Tuesday, October 28, 2008
Friday, October 10, 2008
Sexual Empowerment and Indepedence
Sexual empowerment has long been a taboo of the dinner table conversations. For generations the thought of a conversation where women expressed their desires to their husbands, partner’s, or significant other’s in public and with authority was on par with worshiping Satan. But the truth is that this idea of the sexually empowered women has been around for decades and is even more apparent in today’s culture than ever before. Breakfast at Tiffany’s is about a sexual empowered young woman who lives life each day at a time. But who would have thought that this character would come back 40 years later to embody 4 women in New York. Sex and the City , a show that followed the lives of 4 friends living in New York talking about their (or lack there of) sex lives , broke barriers with their sexual appetites and crude humor. Just as in Breakfast at Tiffany’s, Sex and the City pushed the envelope of the sexual idea that women too had the same needs and desires’ as men, whether it be carnal desires or just a good drink.
Breakfast at Tiffany’s was published in 1958, and for that time Holly Golightly wasn’t what society considered to be a good woman. In those days most women were not open with there sexuality. Holly on the other hand was more sexually driven than the male characters in her society or at least thought to be. “ I suppose you think I’m very brazen…….Yes, you do. Every body does. I don’t mind. It’s useful.” (Capote 18) The thought that a women liked people to think that she was very promiscuous in 1958 or even up through the end of the 20th century was ghastly and even worse if they thought it was useful. This line of thinking could be considered the thoughts of a whore, using men to get what you want, whether it be money or materials. But that’s the most interesting part of Holly Golightly, she is full of new ideologies and speaks her mind no matter what. Capote captured the essence of the internal household wife and made that imaginary inner self into a character. One who didn’t care what would happen next or if she would get into trouble. Holly stands as a symbol of freedom in a way. But not just for women, but for anyone.
Sex and The City is a story about 4 women who gossip about their sex lives, or lack there of, drink, party, and just try and survive the big apple. It starred four different characters that each had a different opinion on everything. But there was a common understanding that they all believed that women enjoyed sex as much as men. “Who Needs A husband” was the title of Time magazine in 1999 with the stars on the cover. “Sex and the City tells us a lot about us now and I suspect, when we look back on this generations from now, it will still tell us a lot about how we were.” (Akass, Reading Sex and the City) Just as Breakfast at Tiffany’s brought new ideas of independent women, Sex and the City re-enforced it in the 21st century. It tried to answer the questions that women between the ages 20-40 had. “While it does not have all the answers, Sex and the City saves the stereotypical spinster from a sad death, even as it presents her with new challenges. Far from being presented as the pathetic, childish or whorish creatures of times past (and present), these women are proud and protective of their individual accomplishments.” (Akass, Reading Sex and the city)
Breakfast at Tiffany’s and Sex and the City both helped change the cultural stigma on women as a less sexual being. By openly showing what women truly or as truly as possible, desire and think just like men. Both showed that women could and will strive to be independent from man.” Even the most sympathetic of men never fully comprehend woman’s concrete situation. And there is no reason to put much trust in the men when they rush to the defense of privileges whose full extent they can hardly measure. We shall not, then, permit ourselves to be intimidated by the number and violence of the attacks launched against women, nor to be entrapped by the self-seeking eulogies bestowed on the ‘true woman’, nor to profit by the enthusiasm for woman’s destiny manifested by men who would not for the world have any part of it.”( Beauvoir, The Second Sex.
Breakfast at Tiffany’s was published in 1958, and for that time Holly Golightly wasn’t what society considered to be a good woman. In those days most women were not open with there sexuality. Holly on the other hand was more sexually driven than the male characters in her society or at least thought to be. “ I suppose you think I’m very brazen…….Yes, you do. Every body does. I don’t mind. It’s useful.” (Capote 18) The thought that a women liked people to think that she was very promiscuous in 1958 or even up through the end of the 20th century was ghastly and even worse if they thought it was useful. This line of thinking could be considered the thoughts of a whore, using men to get what you want, whether it be money or materials. But that’s the most interesting part of Holly Golightly, she is full of new ideologies and speaks her mind no matter what. Capote captured the essence of the internal household wife and made that imaginary inner self into a character. One who didn’t care what would happen next or if she would get into trouble. Holly stands as a symbol of freedom in a way. But not just for women, but for anyone.
Sex and The City is a story about 4 women who gossip about their sex lives, or lack there of, drink, party, and just try and survive the big apple. It starred four different characters that each had a different opinion on everything. But there was a common understanding that they all believed that women enjoyed sex as much as men. “Who Needs A husband” was the title of Time magazine in 1999 with the stars on the cover. “Sex and the City tells us a lot about us now and I suspect, when we look back on this generations from now, it will still tell us a lot about how we were.” (Akass, Reading Sex and the City) Just as Breakfast at Tiffany’s brought new ideas of independent women, Sex and the City re-enforced it in the 21st century. It tried to answer the questions that women between the ages 20-40 had. “While it does not have all the answers, Sex and the City saves the stereotypical spinster from a sad death, even as it presents her with new challenges. Far from being presented as the pathetic, childish or whorish creatures of times past (and present), these women are proud and protective of their individual accomplishments.” (Akass, Reading Sex and the city)
Breakfast at Tiffany’s and Sex and the City both helped change the cultural stigma on women as a less sexual being. By openly showing what women truly or as truly as possible, desire and think just like men. Both showed that women could and will strive to be independent from man.” Even the most sympathetic of men never fully comprehend woman’s concrete situation. And there is no reason to put much trust in the men when they rush to the defense of privileges whose full extent they can hardly measure. We shall not, then, permit ourselves to be intimidated by the number and violence of the attacks launched against women, nor to be entrapped by the self-seeking eulogies bestowed on the ‘true woman’, nor to profit by the enthusiasm for woman’s destiny manifested by men who would not for the world have any part of it.”( Beauvoir, The Second Sex.
Works Cited
Capote, Truman. Breakfast at Tiffany's. New York, NY: Vintage, 1993. 18.
Beauvoir, Simone De. "The Second Sex." Simone de Beauvoir Archive (1949).
Akass, Kim. Reading Sex and the CIty. New York, CA: I.B. Tauris, 2005. 94
Capote, Truman. Breakfast at Tiffany's. New York, NY: Vintage, 1993. 18.
Beauvoir, Simone De. "The Second Sex." Simone de Beauvoir Archive (1949).
Akass, Kim. Reading Sex and the CIty. New York, CA: I.B. Tauris, 2005. 94
Monday, September 22, 2008
Sunday, August 31, 2008
My First Blog
Welcome!
My name is Scott Madden and I regret to inform you that you have stumbled onto my blog. So I will take a sec to let you search for the back arrow to exit..............................ok for those of you who have stayed this is my first blog and and I am surprisingly excited about it...didn't ever think I would have one, but thanks to my english 313 class I do now. Hope you find my views on class and my papers, along with some comedic satire, interesting and enlightening.....or just an easy outlet for you to release any repressed anger you may have.
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