Theory Of English Literature

Name : Nurul Trianingsih

Reg. Number : 120810288

Feminism Criticism

Feminism is the one of movements that enforces women to have the same
right as the men. This movement gives a clear explanation about the role of each
gender between women and men. It describes those women able to do work
similar jobs as the men. Besides that, this movement also criticized women
deviation through their own activity. The problems mostly happen when the
women are being oppressed by the men figure (ditindas). This criticism exists to
help the women to have the same right just like men.
This movement has established around seventh century that in that time
women started to have desires to be more appreciated by the men. Moreover,
women also want to show their ability that they could do what men do. In that
time, women have become brave enough to make a carrier in a working world.
The action could be shown when some woman decided to create some literary
works. This development has forced women to make a lot of books in order to
spilled out their idea in writing. Feminism has given so much good implication to
women’s life. This movement released women from the world cage and made
them become more freely in expressing their idea instead of only stay at home,
caring a child or cooking in the kitchen.
Feminism criticism is populared by some important figure. In 1960s, the
movement of feminism could be seen in some literature works like poem, novel,
and short story. Based on the Blackwell book, there are some philosophers who
showed their works to describe the feminism criticism. For example, there is Mary
Woll-ston Craft with her book titled A Vindidication of the rights of the woman.
Besides that, there is also philosophers named Olive Shrener who wrote the book
titled women and labor. And the last, there is Virginia Woolfs who wrote a book
titled A Room of one’s own, which showed the women inequality in getting a
good education. It is also reflected to the roles of women after marriage and
become a mother hood.

Traditional Gender Roles

Based on the Feminism Criticism, there is some traditional role that
differentiate the men and women. The differentiations of the men and women
could be seen on the gender role of each sexes. Men as one of the dominant
gender are described into people who are strong, intelligence, and rational. On the
other hand, women are described into people who are weak, emotional, not
intelligence. Those differentiations are called as traditional gender roles. The
traditional gender roles is directly categorized men and women based on their
gender and not heir sexes. In this context, sexes catogerized the diffenciation of
the physical appearance in showing their identity. So, it has already given a clear
information in categorizing someone as a male or female. Difference with sexes,
gender is more focusing on the role of each sex. it is regulate if someone is male
or female based on the way they act. For Example, the men should play the toys
that reflected them as a male such as robot and car and female should play a doll
to reflect them as a female. The other example of traditional gender role could be
seen that the men have a due to work and the female have to stay at home in
nurturing the children.
Those descriptions about gender roles have raised the feminism criticism
to avoid the traditional gender roles for women. It is functioned to make women
have the equal position with the men. Women as human also have a right to make
a good carrier in their life. Feminism criticism exists to support women to come
up from the oppression by the men and the traditional gender roles.
The traditional gender roles also explain about the patriarchy. Patriarchy
could be described as a kind of differentiations level between the men and the
women. It showed the way how the man saying that women is more inferior that
men. Based on the patriarchy, women are positioned below the men position. The
 women have to obey and agree with all men’s decision and directions. On the
other hands, the men are characterized into people who have a right to aim
women’s life. the patriarchy also enforce the men in having more power than the
women in deciding a decision. Based on the patriarchy, men are considered as the
superior people. They think that they have more power to dominate the economy,
politics, and social. On the economic side, the men have better opportunity to
working in a company or office rather that the women. The men used to work in
order to get some money in fulfilling the needs of their family. In the political
side, the men are mostly become the chief of something or the bigger field are
become the president of a country.
Beside describe about the power of superior on the men’s roles, patriarchy
also described about the characteristic between men and women. This condition
made some implications that the men could not do what women are usually do.
This thought have made the men to be more careful in showing their emotional
and avoid crying in abundance. This illustration would make them describe their
selves into a weak person like a woman.

Multicultural Feminism
Feminism criticism has already developed well in this world. It also give a
lot of contribution to take a part in defending women. Its development is not only
growing in one area but also in all nations in this world. However, even though
all of nation has already used feminism as one of the big movement, it does not
make their view about feminism become the similar in every nation. Each nation
sometimes has their own description about feminism because the culture of a
nation also influence the way of thinking around its people especially the women.
Based on Tyson Book, people are having their own patriarchy system in each
nation. For example, in the United State, the patriarchy was telling about the color
that differ them in the context of racism. The stereotype of the women who have a
blonde hair is considerable as the weak and unintelligence rather than the brown
or black hair.
 The Feminism criticism also grew up from the greatest feminist, R. A
Kartini. She was one of the women who tried to open the widely opportunity in
having a better education like a men. So, they would not be described into the
unintelligence one and they could give the best contribution for their nation.
In the conclusion, There are a lot of Feminism issues related to the culture
of each nation in this world. Most of the issues were related to the context of
racism like the feminism issues in United State about the black feminism that
point out to the black skin women. This description showed that feminism issues
is actually spread out in every part of this world and the Feminism criticism could
be netralized the feminism problem in those nations.

Feminism and Literature

Feminism Criticism also could be used to analyze the literature works
throught its theory. The problems that is created in the story could be analyzed
using the Femnism criticism. The example of the Feminism criticism used in the
literature could be seen in the short story of Charllote P Gilmans that titled Yellow
Wallpaper. This short story told about the women who had a degradation in the
eyes of his husband. Her husband though that she was sick and told her to stay
only in her room without doing something usefull. The description of the woman
character in this story described her unablesness to ignore her husband decisions.
In analyzing the feminism issues in the literature, it is very important to
recognize the patriarchy ideology in the story. This is very important because
knowing the patriarchy ideology could help the reader understand about the
feminism issues. In analyzing its stoty, it could be started in analyzing the attitude
and behaviour of the characters. However, the goal of the feminism criticism is
used to find the women experience about the patriarchy ideology.

Works Cited
Tyson, Lois. “Critical Theory Today.” USA: Garland reference library of the
Humanities, 1999
Castle, Gregory. “The Blackwell Guide to Literary Theory.”USA: Blackwell
Publishing, 2007