https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1DTGHmdH804
This was created by Vanessa Tam and basically points out how much society has changed.

In Pride and Prejudice, in Chapter 10, “Elizabeth, having rather expected to affront him, was amazed at his gallantry; but there was a mixture of sweetness and archness in her manner which made it difficult for her to affront anybody; and Darcy had never been so bewitched by any woman as he was by her. He really believed, that were it not for the inferiority of her connections, he should be in some danger.” All this explains is the narration of both Darcy’s and Elizabeth’s emotions which are opposites of each other. Her perception of Darcy is that be is a rude and mean individual because at first he declined to dance with her. That was an insult to her because dancing constituted a way of getting to know each other, socializing, expressing youth, a way to mingle without crossing any societal lines.
Most of all Elizabeth was not a girl of who was not beautiful or undesirable, she was quite the opposite. In the Victorian era, late 1700s and the early 1800s women were domesticated. To be more exact they were treated as slaves and men were their slave owners. Women during this time period had their life planned out for them, which was to grow up, get married, have children, and live the rest of their life trapped in a marriage. One could view as this torture to an extent, due to the lack to women having a life of their own or pursuing any of their own interest. A question then occurs, why not just divorce him? Unfortunately, it was not as easily done as today because back then women were empathized and scorned. So in order to save face they proceeded with the norms enforced in society to “obey the husband.” At one time this was incorporated in vow upon marriage but today these words are omitted because of such misconceptions.
Women during this era were compiled of three classes women of the upper-working class, women of the lower-working class, and the underclass women. Although there had been distinction amongst the women power was not applicable, but differences were spotted upon from their daily activities. Underclass women had it the hardest because they had the worst clothes meaning their blouses and skirts were torn. In addition, messy hair and other features resulted in hurting their image furthermore. Lower working class had fulfilled themselves but occupying domestic job such as becoming an agricultural laborer, seamstress, washerwomen, and serving the wealthy.
Whereas, the upper working class had an easier lifestyle compared to those under them. Their appearance always has to be perfect; for instance, laces, corsets, veil, and gloves were to be worn at certain times, thus establishing class. Upper class women were allowed to receive inheritances but it did not mean it was theirs. It actually became their husbands because they were the individuals who took care of all the financials. This is pertinent in Elizabeth’s situation because when her sister had gotten sick she walked approximately five miles to where Mr. Bingley and Mr. Darcy were staying. Upon arriving she was looked terrible, an individual like me would not have cared but Mr. Bingley’s sisters were first to point out how she look un-presentable. Such judgment bared great meaning at the time but as time continued such constrictions slowly began to evade.

“The Great Gatsby” written by F. Scott Fitzgerald was a book that distinguished between “old money” and “new money.” “Old money” were from people that inherited money or had money from years ago, whereas “new money” meant people that recently earned money and were trying to fit in. To better distinguish the old vs. new, this was done geographically. For instance, East Egg was old money and West Egg was the newly rich. One can assume that the story took place around New York City, however the West Egg and the New Egg were part of Long Island. Jay Gatsby is a man who has new money, he is also a man who respects women. However, he creates conflict upon Daisy’s marriage. Daisy and Tom Buchanan are married but they are not happy. Tom is of old money and despises Gatsby due to how he flaunts his money. This novel connects the to evolution woman by illustrating how women were free to an extent by partying and living a lavish lifestyle, if you were rich of course. But most importantly it’s the concept where Daisy and Gatsby are reestablishing their connection. And one which can ruin the marriage between Daisy and Tom but that does not seem to stop them from true love. Women were definitely not as open like this in the 1700 or 1800’s. They were more conservative, dancing and partying were done but not in such a way. Instead, they had balls, dinners, and other events that was more of peaceful and showed class. But overtime class had changed, the value of money, people partying, consumers did not care. They were living life because they had just successfully come out of WWI. Most importantly, the women had changed meaning, now they have experienced characteristics of the gents. This was because during WWI most of the men had to go and fight the war so who was left to produces, tanks, ships, and weapons? Women! Women took over jobs that the men would normally do. Once the men came back everyone went back to their own roles, but that does not mean women could not do them. It just meant that women had other priorities, which was kind of established by society, which was to take care of the kids, the house, and her husband.

The quote that struck me was when Daisy states in Chapter 1, “I hope she’ll be a fool—that’s the best thing a girl can be in this world, a beautiful little fool.” She says this because Daisy is speaking from her own experience, that women are not valued for intelligence. The women that were of youth during that time period were to be thought as pleasure seekers since they just followed what society had told them to. However, make no mistake, this was only distinguished by the upper working class women. Meaning this was only possible to them and not to any other women, because for them everything was a luxury, time, food, cleaning, or not cleaning, etc. But getting back to Daisy’s remark she herself was not given of any value by her husband thus, resulting a continuation of women being suppressed by society to an extent.

