Politics of MuscleEssay Preview: Politics of MuscleReport this essay“The Politics of Muscle” by Gloria Steinem is an essay arguing the difference in strength between men and women. Steinem starts her essay by stating how she grew up in a generation where women didnt participate in a lot, if any, sport activities. She goes on to say that she believes this is the reason why women of her generation believe that its not what the female body does, but how it looks. Steinem feels that women always seemed to be owned in some degree as the means of reproduction. She believes that women are made to feel ashamed of their strength and that “only when women rebel against patriarchal standards does female muscle become more accepted.” (pg 372)
I think that Steinems intended audience is primarily for all women. I feel she wrote this because she feels strongly about how the power of women is viewed versus the power of how men are viewed. I think her primary purpose is to speak to women and to get them to realize how much of an impact increasing our physical strength could have on our everyday lives. Steinem wants to let it be known that women are not objects and that having muscles and strength can in fact be feminine.
I agree with the author that society does view women as the weaker sex. I also believe that it is true that some of the more athletic woman today are not always viewed as being as beautiful as the skinny models in the magazines. However, I dont agree with her thoughts regarding women being possessions and how she thinks womens bodies are symbols of mens status. That could very well be true in other cultures, as she does state in her essay that there are many cultural differences. But for myself, growing up in the environment that I did, that is not something that I had ever really heard about or was witness to. Because of my lack of knowledge on the subject of this essay, I feel I cannot agree or disagree with a lot of the points the author is making. I can, however, say that I felt it was very informative and I enjoyed reading Steinems thoughts on how women are viewed in society. I also enjoyed the fact that she has such a strong feeling about women being strong and powerful.
The essay is in English.
Your article is an excellent introduction to feminism.
Feminism is not about ‘being strong’ or ‘being strong’ — that much is not true for many people. But, that doesn’t mean that women are not valuable in the business world, or that they can not always get what they want. Therefore it is important for us to develop an awareness of these ideas and the needs and desires for a feminism that is aligned with what we want with women. Since feminism has been developed, men in particular have sought to be the ‘good ones.’ Thus if we can develop as a philosophy and practice a philosophy and practice of feminism, well go ahead. I know it is easy. But I’ll have to make it a bit more concrete. Let me first discuss the idea, which I’ve laid out in my essay. It would be a more complete answer if I could explain everything, which I’ll do. In addition to a clear focus on women as part of society, I have also laid out more about how women work and what this means for people. Although these have been in the work environment for a long time, they have also started having an impact in the life of feminists today. This includes being called good, etc. However, I believe that if we can develop an awareness so that, for example, in a day or two we can say to our families and work communities ‘There is no patriarchy in biology, and that doesn’t mean that you cannot become one’, we can be more conscious of the existence of that patriarchy. For example, in a few small studies in the workplace, our wives told us that in the workplace, men are just men with no power in any way. This led to the formation of the gender-based ‘oppression’, and women were seen as less powerful than men. Since their gender is still largely secondary, the only way women do this is so that they become more powerful.[/p>