Comparing one Patriarchy to Another
It starts early. Socialization into the social system we call patriarchy starts at birth when we put pink on "beautiful" and "angelic" girls and blue on "handsome" and "tough" baby boys. We hold baby girls so they can see into our faces, as we talk to them. We hold baby boys so they can see what's going on in the room. That's how the process begins. We are the recipients, either willingly or unwillingly, of a patriarchal legacy. What probably began in prehistoric times as a cooperative system for survival has become an albatross. We are stuck with living in a patriarchal society where women are oppressed. And it is certainly not a local phenomenon. "Desiree's Baby" and "No Name Woman" are two stories from far-off cultures, but patriarchy as a system is as much in evidence in those places, if not more so, as it is here. In this essay we will compare and contrast the two stories, explore the nature and resolution of the conflict in each story, and the characters, setting, and themes. In both stories the birth of a child triggers the central conflict. In "Desiree's Baby" the baby, born into a rich plantation family, is black in a society where black slaves are treated as the lowest and most contemptible of all human being
Patriarchal societies are always male-centered. The media, for example, generally ignores the female half of the human race and her accomplishments. In stories where a woman is the main character, she is usually cast as a victim, not a hero (and this is true of the two stories we are examining here). The male experience is considered the human experience, which implies that males are human beings but females are something other. Women's work and contributions, as a result, are often invisible as they are in both these stories. Not one word is said about either woman's accomplishments. The domestic work that women do, unpaid, is not even defined as work. In both stories the setting contributes greatly to the action. Desiree lives on a plantation where slaves are kept as property and are not paid for their labor. Slavery was a system in which it was all right for the master to impregnate his female slaves in order to produce more slaves (for free, he didn't have to buy them), but it was not all right for him to marry a black woman or for his legitimate heirs to be black because that would elevate blacks socially, and slavery depended on the control and domination of one race over another. Patriarchy is more than the relationship between men and women. It is a system that organizes the entire world around domination, control, and competition. The Chinese village where "No Name" lives is a superstitious place where people depend on "the gods" to favor their crops and their fertility. If a man and woman displease the gods by breaking the rules, then some sort of sacrifice must be made to appease them. Who they sacrifice shows the difference in value they place on males and females. Plus, it's a system of control devised by men. They are not going to sacrifice themselves. Patriarchy sharply defines masculine and feminine roles, and one of the most highly valued characteristics of femininity is self-sacrifice. "Real women" are unselfish and put men first. Both stories take place in male-identified cultures where men are supposed
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Approximate Word count = 1388
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)
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