Essays on Concubines

Introduction

The history of the Chinese women can be categorized into two parts: before the twentieth century and the modern period of liberation. The Chinese society also consisted of two groups: those that were oppressed and those that were oppressive. Traditionally, Chinese women were regarded as incompetent and weak. However, they were just victims of a patriarchal system, and for that reason, they were occasionally oppressed by men. For instance, the old women were regarded as parasites. Because of these challenges, the communist government aimed at liberating the Chinese women from the yoke of feudalism, especially Post the twentieth century.

Challenges that Faced the Women in Pre-Communist Regime

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Women of today are stronger. Their status is changing from the past to the present. Years ago, women are considered responsible only as wives. Simply listened to their husbands, became fulltime wives; they never enjoyed life and focused on how to serve their husbands, and no freedom to express themselves as women. Men believed that women have no right to pursue their career other than being homemakers and mothers; looked down by men. At present, women are more active in their role in the society, conscious about their status and they progress in view of their rights as well. ...

In this paperwork I am going to handle this question about the status of women in history. What roles were women expected or not expected to perform by the community? Has gender equality been into existence in the early days? The reactions of women as far as their status are considered. These are some of the questions that I will be handling in this paperwork. Through the research, we find the Greek society practicing laws and customs that constrained the political rights and social access of females to such an extent that Greek women were abridged to simple ...

Introduction

Raise the red lantern (1991) is a Chinese film whose main theme is sexual enslavement. The protagonist in the film lives life in a closed system where the long established customs that rule demand no escape. The protagonist in the film is a nineteen year old girl who drops out of college in the event of her father’s death. The girl is condemned into a life of a concubine of a wealthy man, alongside four others, because her mother denied her support after the demise of her father. The movie in itself is an anthropological lesson because it enlightens on the nature of humans ...

Homer’s epic Greek poem “The Odyssey” centers on the heroic quest of a man, however, a remarkably larger role is played by women in the poem. When discussing roles of women in Homer's “The Odyssey,” the women of Ithaca are perhaps most similar to the women in the Greek society, especially because Homer has described the society in his poem with such vivid detail. In comparison to Homer’s Iliad, where the women are not seen frequently and there is not much emphasis on them, but on the other hand, women are everywhere in “The Odyssey” and they have diverse ...

Wang Yun’s play A Dream of Glory; talks about a woman who wants to become a man and display his powers before the world. Wang Yun, a Chinese dramatist of the eighteenth century, could have been influenced by a number of incidents that took place in China during the century. The patriarchal system must have played a dominant role in eighteenth century China where men had all the liberty to choose the life they wanted while women were confined to domestic roles. As the name of the play signifies, A Dream of Glory can be juxtaposed to the glorious life of men, and ...

Introduction

Marriage is often considered as an important milestone in people’s lives and in ancient Greece; this was no different. The vast amount of ancient Greek literature that is currently in circulation features many themes with marriage being one of the most prevalent. Just like its definition of in the modern context, a marriage in ancient Greece was seen as a sacred bond between a man and woman. However, the Greek marriage had a lot of differences to the current type of marriage. The modern type of marriage dictates that the man are woman are equal partners, but this was not the case ...

Abstract

Slavery was one of the biggest social evils in practice for centuries. Only in the last few decades, we have seen a sharp decline in slavery across the world. The two most talked about slave trades took place in the 19th century America and the 20th Century Saudi Arabia. The nature of two slave trades was different in many ways. The American slaves were bonded laborers, whereas the majority of the Arabian slaves were concubines or sex slaves. The American slave trading and the practice of slavery stopped after the Civil War and the Saudi Arabian slave practice was announced ...

Introduction

The topic on female gender roles in ancient or modern society has been a complex subject that has many people researching in order to see the difference. This is why I chose this topic to research in order to find out the truth of whether this people have changed or are still following the old traditional ways. The truth is most of the way women in China behave is almost as similar as to how they were in the ancient society. The only major difference that one can find is that the country has been improved by the modern ways. ...

Women’s roles in society have changed tremendously over the years. Women have been generally portrayed as having been significantly subservient to men in Ancient times. However, Thousand and one nights collection of stories bravely goes against this norm by depicting unconventional women characters. Because of this, there are similarities as well as differences in women roles in the settings of Thousand and one nights and Tale of the Genji. In the Tale of Genji, for example, the role of the woman is to take care of her man. Kiritsubo-koui and the other concubines are maintained by the ...

Introduction

- Thesis: Despite the patriarchal society of its setting, demonstrating a world in which men hold power and authority, the women of One Thousand and One Nights possess a surprising amount of strength and conviction. - Men in The Arabian Nights are possessive, vindictive and petty, particularly if they are rich. - Ex. The king wanting to put Scheherazade to death - The king represents the doubtful man who does not believe women are to be trusted - Women in The Arabian Nights were often concubines and slaves, or old shrewish wives. - Morality of women ...

The abolition of the slave trade in Britain between 1750 and1920

Historians agree that changes in the Atlantic world contributed to the abolition of the British slavery between 1750 and 1920. Modern historians treat slavery with the consideration of the capitalist world, which include its tassel and in classical ruins that played a critical role in European education. Hochschild was responsible for labeling these societies. In Hochschild’s theory, the slaves practiced productive labor, and slave labor was highly significant the state and the society. Slavery was present in the key industrial societies. The prevalence of slave labor made some European states create reservoirs of people that could offer them their ...

Gender relations and the experience of African American women under slavery

The period of slavery is perhaps one of the hardest periods that ancestral African American women ever faced. The hardships that African Americans faced as a result of slavery raise the question of why their white masters treated them with such cruelty and violation of human rights. This paper seeks to analyze some of the hardships that African American women faced under slavery. The analysis of the gross violation of human rights and freedoms will be analyzed critically to highlight the importance of respecting the fundamental rights of women and humanity in general. In an effort to understand the ...