Christmas Holiday Work

First wave feminism

late 19^th and early 20^th century

influenced by Mary Wollstonecraft’s ‘A Vindication of the Rights of Women’

Came from the industrial, liberal and socialist politics of the time

The main goal was to give women more opportunities

Focused on the right to vote

Included the abolitionist movement and to some extent have black women a voice – e.g. Sojourner Truth’s ‘Ain’t I a Woman?’ speech

Women acted in very ‘unladylike’ ways – e.g. demonstrating, protesting, and going to prison

Accepted that men and women are biologically different, but argued that they should still be treated as equals

Focused on legal inequalities

In the UK it resulted in the 1918 Representation of the People Act which allowed women over the age of 30 to vote

This was later extended in 1928 to all women over the age of 18

Second wave feminism

Began in the 1960s and continued to the 1990s

Created amongst other protests – e.g. anti Vietnam, civil rights movement

People becoming more aware of minorities

More radical movement

Sexuality and reproductive rights major issues

Saw typically ‘feminine’ things such as make up as oppressive

Began to become more theoretical – including Marxist and psycho-analytical theories

Associated women’s subjugation with patriarchy, capitalism, normative heterosexuality and the traditional role of women

Highlighted the difference between sex and gender – sex being biological and gender being a social construct

Included women of every class and race, rather than simply the middle class as before

Highlighted the impact of patriarchy on every aspect of women’s lives

Took into account the need for feminism for men as well as women – broke down the traditional stereotypes, for example the fact that men are expected to be stoic

Tackled the social and cultural inequalities that women faced

Also aimed to improve existing laws, for example making marital rape illegal

Third/Fourth wave feminism

Began in the mid 1990s

Embraced things such as make up and revealing clothes as empowering

Some feminists feel that we are beginning to see a fourth wave of feminism

Includes transsexual women and those who do not conform to traditional binary genders – e.g. gender fluid people

Focuses on the individual and their own definition of feminism

Revolves around ‘calling out’ sexism and challenging it

Utilises social media and the internet to gain more support

The ideologies and aims tend to differ between groups, with some taking a similar view to the second wave, and others taking a different, less confrontational approach

Combine with other movements, such as racial movements or the transgender movement

http://womenshistory.answers.com/feminism/what-are-the-three-waves-of-feminism

http://www.psa.ac.uk/insight-plus/feminism-fourth-wave  

http://www.pacificu.edu/about-us/news-events/three-waves-feminism

http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Feminism

Marxism

Heavily influenced the politics of the 20^th century

Based on the philosophy of Karl Marx

Formed the basis of Communism and socialism

Influenced people from Einstein to Picasso

Had a global influence on politics, not just in Europe, e.g. Nelson Mandela

Also influenced more negative politics, such as Stalin, Lenin and Pol Pot

Influenced satirical writers such as Jan Kott

The movement split after the murder of Rosa Luxemburg, with one half becoming more radical

Created tension between rival political groups, such as the Nazi Party during the Second World War

The fear of communism and/or Marxist theories led to the Cold War between America and the USSR

Marxism argues that Capitalism is used to maintain the social standing of everyone – i.e. to ensure that the poor remain poor

Every aspect of society, from school to marriage, is used to

https://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/en/slaughte.htm

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/367344/Marxism

http://www.wolfgangfritzhaug.inkrit.de/documents/XXCenturyMarxism.pdf

The Loves of Lady Purple

The tale appears in Carter’s collection of short stories Fireworks: Nine Profane Pieces. The story focuses on a professor who travels across Europe, performing a puppet show. In the show he tells the story of Lady Purple: an orphan who murdered her foster parents and became a prostitute. As she grew older, she became less and less popular and in the end was turned into wood and made into the puppet used in the show. Over time, the professor becomes weaker and weaker and the marionette becomes stronger and her movements more fluid. One day she comes to life and drinks the professor’s blood before burning the body. The marionette then leaves to find a brothel, as that is what she was created to do.

