3 essays

The three essays that we were assigned to read were all different experiences in the lives of women who came from different cultural backgrounds, but basically told the same story. Since the beginning of time women have been considered the weaker sex, and the stories that we read only prove that these feeling are not completely gone. The first story tells and depicts how sexism trickles down from generation to generation, the author tells of how her father treated her and her sister differently from her brothers, and didn’t show much respect for the opposite sex by condoning her brothers promiscuous behavior while completely banning her sister from even meeting up with boys. The second essay tells of how the author’s father thought that she would end up as nothing but somebody’s wife, just because she was a girl, and how the author felt that she constantly had to prove herself to him academically. The third essay depicts a different scenario completely, as the author tells of how a mere black eye brought everyone to the assumption that she had been beaten by her spouse. All in all, he purpose of all of these essays are to prove that women are not as weak, stupid, or helpless as many would think, and that sexism still finds a way into our society and daily lives. This is probably a good thing to read about during this class since we are studying women in history and literature, and we cant do that without studying the obstacles that they faced back then, as well as today, because of their sex. Women in history and Literature also falls into the arts which symbolizes their freedom of expression, a freedom often limited by different cultures and societies.