Three Major Elemnts to Comprehend Political Text

On reading any writing, we need to figure out what it is the main issue it is talking about. This is determined by three major elements: goal, format and organization, and language. The goal of the text certainly tells what it is going to talk about but with that its format and language also are important elements. Before talking about reading a political text, defining the word is crucial. It is basically what the Online Oxford Dictionary says: “of or relating to the government or public affairs of a country”. The two texts—“Women’s Capabilities and the Right to Education in Bangladesh” by Mary Arends-Kuenning and Sajeda Amin and “More than 100 Million Missing Women” by Amartya Sen—discuss about women issues which are related to public affairs. Hence, the two are political texts.

Firstly, in order to understand a political text, we need to focus on its purpose. The above mentioned articles provide a clear idea of the issue being talked about—women concerns. This writing is empirical one—a category of political articles (Powner, 1). According to Leanne Powner, an empirical writing “test or examine the support for hypotheses derived from some theory” (2). Mary and Sajeda in their article tested the theory that women’s education helps in both increasing human capital—the answer to why the World Bank promotes women’s education—and empowering their capabilities as well. In “More than 100 Million Missing Women”, Amartya Sen talks about understanding and reacting towards gender differences. He argues that the gender gap cannot be adequately described by the “two simplistic explanations” (Sen, 2)—“cultural contrast between East and West” and “economic development” (Sen, 2-3)—because of the variation of correlation between these two and gender gap. He gives “the important variables—female employment or female literacy” (Sen, 11)—behind this existing gap. Both the text examine other theories, thus, are political (empirical) texts.

Secondly, on looking at the format, we find that both the articles are well organized into sections—an empirical article is usually done has a short abstract, an introduction, research design, analysis and conclusion (Powner, 17). Mary Arends-Kuenning and Sajeda Amin give a proper plan and organize the article in different sections. Providing a brief knowledge to their readers about their text, they give an abstract—a short summary of their work. In the introduction they present brief information about women’s schooling and why it is important to talk about with their plan at the end. In order to make sure their reader understand the important terms, they define them and give methods used in interviewing people. Analyzing is the most important part which gives a clear idea of results. The writers analyze their data with a proper explanation and reasoning of how human capital and women’s capabilities are affected by women’s education.  A conclusion is given with a short thesis. The two clearly present the issue before the readers and after a lot of analysis, support that women’s education “does enhance girl’s capabilities” (Mary and Amin, 140). In Sen’s article, he gives a short abstract about the ratio of women over men and then moving forward, he presents the two minor variables—“cultural contrast between East and West” and “economic development” (Sen, 2-3)—analyzing them and providing reason for why these are unimportant. He provides the two crucial variables often overlooked—“female employment or female literacy” (Sen, 11) and shows how these effects women’s chances of survival very much giving mathematical figures. When people are more educated then there will be less female mortality rate resulting in higher population of women. In addition, having education can help women find jobs. To solve the problem of women’s survival, Sen tells to ponder on the “neglected” (Sen, 12) problems of today.

Lastly, on looking at the language we can identify and understand the issue being talked about. In the both the texts being talked about here, we notice the use of terms relating to politics. In their article Mary and Sajeda talk about two important approaches—human capital and women’ capabilities. Both these terms are political. Sen also use various political terms like “economic development”, “female literacy”, female employment” and many more. Also when we talk about issues related to women, it is quite clear that it is a political text as it is related to public.

These two articles form a proper a clear goal which is explicitly seen. The format and language clearly present the issue. Giving facts and data makes their articles even stronger. They analyze the already presented concepts through research and discover a relationship between the concepts or components they present.

Works Cited

Arends-Kuenning, Mary, and Sajeda Amin. “Women’s Capabilities and the Right to Education in

Bangladesh.” International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society 15.1 (2000): 125-42.

      JSTOR. Springer. Print.

“Political.” Definition of in Oxford Dictionaries (British & World English). N.p., n.d. Web. 06

Apr. 2013. <http://oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/political?q=political&gt;.

Powner, Leanne C. “Reading and Understanding Political Science.” Jayandleanne.com. 2007. N.p., n.d. Web. 06

Apr. 2013.<http://jayandleanne.com/lpowner/tchdocs/readingps.pdf&gt;.

Sen, Amartya. “More Than 100 Million Missing Women.” Nybooks Archives. Dec 20, 1990.

Print.

Women’s Survival on Employment and Literacy- Two “Crucial Variables”

Amartya Sen, in his article, “More Than A 100Million Missing Women”, discusses gender ratio around the world. He argues that the “two simplistic explanations” (Sen, 2)—“cultural contrast between East and West” and “economic development” (Sen, 2-3). But this gap cannot be adequately described by these two “implicitly” (Sen, 2) alleged analyses because of variation of correlation between these two and gender gap. With this he also gives “the important variables—female employment or female literacy” (Sen, 11). In the fifth part of his article, he introduces these two variables going into deep analysis which makes the second paragraph of this part an important one.

