Benefits of political texts

Actually, I had never really cared about politics because I thought that it is not related to my life and it was just important for those who are adults or who work for government. However, the truth is contrary; the political problems are related to everyone. Besides, there are some issues that I thought it’s not relevant to political, but in fact, it is. Because I do not like watching the news on TV or reading the newspaper; I know this things and I start to concern about it because of some political article I’ve read in class.

For instance, when I read A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woofl, I found that in the past’s society, women were discriminated from men in many aspects. Although a woman who has same talent and lives in the same environment with men, she will never be able to do what she want and is not able to develop her talent like Woofl’s fiction character, Shakespeare’s sister. This injustice exists not only at the time of the author but also in nowadays and in many societies. This text remises me that when I was a child, I heard some people told my sister who worked very hard in studying that she did not need to study too much because she was a girl and she would get married and take care of her husband and children in the rest of her life.

In another text, Women’s Capabilities and the Right to Education in Bangladesh by Mary Arends-Kuening and Sajeda Amin, I found the value of education for people, especially the women in the society. Education not only helps women more independent but also increases the awareness of the people in the country and contributes to gender equality in their society.

Thanks to political articles like this, I have learned that political issues not only are the big issues such as the war between countries but also are something related to daily life such as health, family, education. These texts help people to understand the political issues in society and also to contribute to find solutions for them.

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

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

Give women a chance to survival

Gender inequality is an issue which should be concerned about because it leads to negative consequences. The imbalance between male and female population in some countries in Asia, is one of these consequences.
To analyze the reasons and to find the solution, the react, for this imbalance, the economist Amartya Sen researched and wrote the work “More than 100 million missing women”. After reading this article, we can see the cause of the shortage of women in Asian countries due to economic, cultural and social. The causes and the actual statistics are the suggestions for family, society and government review and take care of the birth rate and social life of female.
In paragraph 2 of part 5, Sen partially conveys a message of supporting for the rights of women. In this paragraph, the author claims the importance of “women’s education and their economic rights” in “women’s chances of survival” and use of Kerala in India as a strong evidence for his claim. Be compared with other regions of India and most other countries in Asia, Karala’s ratio of women to men is significantly higher. In addition, the life expectancy of women is also much higher than men here. Although Karala in India is also a part of Asia but here women’s education and rights are higher, which leads to higher women’s population life’s qualities.
By providing specific numbers to compare women’s rights in Kerala and other areas and showing its benefits, this paragraph contributes to find out the solution for the “terrible story of inequality and neglect” that Sen mentions.

The Success in Integrating fiction into nonfiction text

I have read lots of fiction and non-fiction masterpieces but A Room of One’s Own by Virginia Woofl was the first work which integrated fiction into nonfiction text I have read. This integrated way of writing which seemed to confuse the readers made me very excited. Woofl imaged a fiction character Judith Shakespeare, Shakespeare’s sister, to show the general of unfair treatment between male and female in the age of Shakespeare. Judith’s talent and life was representative of majority of women’s fate at that time.
Judith was a literary gifted girl like her brother. Two persons were in the same time, same family and had same talent but just because of their sexual difference, their fates were completely different. With writing talents, Shakespeare could go to school and promote his talent to become a well-known playwright. With the same talent, Judith was not sent to school and her talent was kept from developing. Then she entangled with her hateful marriage under her father’s imposition. When she tried to resist her fate, a woman’s fate, she suffered her society’s insults and contempt. Finally, she had to kill herself in the soul’s pain of a talented woman.
Woofl successfully created the life of a fictional woman instead of a real one’s life. You might think that a real story would make the reader feel vivid and close with their life. Yes, you were right. But in this case, the problem that the authors mentioned was not small problem; it was a big issue of society. Women at the time of Shakespeare were discriminated in many aspects so if Woofl had told the story of a real woman, her work would have been in a narrow vision. Judith’s life had included most of the injustices that women suffered so it made A Room of One’s Own more general. Therefore, I believe that this kind of writing was a creative writing style and the author’s very successful in her way.
Work Cited
Woolf, Virginia. “A Room of One’s Own.” Fort Washington: Harvest Book. 1981. First published 1929.

