Change

Jessica Hoang 

Professor Dunigan 

English 100 

14th May 2018 

Change

Sexism is defined as discrimination or prejudice based on one’s gender and its traditional stereotypes. It could also be seen as a belief that one sex is more important than the other. This belief places restrictions on what males and females can and should do. It’s level of severity varies in different cases, regardless, it still parallels the unacceptable concept of inequality. Sexism can affect anyone at any time, however, prior to the 21st century, this idea was created as a way to shine light on the oppression that women and girls, especially, were facing at the time. There are many factors in which contribute to the unequal treatment of certain individuals based on their gender; some are from the differences of the social constructed roles in society while others come from biological differences.These factor are shown through different genres of literature all throughout history. The marginalization of women and unequal treatment of them within Maus by Art Spiegelman, for example, portrays the gender inequality instilled in him and his society; this contrasts the push for the development and change of the tradition to modern roles of women seen through the females within Roddy Doyle’s A Star Called Henry, in which portrays the upcoming equality between the genders.   

The infamous graphic novel Maus by Art Spiegelman focuses on two main narratives: Holocaust survivor Vladek Spiegelman’s experiences during World War II and his son Art’s view on his tension-filled relationship with his father. Despite the similar events in which both genders had to endure during this time, the attention the author gave to the females and their stories were negligible. Additionally to the Spiegelmans, Maus harbours two female main characters, Anja and Mala, yet only as a mean in developing the narrative and creating emotional depth. The interaction between Vladek and Anja, described by Art himself, provides the readers with the traditional division of roles of men and women within this political environment. Visualizing the story in chronological order, Anja, an intelligent and wealthy woman, is Vladek’s first wife, whom he attempted to escape the Holocaust with and was the reason for his will to survive. An instance where the forced male dominant role surfaced was when Vladek threatened to end their marriage if she did not stop her Communist activity. Even though it was for her safety, the situation would have been handled a completely different way if her intelligence and awareness of herself came into play and the instilled idea of men being superior within Vladek’s and Art’s mind was non-existent. Gender and Social Influence by Linda L. Carli of Wesley College “reveals that men are generally more influential that women, although the gender difference depends on several moderators. Relative to men, women are particularly less influential when using dominant forms of communication...Males in particular resist influence by women and girls more than females do...” (Carli). Up until recently, women from all over world still have been unable to have any say over any aspect of their society. Male domination and oppression of women were common. These two factors come hand in hand being that one is a compelling reasoning for the other. The desire for power and utmost control by men leads to the need to oppress. History has proven this fact several times with any conquerings of any nations or groups by another. In most settings where gender inequality exists, males are more likely to disregard women due to their preconceived idea of their dominance and this has been shown through the situation mentioned above where Anja’s side of the story and decision were ignored and outshined by Vladek’s despite her intelligence. 

In addition to Anja, Vladek was also involved with another woman named Mala, whom he married not too long after his first wife’s death. Although Mala assists Art in his understand of how a survivor deals with their Holocaust memories and experiences, he acts with great insensitivity when including her story; Art makes little to no effort in collecting the details of her accounts and perspectives. A prime example of this is while Mala was finishing up telling Art about her parents, who both died in Auschwitz,  he abruptly got up and left in order to find Anja’s diaries. By him springing up from the table without acknowledging her stories, a great deal of disrespect was shown. This marginalization of women has been happening for centuries and in a variety of areas like job positions, narratives, etc. According to an editorial of the British Journal of Sports Medicine, “Even though sex-based equality has been progressed in other fields, women have been excluded from clinical trials… though medical problems and treatments affect them equally, if not more.” (Callaghan). The exclusion of women from clinical trials versus negligence of Mala’s and other women’s stories regarding the Holocaust cannot be compared in the degree of agony, but they are still similar in that the equal in importance of both cases are there but they are disregarded because of the intended subject’s gender. For decades girls are often taught, since they were little, to sit still and look pretty because that is the lady-like way. They learn to not say too much, laugh too loudly, or act too boldly. As a result, women’s voices are muted and they say nothing about it because it is considered normal. Art’s exclusion of the female’s perspective on the Holocaust and the recollection of what they went through regardless of the significant roles they play in his and his father’s life reveals the unintentionally muting of female’s voices, therefore, showing the unequal regards their society give to each gender. 

Prior to the horrors of WWII and the Holocaust, in another part of the world exists the Irish revolutionary period, which plays the role of being the main focus within A Star Called Henry by Roddy Doyle. In the start of the 20th century, the ideas of the typical roles of men and women from earlier times still have an effect on what people within the novel’s society think is the tradition ideal of women; the idea of them being second level citizens and having no business in having an education or career. However, “At the onset of the 20th century, the ideas of the 19th  century regarding the separate, and indeed opposite, natures of men and women, which had been further exaggerated by the industrial revolution in defining mechanized labor (and its invention) as the province of men and the domestic responsibilities as the natural domain of women, men and women’s relationships to and with each other and society change” (Radek), the readers see this through the roles given to the main female characters by Doyle, the most important being Miss O’Shea. Throughout the novel, her development from being a catholic school teacher at the start of the Eastern Rising to earning her reputation of being “The Lady of the Machine Gun” by being involved and actively killing off English troops in the Irish War of Independence displays her effort in challenging the traditional roles and duties placed on women within her society. Doyle uses Miss O’Shea as a mean to show the female of this time period’s will to gain equality, leading to the depiction of the oncoming equality between the genders in this particular environment. 

