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=**GETTIN' WIKI WID IT**= WUDDUP SEX MYTH

Fredian: Kevin

Germaine Greer: Amanda

Naomi Wolf: Tanya & Shaliah

Feminist Programs: Monika & Fran

Germaine Greer:

- In her work, The Female Eunuch, Greer asserts that Sigmund Freud's "scientific" position deprives women of opportunities in society equal to that of men. Freud's claim was that women are victims of penis envy. The obvious difference between men and women is that the latter lack a penis. This lack characterizes women as 'incomplete men' who go through life regretting that they are the lesser gender. Greer concludes that this assertion must be remedied not by women trying to find their place in a man's world, but to recognize the legitimacy of women within their own right. It is not simply a case of making room for women in the world of men, but of women coming to appreciate themselves and creating their own roles in society as complete humans. Greer maintains the view that equality can only be achieved when women develop without resorting to conformity stemming from priorities and expectations set in a male-dominated society.

Friedan Feminism: - wrote the //Feminine Mystique// in 1963 -primarily against the identification of women with the role of wife and mother - " The new mystique makes the house wife-mother, who never had a chance to be anything else, the model, for all women; it presupposes that history has reached a final and glorious end in the here and now, as far as women are concerned" - contended that women should really have the opportunity to be men, concerned to achieve admission to a male-structured world - opposed to the equation of women with femininity - femininity had been so isolated and romanticized as intuitive, life-giving, and nurturing that women became identified with these qualities and confined to the roles they permitted, which in a modern male-driven society were generally under paid and under privileged. -Suggests that wide spread acceptance of Freud's assumption that women are incomplete men was the literal explanation for all that was wrong with american women in the 1940's

Naomi Wolf:

 In The Beauty Myth, Naomi Wolf outlines the gender dilemma from the perspective of women. As women have in recent years released themselved from the confines of domesticity, a new retraint has been imposed upon them, manifested through the beauty myth. Wolf asserts that the beuty myth is one of the only remaining old feminine ideologies that continues to have power over women via the expectations men have in terms of a woman's outwardly appearance, and the pressure to adhere to these expectations. The beauty myth is about power. The current myth is unrealistic and unhealthy, obsessed with extreme thinness but portrays these objectives as the natural goals of all women.  · Naomi Wolf’s 1991 “The Beauty Myth” initiated a third wave of feminism and a new generation of feminists. · Wolf’s basic thesis o "The more legal and material hindrances women have broken through, the more strictly and heavily and cruelly images of female beauty have come to weigh upon us...During the past decade, women breached the power structure; meanwhile, eating disorders rose exponentially and cosmetic surgery became the fastest-growing specialty...pornography became the main media category, ahead of legitimate films and records combined, and thirty-three thousand American women told researchers that they would rather lose ten to fifteen pounds than achieve any other goal...More women have more money and power and scope and legal recognition than we have ever had before; but in terms of how we feel about ourselves physically, we may actually be worse off than our unliberated grandmothers." · Naomi discusses that the beauty myth is a construction of three major industries, the diet industry, cosmetics industry, and the pornography industry. · These idustries create the “Iron Maiden” à originally a German Torture device in the shape of a smiliting woman, Wolf says that “women are trapped or trap themselves” in an imaginary iron maiden with the beauty myth, · What used to be the social control function of the feminine mystique is now replaced by the beauty myth. · Like the Feminine Mystique, the Beauty Myth works to keep women in their place, outside the socio-political institutions of society. · By keeping women in the domestic sphere, it keeps them out of anything that makes society go and the things that give men power. · The Feminine Mystique has been shattered by strides and progress women have made, but women remain immobilized. · Wolf argues that while women progress, they are “growing, moving, and expressing their individuality”, beauty is “inert, timeless, and generic”. · there is still an amount of social control by men over women, the beauty myth performs this function. -Tanya

- Beauty myth has taken place of the feminine mystique -Although women have moved from the confines of domestic life, there are new restriction imposed on them in regard to beauty -Standard of the beauty myth may leave women helpless to these standards -The beauty myth is more about power -The ideology of beauty exercise power over women -The reason why the beauty myth is so power is due to the constant subjection of women to this myth -Women are imposing unrealistic view and portrayal of women on to each other - These requirements need to be meet in order to obtain positions of status in the real world -A continuation of the beauty myth prevails; Endorsing as well as challenging -Is the point to be more feminine or more masculine? -Wolf advocates for power feminism and criticism victim feminism -Power feminist is pro-feminist but allows women to decide what they want - Concerned with the empowerment of women -Five elements that make up this doctrine 1. Women matter as much as men 2. Women have the right to determine their lives 3. Women’s experiences matter 4. Women need to express the truth about their experiences 5. Women desire more of what they lack (money, status, respect...) -Victim feminist are subjected to expectations in beauty similarly as they were in the domestic realm -Wolf encourages for women to take control of their situation as it is seen a beneficial to women
 * Maintenance and Feminist Proposal- Shaliah**

-feminism faces a basic division over the importance of sex, of weather the difference between male and female is to be denied or emphasized. - the importance of the sex myth is how it deals with the divine -a concern for feminism in terms of divinity is in regards to masculine language ex. God the father -If god is thought of in male terms then male supremacy is enforced in society, male imagery supports male dominance in society -some feminists wish for God to be replaced with Goddess completely -radical feminists see the transition of God to Goddess as a new way of relating to women -feminism seeks to expose and oppose their hierarchal stance of God the Father in the ways of equality and mutuality -hierarchy is equated with patriarchy so that any element of vertical social arrangement is seen as a reflection of male perspective and priorities -by removing a hierarchy, feminists hope to achieve equality - the theological import of feminism is really to sharpen the modern question as to weather there can be any sense of divinity that is not a human projection - feminists say no -feminists argue that even the divine must be defined in terms if sex in order to have any credibility at all
 * Feminist Programs- Fran**