Top news stories

1976
- Pol Pot becomes leader of Cambodia
- Jimmy Carter becomes president of the US
- civil war in Lebanon ends

1977
- Star Wars is in theatres for the first time
- Elvis Presley dies
- the neutron bomb is developed

1978
- Followers of Jim Jones commit mass suicide
- the Walkman is introduced by Sony
- the first ‘test tube baby’ is born

1979
- Margaret Thatcher becomes prime minister
- Soviet invasion of Afghanistan
- collapse of the Pol Pot regime

1981
- Ronald Reagan becomes president
- AIDS is first identified
- MTV goes on air for the first time

1981
- Britain wins the Falklands war
- Israel invades Lebanon
- a permanent artificial heart is put into a human for the first time

1982
- Sally K. Ride is the first woman in space
- CDs are introduced
- the El Niño phenomenon

Negative criticisms

Jago Morrison 'an archaeological investigation of gender representation’

Lucie Armitt ‘ ‘one of the major problems facing the reader of these ten stories is that they always seem to be dissolving into each other’

Susanne Kappeler ‘Carter's use of Sade's misogynist works did little other than reinforce degrading patriarchal representations of women’

Robert Clark (Company of Wolves) when the girl strips in front of the werewolf, ‘the point of view is that of the male voyeur, the implication may be that the girl has her own sexual power, but his meaning lies perilously close to the idea that all women want it really, and only need forcing to overcome their scruples’

Jenny Fabian ‘Whatever masquerades and metamorphoses take place within Carter’s fictional world, there is no escape from the notion that language is a male construct of control’

Positive criticisms

Marina Warner ‘Angela Carter made an inspired, marvellous move, for which so many other writers as well as readers will always be indebted to her: she refused to join in rejecting or denouncing fairy tales, but instead embraced the whole stigmatised genre

Helen Simpson ‘The stories in The Bloody Chamberare fired by the conviction that human nature is not immutable, that human beings are capable of change. Some of their most brilliant passages are accounts of metamorphoses’

Michele Roberts ‘able to imagine women as flawed and imperfect, necessarily so given the misogynistic world in which they lived. She did not see women in any simplistic sense as victims’

Amy Weldon ‘Feminist, fabulist, and provocateur, Angela Carter nudges readers — especially women — to look upon the world, however fantastical or frightening it may be, and let it teach us courage, and common sense’

Jack Zipes ‘Her writing is also exquisite. She has a great command of metaphor, and the writing is very sensuous without being mannered’

Problems with Marxism: does not really offer any solutions to the problems it outlines, simply states that the problems exist, suggests that there is nothing we can do to change our situation, only really applies to western cultures, could be considered to be outdated, Marx developed it in the 19^th century, it has not really evolved with changes in society as feminism has, talks about history in a generalised way rather than talking about specific events, mostly ignores women

Problems with feminism: it tends to focus solely on the struggle of white women in western cultures, ignoring women of colour or transgender women, often perpetuates the differences between men and women, sometimes hindered by the huge range in viewpoints and types of feminism

Feminist news story: Suicide of Leelah Alcorn

Leelah Alcorn (originally born Joshua) aged 17 committed suicide, blaming her highly religious parents for not accepting her identity. When she was 14, Leelah told her parents that she identified as female. They refused to accept this and sent her to Christian conversion therapy sessions, which often involved the therapist telling her that she was being ‘selfish’ for refusing to accept the gender she was born with, and that ‘God doesn’t make mistakes’. Her parents then took away her phone and other electrical devices and blocked her access to social media, claiming that she had been corrupted by it. She killed herself on the 28^th December, 2014, leaving a suicide note on Tumblr blaming her parents for her actions.

Marxist news story: City Link

The delivery service, City Link, has had to cut a further 230 jobs due to the financial pressure it is under. Overall they have cut 2,586 jobs after going into administration since Christmas Eve. The company has been in financial difficulty since last year, with many employees not being told about possible redundancies or even the extent to which the company was in trouble.