“The highest resolution of education is tolerance.”
-Helen Keller

“Mad Men” is a TV series whose main character is Don Draper. Throughout this television series, the character that stands out and shows that a woman can participate and succeed in man’s world is Peggy Olson. She is an individual who starts off as an assistant to Don Draper, but later becomes part of the advertising market and is under Don Draper’s wing. Eventually she leaves due to a higher increase in pay and having learned everything she wished to by challenging herself even more. Peggy Olson resembles the working women in the late 1950s that were different compared to the ones that have settled down and have gotten married. Peggy would be seen as an outlier during that time because the norm for a woman around her age would’ve been to be married and settle down with kids of her own. But to her it was overrated she wanted something better, something she can be proud of, somewhere she wanted to express her knowledge and intellect in marketing and advertising. She wasn’t just any assistant that waited to become someone or had a relationship with his or her boss, no sir… she made her way to the top by learning from the best, Don Draper. This TV show sparked my interest when thinking about the Evolution of Women because it made me think of how women were individuals at one time who were not educated due to their lack of education. However, no one said the women’s ability to learn had been affected.

Margaret Thatcher was the first female prime minister in UK. She graduated from Oxford University 1946 as a chemistry major and then stayed in the field for years. Afterwards she began to study law during her free time while she was chemist and she passed the bar. She became interested in politics due to her father who was a member of the town Council. In 1950, when she first started to run for her first parliamentary she did not succeed. So in 1951, she married Dennis Thatcher and by 1959 she earns a seat in the Parliament. She was the involved in politics again in 1959 because she felt the government was too involved with the economy and individual lives. In 1979 she became Britain’s first female prime minister and she retained in a position for three terms. During her presidency she fought for free markets and against communism due to the Cold War, which was a huge factor in everyday life during that time. During her presidency she received her name, which she is known today by known as The Iron Lady. The name reflected her ideologies in free markets and her fierce speech 1976 against communism. After being known as The Iron Lady she was an individual that participated in politics and succeeded. Although, I’m positive there were certain obstacles due to the lack of other females that were not in the Parliament. Basically, the connection is that Margaret Thatcher is a woman who changed views on politics, which at a time was just a man’s game. She gave hope for others to become politicians, she influenced others and she changed the game; or proving that it is possible to be a female leader and succeed but it will not be easy. As a result, these type actions are encouraged to provoke women empowerment.

Courtesy of Bio.com

I write for those women who do not speak, for those who do not have a voice because they were so terrified, because we are taught to respect fear more than ourselves. We’ve been taught that silence would save us, but it won’t.

-Audre Lorde

 

As usual, there is a woman behind every idiot.

-John Lennon

 

There was a time when men thought it was sexy to have a housewife waiting for him to come home from work in her slippers, but in modern society, I think an independent woman is even more sexy.

-Kat Graham

 

A woman is like a tea bag – you can’t tell how strong she is until you put her in hot water.

-Eleanor Roosevelt

It is very surprising to know that our mind creates connections and patterns in various ways. For instance, earlier this week I was watching the season finale of the Sons of Anarchy and was reminded of an important character whose name was Gemma Teller. She was a key character throughout the series because she controlled most, if not all the outcomes; where people either died or lived depending on her version of loyalty versus betrayal to the club or to the family. Of course, there were other variables, including greed, and reasonable decision-making skills that were suppose to create a better club. Gemma is basically the individual behind scenes that either influences or tells what the club “Sons of Anarchy” should do, due to her relationships with the president(s) of the club. When the club first started she was married and her first husband J.T., and once she saw that he wasn’t performing to Gemma’s expectations she and Clay Morrow then devised a plan to kill J.T. As years went by and slowly Jax Teller, who was Gemma Teller’s son slowly found out as to what had become of his father. As he began to the pieces to the puzzle, the club had its constant problems or drugs, war, gang retaliation and of course keeping their family at peace. Soon as the show approached to Season 6, Clay was out of the picture and Jack’s had become president of the club. As a result Gemma always had her hand in the cookie jar, even when it wasn’t suppose to be there. Gemma Teller was also the villain in Season 7 since (spoiler alert) she had killed someone close to Jax Teller, someone very important that played a key role Jax’s family’s future. Gemma life was ended in the second to last episode in Season 7 when Jax killed her by shooting her in the back of the head in his grandfather backyard, which was a beautiful flower garden. But the bigger question is, why would a son kill his own mother? Well this was one of the climaxes in the last season, matter of fact the whole series. This was when Gemma had been broken when her boyfriend wanted some space to handle some business because he was the mediator and it could go ugly at anytime and not having her in his business was the best move. Right after Gemma then found out Tara Knowles (Jax’s Wife and Jax’s second sons wife, she was currently taking care of both sons) was going to cut a deal with D.A. However, what Gemma did not know was the both Jax and Tara agreed that it would be best for them to get a divorce. In addition, to move the kids away from Charming, otherwise known as Lodi, California (where the show is centered) because of death, bloodshed, and various evils. Basically, they did not want their kids to grow up in a town where such bad influences will corrupt their lives. Gemma misinterpreted the whole situation and took it as betrayal upon the club, herself, and mainly Gemma. Her way of justifying the situation was to kill her and raise the kids with Wendy (Jax’s first sons wife). Gemma didn’t kill Tara with just a simple bullet; instead she banged her head against the wall, and then drowned her in the sink while stabbing her with a steak fork. Such a brutal death with blood stained and pooled around her resulted Jax in reacting with rage, revenge, and most of all the pain. However, what he didn’t know was that his own mother had done that. Gemma could have easily solved the problem by just telling Jax about it instead she decided to take matter into her own hands by thinking she could save her family. Gemma values as derived from her experiences thus establishing maternal instincts and domination of the household. This moment was triggered when thinking about women who controlled the domestic life from my previous post, Tartuffe – Moliere v. Hedda Gabler – Henrik Ibsen.