Though some may think that the two variables economy and employment are similar but Sen argues that they are not. We need to incorporate economic, cultural and social factors behind “women’s deprivation” (Sen, 11). He gives hard evidence—mathematical figures—to prove how Kerala in southwestern India having ratio of women to men as 1.03 is “not deficit of women” (Sen, 11) and certainly to gain credibility by appealing to readers sense of logos. But at the same time he appeals to reader’s sense of pathos making them think on how the factor, literacy rate, affects women’s survival. The literacy rate in Kerala makes its women to men ratio almost equal to Europe (1.05) (Sen, 11). With this his very purpose of showing how literacy rate and employment are important factors in analyzing the gender gap is served. He gives data and fact of Kerala being higher literacy rated state in India and having no deficiency of women. Here, he basically wants to emphasis on importance of literacy rate which affects women’s chances of survival very much. More educated people are, less will be the female mortality rate because of medical developments and education. And with high education women are likely to get employment.

In this paragraph he introduces the major factors which “deserve examination” (Sen, 12) and gives hard evidence to prove his point. This is basically the key paragraph of his article where he presented these overlooked factors affecting women’s survival rate highly. He gives explanation to his point. With literacy rate, the survival rate of women increased with the education amongst people, thus, increasing the employment opportunities for women. Thus, this very paragraph serves the key role in his article.

 

Work Cited

Sen, Amartya. “More Than 100 Million Missing Women.” Nybooks Archives. Dec 20, 1990. Mar 31, 2013.

 

Secret of Introducing Judith: “A Fictitious Sister”

In her writing, “A room Of One’s Own”, Virginia Woolf examines the role of women in literature and literature about women. In history women did not have a place of their own. “History scarcely mentions her.” “By no possible means could middle-class women with nothing but brains and character at their command have taken part in any one of the great movements which, brought together, constitute the historians view of the past”. She is not even “found in anecdotes”. (Woolf 41) Woolf’s hinges on the fact that women at this point in time are oppressed, abused, disallowed “to marry” (Woolf, 42) and live under the authority of their husbands whether they like it or not (Woolf, 40). In the poetry, she “pervades from cover to cover”. She is held above kings. “Some of the most inspired words, some of the most profound thoughts in literature fall from her [woman’s] lips: [but] in real life she could hardly read…” (Woolf, 40) Her condition in real life is the worst.

Woolf also examines several writers in “A Room of One’s Own” and even imagines a fictitious sister of William Shakespeare, “Judith Shakespeare”, to portray a woman writer in his era. She is a working class woman and is not given a chance o express herself like other women. She is asked to get married forcibly and is beaten on opposing it. On trying to escape from the situation, she is again exploited. Here, Woolf speaks about the importance of establishing a tradition. Woolf says that every time an Emily Bronte or a Robert Burns exists but she is certainly not able to present herself in the paper (Woolf, 45). They will never be given the opportunity to write their story because either tradition has dictated that they are kept silent, or they have been silent for so long – they don’t know how to change.

The idea, as I feel, behind showing a fictitious woman in her piece is related to the very title of it: “A Room of One’s Own”. She tried to make her own place in her society but it did not happen. “According to Woolf, if women are to succeed in writing they must first have money (which will liberate them) and a room (in which they can work)” (Moore) and if these requirements are fulfilled then many Judith will be born and they will surely succeed. Thus, Woolf is trying to encourage women to develop the courage to write what they think, to make them heard and to paste themselves into the pages of history.

Moore, Heather. “”A Room of One’s Own” Argues in Favor of Alternative Education.”. CSU. 09 Mar. 2013 <http://writing.colostate.edu/gallery/matrix/moore.htm&gt;.

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

A Certain Need of Feminism

“What is feminism?” – The question being asked since ages. Is it just seeking equal rights for women or it is more than that? Does it also include “hating men” and being an “ugly lesbian”? Kristine Holmgren, a playwright, pastor and former Star Tribune columnist, in her article, “Seriously, is the F-word offensive? I’m proud to call myself a feminist”, says, “Feminism proclaims all people are created equal, irrespective of our gender. It is the simple belief that women are people, entitled to respect, protection and equity under the law.” (Holmgren)