Gender Inequality Is Not Just For Women

When referring to gender inequality issues, many people often think women are being treated unfairly with men. I do not deny this because I’ve done some essays about gender; through the research I have done as well as the knowledge I learned through various sources, I can confirm that women indeed treated unfairly in most societies in the world. However, everything has not only one side. Gender inequality is also. I say that because of the Judith Lorber’s anecdote.
In Judith Lorber’s “Night to His Day”: The Scocial Construction of Gender, she mentioned an anecdote about his own experience. When Lorber saw a little child dressing in white, she could not know that baby is a boy or girl. But when she saw a child in the stroller wearing dark clothing and was put a Yankee baseball cap on the head by the baby’s father, she thought the baby was a boy. However, when she noticed that the baby wore earrings with “little flowered sneakers and lace-trimmed socks”, she concluded that the baby was not a boy (54). From this story, I thought about something I have known and realized that I never wondered why male and female are separated by very silly things.
For example, commonly, when mentioning men, people usually think of the masculine, strength, decisiveness…; in contrast, for women, they usually think of the gentle, tenderness, carefulness… I think probably because of the structure and characteristics of sex, people come to those ideas and they will find it is very odd if male or female do not have the character as the way they think. Typically, I am a girl but I do not have a lot of tenderness, I love to talk loudly, I hate cooking and do not like to be confined in my house. I think that is just my personality, and each person can have their own personality, but the people around me do not think so. In my country, Vietnam, lots of adults, especially my father usually told me that a girl needs to be gentle and neat. I asked my father why he always told me that girls have to be clean; I thought that both boy and girl should be neat. My father replied that because boys are often sloppy so when someone sees a dirty boy, he/she is likely to understand but girls are careful and tidy. When I kept asking why boys are negligent but girls are neat, my father just said, “because of the nature”. Actually, I think it is not right in every case. I think nature is important but environment impacts very much on each person’s personality. In addition, people also used to tell me that girls had to know how to cook well to cook for their husband and children when they got marriage. Actually, I also think that knowing how cook is a good thing but I do not like the way people let female and cooking go hand in hand.
Furthermore, I think male is impacted by stereotype too. We can see this through the way to dress. As Lorber’s story above, people usually relate female with light-colored things or something like lace, flowers, candy… and relate male with dark-colored, strong personality and something like cars, martial arts… But now, I think the concept of modern life has some changes. For instance, when a girl with short hair, plays sport or do something masculine, some people may think that girl is strong personality. However, when a boy with long hair, dresses pinky, wears earrings or do something feminine, people may think that this boy is usual or has some sexual issues.
Although at present, the prejudices gradually be eliminated but in many countries such as Asian countries, the prejudices are still very heavy. I cannot say that the culture and traditions in other countries as well as in my country right or wrong. I just can mention some personal experiences for all to query themselves on what seemed to be the obvious.

Work Cited
Lorber, Judith. “Night to His Day: The Social Construction of Gender”. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1994. Print.

Plato with a different definition of feminism

After reading my friends’ writing about “Is Plato feminism?” I saw three kinds of answer. Some people claim that Plato was feminism; some people wrote that Plato was not feminism; and the others said that they were so confused. As I’ve learnt in science class, nothing is right and nothing is wrong because each conclusion’s existence bases on the perspective of each person about a particular topic. For example, in Sanjida’s writing, she thought that “Plato cannot be called a feminist” because she used the modern definition of feminist. But in my opinion, Plato did not live in modern times so I think we should not apply a modern definition to him.
Have you ever wondered why women are treated unfairly, women always have to do everything in the house and not participate in extracurricular activities or political society? Of course everything has its own reason. In this case, according to Steven J. Heine, in many societies, “plow cultivation is practiced, women do not participate much at all in the labor sphere,” because “child care is undertaken more by women than men around the world” (213). Men plow outside and women are at home to be convenient to take care of their children, not because women are unable to work outside. However, later, when agriculture is no longer the main production activities, people still continue to apply the thinking that men outside, women inside. Because societies keep thinking it over generations; a person who is aware it is a mistake in Plato’s time is very rare. Therefore, I believe that in the time of Plato, the term “feminism” can be understood as awareness – be aware that there are inequalities between men and women.
In Symposium, through the speeches, Plato shown the readers about society’s thought about women. For them, women at that time are weak and do not deserve to do great things in society. For example, in Phaedrus’ speech, he said that, “no one will die for you but a lover, and a lover will do this ever if she’s a women” (179 b). This statement has expressed his disdain for women, he high the value of love and affirm love can do anything. The phrase “even if” emphasizes that love can make weak people like women can also make great things. Moreover, Plato wrote about Diotima and according to this female character, men can become pregnant like women and their child is wisdom. By this metaphor, we can see Plato recognized the woman giving birth is not a liability or a birth machine. On the contrary, he highly values the creation of women and uses this for men to be compared with. Obliviously, Plato realized the value inside the woman and did not see women as obedient machines like his social thought.
Overall, I just want to emphasize again that in Plato’s time, he was feminism with his awareness.