Its surprising how women of similar era can either create a habitable home or break up a home. When an individual thinks of a woman there are a variety of definitions that pop up in their heads. For instance, the ones listed on dictionary.com are, the female human being; a wife; the nature, characteristics or feelings often attributed to women. In addition to that they are the individuals that are key on keeping you house standing, for the most part at least. This can be seen in Tartuffe in Act 2 Scene 2, when Orgon is telling Dorine, “Quiet! I command it!”; Dorine replies, “I’ll do just that, because you do demand it! But your interests – I will protect them.” As the two of them continue to argue about the truth who Tartuffe is. Dorine had already set up a scheme that will leave Orgon flabbergasted as to the outcome. By Act 3 Scene 4, he had found out what Tartuffe had done and the type of man he is. However, it was not he who discovered it, it was his wife, Elmire, and his daughter, Dorine. Both of which are female characters that played a key role in discovering the truth, which eventually brought Orgon to the evidence he needed in order to be a better man and husband and father. At first he was too blind to see what Tartuffe’s actual intention were due to how he illustrated his religious beliefs. Tartuffe at first he portray that he was a man of God but over time Oregon’s family could spot the fraud a mile away, unfortunately he was the last to believe he was a fraud. Better late than never because as a result one can see women in the household play key role in finding the truth and or controlling the outcome because they are the individuals who protect their family, thus implying maternal instincts. Whereas, Hedda Tesman she was an individual who did not care for family rather personal benefit which entertained her for short periods of time. One could argue that Elmire was Hedda to an extent with manipulative persona but it was for different intentions. Overall, Elmire was saving the family for a greater well where as Hedda was doing something for herself.

 

HEDDA

[Goes up the room.] Well, I shall have one thing at least to kill time with in the meanwhile.

TESMAN

[Beaming.] Oh thank heaven for that! What is it, Hedda. Eh?

HEDDA

[In the middle doorway, looks at him with covert scorn.] My pistols, George.

TESMAN

[In alarm.] Your pistols!

HEDDA

[With cold eyes.] General Gabler’s pistols. [She goes out through the inner room, to the left.]

 

Henrik Ibsen’s character Hedda Tesman, is a major character in this play because it most revolves around her manipulative and unpleasant persona. Overall, she is not a very good person due her actions described above (some of which may give away the play). She tricks Eilert Lovborg in killing himself; treats others and elder whom she has no interest of with a great lack of respect. Hedda was a Norwegian woman from the late the 1800s, where women were trapped in their homes because they had nothing to do, except fulfill the roles of a wife. However, from these few lines above Hedda’s spends her free time she playing with pistols. Guns were weapons only for the men but here we can see that she does not care. Rather she goes on and gives her husband the “cold eye.” It can be seen from the very few pages she is the one who wear the pants in the relationship but can portray her to be the man when in favor of her plan.  As a lady from the 1800s it was definitely unladylike for one to be playing with guns. Instead she should have been doing something that represented typical female behavior. For instance, she should have been taking care of the house, or the male figure(s) in her life. Women were not expected to have individual interests; everything women should have done was in service to a male, or needs of the male. Women fragile creatures who needed to be taken care of by the strong protective male.

In addition, to her manipulation she is not ashamed to be talking to men without her husband’s presence. She is a woman of great intellect, and knows what she is doing for the most part. Women around that era, were modest, quiet, respectful, and would never directly look at another men; but Hedda she was something completely different. She was definitely advanced for her time period. Ibsen’s portrayal of Hedda was great because although she was the antagonist, it was interesting to see the roles to have changed. Plays normally perceived men to be evil and women to be of purity and honesty, however, Hedda has taken on the role of the of the villain. As a result, she uses her intelligence to outwit everyone who she does not like and still is bored.