But it is also true that it has been intertwined with various “stereotypes” as Ria says in, “Feminism – A Dirty Word?” Many people think, that feminism just means “men-hating”. In “Feminism: It’s not a dirty word”, Gillian quotes Lady Gaga, “I’m not a feminist. I hail men, I love men. I celebrate American male culture: Beer bars and muscle cars” meaning she believes being a feminist is similar to hating men and their activities and Geri Halliwell, “It’s about labeling. For me feminism is bra-burning lesbianism. It’s very unglamorous…” (Gillian) It’s indeed not true. Seeking equal rights for women does not mean becoming a “lesbian”. Starting from the very “first wave” of feminism to the “third wave”, people’s thoughts about feminism kept changing. The “first wave” in 1890s was mainly focused on opening opportunities for women in “suffrage” (Ria). The “second wave” in 1960s was focused on “sexuality and reproductive rights” and “on passing the Equal Rights Amendment to the Constitution guaranteeing social equality regardless of sex” (The Three Waves of Feminism). The “substantive goals” of third wave (1990s) had five “subsets”: “politics, education, health, the economy and – somewhat amorphously – law” (Crawford) and this wave is considered as the “continuation” of second wave (Ria). I certainly agree with Ria that we do need feminism at this time clearing all the stereotypes. We are still not done with feminism and there is “still a great need of it” (Ria). We have to consider current facts. In India, from 2007 to 2011 the kidnapping of women related to forced marriage has increased up to 74 percent (Trivedi). “Women still lagged far behind men and occupied only 15.8 percent of seats on the executive and nonexecutive boards of publicly listed companies across the Union…” (Kanter). Now on looking on these facts, most of the people will feel the need of feminism at this time too.

I think we “still need feminism” even in this modern era where most of the people think of equal treatment of women as men. Still women lack behind and are dominated by men in remote areas. In order to uplift the status women in today’s world, we certainly need feminism.

Works Cited

Crawford, Bridget. “Toward a Third-Wave Feminist Legal Theory: Young Women, Pornography

and the Praxis of Pleasure.” Social Science Research Network. 13 Mar. 2006. Pace

University School of Law. 15 Feb. 2013

<http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=887914&gt;.

Holmgren, Kristine. “Seriously, is the F-word offensive? I’m proud to call myself a feminist.”

The Guardian. 02 Dec. 2013. Guardian News and Media. 15 Feb. 2013

<http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2013/feb/12/fword-offensive-proud

feminist>.

Kanter, James. “Push for Gender Balance on Boards Gains Steam.” The New York Times. 25

Jan. 2013. The New York Times. 15 Feb. 2013

<http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/25/business/global/measures-promoting-women-in-business-are-working-reding-says.html&gt;.

Orr, Gillian. “Feminism: It’s not a dirty word.” The Independent. 24 Oct. 2012. Independent

Digital News and Media. 15 Feb. 2013

<http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/news/feminism-its-not-a-dirty-word-8223712.html&gt;.

Rampton, Martha. “The Three Waves of Feminism.” Pacific.edu. 2008. Pacific

University. 15 Feb. 2013

<http://www.pacificu.edu/magazine_archives/2008/fall/echoes/feminism.cfm&gt;.

Trivedi, Anjani. “India’s Man Problem.” India Ink. 16 Jan. 2013. The New York Times.

15 Feb. 2013 <http://india.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/01/16/indias-man-problem/&gt;.

Plato’s Feministic Approach in Symposium

Feminism…

     When I learned this word, I thought it means that believing that women should be equally treated as men and I am sure most others think alike. “Feminism is both an intellectual commitment and a political movement that seeks justice for women and the end of sexism in all forms.” Feminism is “seeking” equal rights for women as for men (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). Now the second question- Who is a feminist? A feminist must be the one who believes in feminism. Dictionary definition says a feminist is “a person who advocates equal rights for women” (Dictionary.com). The question- Is Plato a feminist? – has been the most controversial one since years.

     On reading Symposium for the first time, I thought Plato was not a feminist. Firstly Phaedrus says at the very start of his speech, “Love is a great god,..” (Plato, 178b) which shows he thinks ‘love’ to be ‘male’ and throughout his speech he uses the pronoun ‘he’ for ‘love’ which happens in almost each speech. Phaedrus also says, “…no one will die for you but a lover, and a lover will do this even if she is a woman.” (Plato, 184e) With this, he points out that women are weak and if she is a lover she too will “die” for her lover. Secondly, Pausanias says, “This goddess, whose descent is purely male (hence this love is for boys), is considerably older…” (Plato, 182d) He considers Heavenly love to be only for boys and not girls hence showing women lower than men. Next, Aristophanes considers boys who love men the “best” ones and most “manly” (Plato, 192b) and not the ones who love women. They are called “lecherous” (Plato, 191e). Last, Diotima is not giving speech herself in Symposium but through Socrates (Plato’s Feminism: A Discussion of Women in Ancient Philosophy). This is also the point where he shows women to be not worthy of being equal to man.