Work Cited
Heine, Steven J. Cultural Psychology. United States of America: W.W Norton & Company, Inc, 2012.
Plato. The Symposium. Plato: The Complete Works. Ed. Cooper, John M. Cambridge: Hacker Publishing Co. 1997.

Harmony between the opposites

Among the speakers in the Plato’s party, Eryximachus is the one who has natural inclination about medical art. Although his speech is not easy to understand; his idea can tough the readers by something very close to our life.
In Eryximachus’ speech, I like the way he analyses about harmony. In very first time that I read this article, I could not understand how can two opposing things can be harmonious. However, when I saw some images like music, medicine, season,…; I connected it with my life and realized that it was not hard to understand. It is possible that there is harmony between two things opposing each other. This is the rule of the life. We should let something opposite stay together because it can receive the strength from each other and make itself be perfect.
The specific example about this harmony in Eryximachus’ speech is music. He claimed that, “Music, like medicine, creates agreement by producing concord and love between these various opposites.” If someone listens to a song, he/she can know that a song is made by different notes. Those notes have different height: there is very high note and very low note. In addition, melody “is produced only when fast and slow”. However, when he/she hears the connection between them, a melody made by voice or instrument, he/she will feel very relax and enjoy it because there is harmony in music.
There are also some close examples are mentioned like “wet” and “dry”; “hot” and “cold”; and so on. Those things are totally opposing but we still live in a world with the mixture of many things opposing like that. Therefore, we have to admit that harmony exists between the opposites or there is love between them. I mention the word “love” because I believe that if there is no love, nothing can exist together forever. May be that’s why Eryximachus claimed that love is harmony.

The Inequality in An Introduction

An Introduction, a poem of Kamala Das, begins without the author’s interest in politics; she just knows the names of someone who works for politics. She can “speak three languages, write in two” but someone criticizes about her language usage. So, she claims that she wants to speak and write in her preferred language without anyone’s criticism. Then, she talks about the unfair treatment to girls in her society. Girl who is in puberty have sexual education by sexual coercion. After being hurt mentally and physically, she assumes to be a boy to escape the restraint and to find her true love.
In the beginning of the poem, Das says that “I don’t know politics but I know the names”. Then, she lists some kinds of name in politics which for men only. This thing shows her distaste in her country’s politics. In addition, the author also faces to the challenge of language. She is Indian but she speaks in three and writes in two languages but she just has one dream which is confirming her right. The question, “Why not let me speak in any language I like?” is demonstrated her desire in her own discretion.
In the later half of the poem, after the injustice in politics and language, Das is overcome the injustice of sex and gender. When she was in puberty, she “became tall”, her “limbs swelled”, “one or two places sprouted hair”; she was so confused and wanted to know about love. At that time, she was forced to taste the pain of the first-sex experience with a 16-year-old boy. She suffered pain not only physically – her “woman-body felt so beaten”, her “weight of breasts and womb crushed” her – but also mentally. Because of that mental injury, she decided to hide her female sex, which is set to be “wife”, “be embroiderer”, “be cook” and “be a quarreler with servants” in her society. When she put on men’s clothing, she was against the restraints of society, but she also found out and pursued her own true love. An Introduction heightens the personal value and supports each person’s freedom, especially women in the fight against gender discrimination and fight for their own happiness.