Blog #17

There seemed to be a lot of noteworthy ideas in bell hooks piece “The Significance of Femininity Movement,” however there was one particular idea that stood out a lot to me. Although, I am aware of the feminist movement I never really considered the effect it had on the family or vice versa. In this piece hooks makes the claim that the family actual plays a role in promoting sexism.
According to hooks the family is the place where people are socialized into believing that sexist practices are okay and natural. She goes on to site Hodge as supporting evidence to this belief (Jacobus 826). Hodges states, “Here is where the relationship of superordination- subordination, of superior-inferior, of master slave is first learned and accepted as ‘natural’(Jacobus 827). In this sentence and the paragraph from which it comes Hodges discusses what children learn and are taught in the family, thus suggesting it is the family where sexist ideas begins. He also talks about the ways in which sexism is implicating such as with the role of the man to be control part of the life of the family in several aspects (Jacobus 827).
She also goes on to discuss how the western culture’s family is a means of supporting oppression and sexist ideas. She uses another quote from Hodges to further emphasis this that says, “[the family] is the major training ground which initially conditions us to accept group oppression as the natural order” (Jacobus 827).
As I said there are many noteworthy points in this piece, but this one seems to be particularly eye-opening. Although, I never really thought about the impact the family had on feminism outside of putting women in stereotypical roles as the stay-home-parent, there does seem to be a link to family and sexist oppression. I agree that in our society we are raised in a certain way that allows for oppression to be accepted, at least when it comes to sexism.

Works Cited
Hooks, Bell. “The Significance of Feminist Movement.” A World of Ideas: Essential Readings for College Writers .Ed. Lee A Jacobus. 7th ed. New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2006. pp.824-831.

Blog #16

Carol Gilligan’s piece “Women’s Place in Man’s Life Cycle” discusses a lot of studies on the development of girls and boys. A lot of the studies, however, give preference to males, are solely based on the study of males, or show favoritism to the male. In turn, this causes the females to look inadequate, not up to par, or substandard. One particular part of this piece that demonstrates this idea (and there are several) is the section on the study of boys and girls at play.
On pages 805 through 804 Gilligan talks about a study conducted by Janet Lever on socialization during elementary schools. In the study she talks about the differences in play between boys and girls. This leads to her discussing how boys and girls approach the rules of games.
Boys tended to continue to play games even when problems arose. So instead of ending the game because of a dispute, they tended to come up with a solution that abided to the rules that both sides thought was fair(Jacobus 805).Girls on the other hands didn’t approach the game, or the rules of the games as absolute the same way the boys did. Whenever the girls encountered a problem they tended to the game. Girls approached the rules differently by being more open to making exceptions to them and more tolerant. The terms used to describe girls views to rules by Piaget in Gilligan’s piece was “a more ‘pragmatic’ attitude toward rule” (Jacobus 805).
This section even implied that the boys were thus more developed than the girls making it seem as if the girls are somewhat inferior to the boys. This study of boys, girls, and socialization is just one of the many examples of the favoritism shown to males on studies of differences between the sexes.

Works Cited
Gilligan, Carol. ““Woman’s Place in a Man’s Life Cycle.” A World of Ideas: Essential Readings for College Writers .Ed. Lee A Jacobus. 7th ed. New York: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2006. pp.801-817.