     But, on reading Socrates in Symposium, one thought came to my mind that Plato can be seen as a feminist as he gave women somewhat higher position despite the fact that in ancient Greek women held a low position. As Edward C. DuBois writes in “Plato as a Proto-Feminist”, “…[Plato]despite cultural and societal beliefs to the contrary, promoted or endorsed beliefs dealing with the equality of women to men in key aspects regarding social status and function.” He presents Diotima’s speech through Socrates, a very well-known philosopher and gives her the credit of making the best contribution to the discussion. This is where he tries to uplift women’s status and acts as a feminist. Also, Socrates says, “…Diotima- a woman who is wise about many things besides this…” (Plato, 201d) It might be hard at that time to consider women who had low status in society as “wise”. He also says, “She is the one who taught me the art of love…” (Plato, 201d) and, “I was persuaded.” (Plato, 212c) Is there another time where Socrates admits to being persuaded by another person? And should there not be some weight placed upon the fact that this person is a woman? Finally, as I noticed, in Diotima’s speech she uses pronoun ‘it’ for love and do not specifies its gender. This is also different from anyone else’s speech.

     Whether Plato is feminist or not is hard to answer. We can still find some facts from his writing that shows he was a feminist. And this needs to be thoroughly researched. However, the facts lean down in favor of Plato being a feminist and this indeed might be true.

 

 

Works Cited

DuBois, Edward C. “Plato as a Proto-Feminist.” Plato as a Proto-Feminist. 09 Feb. 2013

     <http://www.albany.edu/womensstudies/journal/2007/dubois.html&gt;.

“Feminist.” Dictionary.com. Dictionary.com. 09 Feb. 2013

     <http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/feminist?s=ts&gt;.

“Plato’s Feminism: A Discussion of Women in Ancient Philosophy.”

“Topics in Feminism.” (Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy). 09 Feb. 2013

     <http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/feminism-topics/&gt;.

Diotim[a]ic Love: “Neither Good Nor Bad”

On reading Diotima’s speech through Socrates, it seems she has so different perception about love, different than all others in Symposium. She says, “First, it always is and neither comes to be nor passes away, neither waxes nor wanes.” (p. 493, 211b). It neither ascends nor descends. It is just within oneself and we need to see the beauty in itself and at the very time we see that, we reach our goal.

Diotima thinks of love being tough. She does not talk about love being common or heavenly but as in between them. It is in intermediate state. It is half God and half man. Love is not only about beauty but beauty in oneself. It is something to be reached and felt. She says:

“…: one goes always upwards for the sale of this Beauty, starting out from beautiful things and using them like rising stairs :…”( p. 493,211d).

In the sentence above, Diotima reveals that when someone “rises” through loving a young boy and starts seeing the beauty hidden in it, he initially have reached the “goal”. The lover ascends to a higher level by climbing up the “stairs”. Subsequently, he starts acquiring the knowledge of the beauty. The final level is when the lover may disclose his eyes and catch sight of something of an unpolluted brilliant magnificence, Beauty.

Here the first thing to be noticed is that, Diotima is a woman (a priestess). Plato introduces her through Socrates’ speech. And this is the time I feel Plato being a feminist as at that time it might have been difficult to give women a high status as Socrates, the great philosopher, listened to her speech. He gives a woman the credit of making the best contribution to the discussion. Second thing to be noticed is her concept of love being “neither good nor bad”. Her speech is considered the best one in the Symposium as it is the more focused one and that made me think more about her speech than others. It is a bit different from all. As I understood, she thinks love beautiful in it and is intermediate. Love is a link between God and man. He is the true lover of wisdom because wisdom is beautiful and beauty is the object of love. Men are lovers of the good which they want to possess eternally. Eternity achieved through reproduction. Thus, Love is physical, spiritual and philosophical (that of wisdom).

“Mackerel”: The Inspiring Balloon

“the rainbowed school

and its acres of brilliant classrooms,

in which no verb is singular,

 

or every one is. How happy they seem,

even on ice, to be together, selfless,

which is the price of gleaming.”

(Mark Doty)

              In these lines, Doty compares the fishes to students. In a “rainbow” like school, full of seven colors (like “brilliant” students), no one is “single”. They all are united to each other and in that school they only have their friends to play with. They all are one like the seven colors of the “rainbow”. Fishes at the “grocery shop” are also like those seven colors or students who are united and seem to be always happy. Even though they are kept in that cold ice, they are happy to be together like the students at school who are not afraid of anything and are happy with each other even when they are “selfless”. They are happy because they never give up and this is the “price” of their intelligence that is “gleaming” into their eyes. Their unity reminds him of his beloved but it also gives him a clue to live happily even in the miserable situations of life. In this way he is finding a way for himself to look into life in a positive way even when he has lost his beloved.