Aside from physically fighting in combat, Miss O’Shea has taken many other fearless actions in order to gain freedom of herself and her own identity; one of them being taking control of her body during sexual interactions with the main protagonist, Henry, while there were heavy bombardments outside. According to editor Marcus Field of The Independent, “A combination of          overt gentility and ignorance turned the 19th century into the most rotten age there has ever been  for sexuality. In Britain the ideal of the middle-class wife, safely installed with her family in a  bourgeois home, was the universal ideal. But the repression of natural urges led to a dark  underground world of debauchery and vice. As the purity of the wifely figure was promoted  (once-a-month sex was generally considered enough)” (Field). This ideal image of a pure and  innocent woman who only worries about her family and husband’s happiness while repressing  any sexual urges carries well on over to the early 20th century, all over the world, including Ireland. In the novel, Miss O’shea, once more, defies the social norms and expectations of her society by taking control of the intimate situation between her and Henry. Not only did she disregard the chaos going outside to tend to her needs, Miss O’Shea also surprises Henry with her actions in the moment , Henry says “...And now she let me hold and find her... It surprised and taunted, dragged and built me and made me feel like the king of the world and a complete and utter fuckin’ eejit…(she) remind me that she was there, the inventor, and torturer if she wanted to be… I was so surprised, I was almost unconscious” (Doyle 120-121). Henry’s reaction depicts how rare the sight of a woman knowing her body and taking control is and through that and Miss O’Shea’s actions, Doyle is communicating that sex, in a way, is a powerful tool to portray one’s identity due to how personal and raw its concept is, especially in this time period. 

Men and women are similar in many ways, but also just as different. Sexual dimorphism is the term for the physical differences between males and females of a species. Some are designed to aid in everyday’s activities while others are suited for reproduction purposes. According to Natalie Wolchover of University of California, Berkeley, “Men are, in general, more muscular than women. Women are over half as strong as men in their upper bodies, and about two-thirds as strong in their lower bodies...Male and female bodies are well-designed for each gender’s role in primitive society. Women are built for carrying and birthing children,... Men  free from the requirements of childbirth, benefit from being as strong and lithe as possible, both in their search for food, and when in competition with other men (Wolchover). Each gender’s body and brain are created a certain way and it is from these physical and emotional differences that come about prejudice or gender discrimination. Women are built with body parts like breasts and a uterus to make up a more appropriate physique for carrying a child and taking care of them versus men are typically built with larger body parts and more total muscle mass, as the result of testosterone induced muscular hypertrophy, which makes physically challenging tasks more suitable for them. Theses factors contribute to the assigned roles of women occupying lower status jobs, caretaking, etc and men occupying higher status jobs. This can be seen in A Star Called Henry with the fight for the Irish Independence when Miss O’Shea said to Henry “I didn’t come here to make stew...I’m here for my freedom. Just like you and the men upstairs” (Doyle 122). The sexes are treated differently because of the predetermined opinion of what each of the genders should be doing based on what each physically could do. The previously established nature of different stereotypes of males and females results in more judgement of women’s than men’s capabilities. Consequently, society assumes that the male gender as a whole is more efficient and skillful, especially in war time as shown in the novel. Women like Miss O’Shea, whose role given by Doyle, break this social norm by dipping their toes in and doingactivities that are not meant for them, leading to a push for change and reveals that women are just as capable as men. 

For decades, women have been facing major discrimination, as minor as the belittling of their opinions on certain subjects to as severe as being considered to have inferior minds. In many societies, as seen in Maus, they are reduced to being less than men though actions that include excluding their sides of the stories as well as disregarding their right to make decisions for their own safety, regardless of how intelligent they are.  However, along with time, the women’s fight for equality and freedom over themselves progresses. This progression can be seen through A Star Called Henry with Roddy Doyle’s description of the sexual interaction of Miss O’shea with Henry, as well as her involvement with the Irish War of Independence. Both authors, Art Spiegelman and Roddy Doyle, shine light on the oppression of women by men within society through the narratives they have created but with different approaches. Art does this by unintentionally excluding the narratives of the females within his and his father’s life despite the purpose of recalling the experiences in order to understand his father more through the tragic occuring of the Holocaust. On the other hand, Roddy Doyle does it by focusing on Miss O’Shea’s rebellious actions in order to gain self freedom. Doyle also uses her image, as a free-minded character with an intense dedication to gain equality, not only for herself, but other women in her society, to depict the development and change within the society of the novel during the time. Men and women within these literary works are considered unequal in one way or another, but Maus depicts the inequality as stagnant versus A Star Called Henry displays it as a changing matter, in the positive direction. 

 

Citation Page 

Callaghan, Meaghan Lee. “Women Are Being Excluded From Clinical Trials.” Popular Science, 

Popular Science, 8 June 2016, www.popsci.com/surprise-researchers-think-women-are-being-excluded-from-clinical-trials.

Carli, Linda. “Gender and Social Influence” Journal of social issues Vol 57, No.4, pp 

725-741, 2001

http://academics.wellesley.edu/Psychology/Psych/Faculty/Carli/GenderAndSocialInfluen

ce.pdf

Fields, Marcus. “A brief cultural history of sex” Independent, 22 September 2008

https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/love-sex/culture-of-love/a-brief-cultural-history

-of-sex-938527.html

M. Radek “Women in the 20th century and beyond” Women in literature 30 May 2006

https://www2.ivcc.edu/gen2002/Twentieth_Century.htm

Wolchover, Natalie. “Men vs. Women : Our Key Physical Differences Explained.” Quanta 

Magazine, 22 Sept. 2011, www.quantamagazine.org/authors/natalie/.