Androcentrism And Feminism

2119 Words9 Pages
Feminism: Throughout history, many movements have created huge controversies because they dared to criticise well-established norms or institutions whether at a social, political or religious scale. Feminism can be thought of as the typical example of an iconoclastic movement that aimed at instigating change. The controversy that surrounds feminism is mainly concerned with the fact that this feminists challenged the oldest rule to have ever existed, namely patriarchal dominion. Putting men at the center and relegating women to outsiders and event to outcasts in society, is called androcentrism. According to A.B. Sammons " Androcentrism develops when male views and behaviour are taken as the norm, and are used to explain both…show more content…
Well educated by her father, she began writing aged 25, after her husband died, earning enough to support three children, a niece, and her own mother. Her most famous work, The City of Ladies (1404), criticizes learned books that spread ‘so many wicked insults about women and their behaviour’; three allegorical women – Reason, Rectitude, and Justice – discuss the roots of misogyny. ‘The man or the woman in whom resides greater virtue is the higher’, she argued; ‘neither the loftiness nor the lowliness of a person lies in the body according to the sex, but in the perfection of conduct and virtues.’ she was a court writer who worked for aristocratic families. She broke with the traditional roles assigned to women in several ways during a time when women had no legal rights and were considered a man's property. Being one of the few women of her time to have had an education. She began to address the debate about women that was happening during her life through works like Letters to the God of Love (1399), The Take of the Rose (1402), and Letters on the Debate of the Romance of the Rose (1401-1403). With The Book of the City of Ladies (1404), which is considered to be…show more content…
It is an agreed-upon truth that the early roots of feminism were all connected to religious practice. Julian of Norwich is known for having written Revelations of Divine Love that was acknowledged as the first book to be written by a woman. On the other hand, Margery Kempe is regarded as the first woman ever to dictate an autobiography, namely The Book of Margery Kempe. Anne Bradstreet is known for her being one of the most distinguished early English poets of North America and first female writer in England's North American colonies to be published. she is also a well-respected figure of Puritan Literature. She is known for her finest poem " The Prologue" which she used to defend herself against the views of influential Puritan leaders and to show that through her literary style, she was worthy of respects. She blames society for belittling the accomplishments of women, and reducing their role to mere housewives rather than allowing them to do something else like writing poetry. She also rebelled against her puritan society since she glorified her romantic love to her husband; glorifying romantic love during puritanical times was inappropriate
Show More
Related

  • Examples Of Ecofeminism

    902 Words  | 4 Pages

    3.5 Eco-feminism Ecofeminism refers to viewpoints that examine the links between androcentrism (a men-centered perspective) and environmental crisis (Birkeland, 1993). The term ‘ecofeminism’ was introduced by the French feminist Francois d’Eaubonne who urged women of all races to lead an ecological revolution aimed at saving the planet (1974). She noted that such revolution would instigate new gender relations between men and women as well as between humans and nature. Eco-feminism is a very diverse

    Read More

  • Relativism In Feminist Epistemology

    1024 Words  | 5 Pages

    is centered on the two conceptual poles of naturalism on one side and antinaturalism on the other side. I address the epistemological problem through four different topics. I identify/pinpoint four topics to investigate: 1. Relationship between feminism and

    Read More

More about Androcentrism And Feminism

Open Document