the girls’ status in the society where she uses a girl child as a representative of all girls in the world. Basically, the poem discusses the cultural and social demands on girls. The poem starts with a beginning at birth and ending with death of a girl. Here, the poet’s attitudes towards the subject of the poem and towards the reader are depression and sadness. Finally, the message of the poem is− we should not judge one according to image rather than one’s own merit and significance.