Feminism Essays (716 words) - Gender Studies,

Feminism What is feminism? By general definition, feminism is a philosophy in which women and their contributions are valued. It is based on social, political and economical equality for women. Feminists can be anyone in the population, men, women, girl or boys. Feminism can also be described as a movement. A revolution that includes women and men who wish the world to be equal without boundaries. These boundaries or blockades are better known as discrimination and biases against gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status and economic status. Everyone views the world with his or her own sense of gender and equality. Feminists view the world as being unequal. They wish to see the gender gap and the idea that men are superior to women decreased or even abolished. Carol Gilligan is one woman who has contributed much time and effort to the feminist theory. Her beliefs and ideas are based upon difference feminism. In this essay I will tie the ideas and beliefs of Carol Gilligan with informati on from our text, the packet read in class and the book, Faces of Feminism. Carol Gilligan is a lecturer and assistant professor at Harvard University as well as a psychologist. She has many theories that deal with moral reasoning and development. In her influential book In a Different Voice, she sets forth the idea that women make decisions according to a criteria of ethics of care and that men make decisions according to an ethic of rights.(3) In her book, Carol Gilligan also disagrees with Lawrence Kohlbergs' theory, which suggests that Few people matured fully in their moral reasoning...but women hardly ever did.(2) In her opposition Gilligan stated that women make moral decisions according to different but equally mature and morally upright reasoning.(2) She feels that women are different because they posses a different hereditary set of values and beliefs. This opposition to Kohlberg's theory was backed by research. Even though there was research done to support Gilligan, it s eemed to have experimenter bias. It was not an open or strong experiment and it only observed the actions of the white middle class. This did not give a clear or objective view on the separate criteria of women and men. The views and ideas on moral reasoning and development set forth by Carol Gilligan are those of many difference feminists.Difference feminism is just one type of feminism. It gives a concept that women should go back to traditional roles(3) set by society. It also states that gender is natural and is not learned by the society in which one lives. Not all Feminists agree with this theory but there are many feminists, such as Carol Gilligan who agree with this idea that even though men and women are different, they each have their own separate place in society. Difference feminism is successful because it tells people what they want to hear: women really are different in just the ways that we always thought. ... And men have power, wealth and control of social resource s because women do not really want them.(3) This idea of difference feminism sets forth a number of stereotypes. They give feminists and the general public a skewed view of the theory behind the philosophy. In the book Faces of Feminism, feminist theorists were asked, Do women have to be the same as men to be equal?(1) The majority of responses were yes. It is believed that in order for women and men to become equal, society must unlearn and uncondition(1) the gender roles and standards it has established throughout history. Society and the people in it have set up the basis for gender difference and now many feminists are breaking down those barriers. Carol Gilligans position on moral development and her views as a feminist, suggest that womens nature is not something to be replaced, but something to be maintained, indeed celebrated, for the sake both of women and society.(1) This view is tied in with the general definition of feminism, that women should be valued for their accomplishments. Womanhood is important and should be celebrated and praised. On that same note, maleness must also be celebrated and praised. Bibliography NONE Social Issues

Theories of Myth Paper The WritePass Journal

Theories of Myth Paper Introduction Theories of Myth Paper IntroductionReferencesRelated Introduction Mythology, what is it? The dictionary defines mythology, as a set of stories, traditions, and beliefs associated with a particular group or the history of an event, arising naturally or deliberately fostered or a body of myths as that of a particular people or that relating to a particular person.   The word â€Å"Myth† itself is of the Greek origin from the Greek word mythos, â€Å"speech, word, fact, story, narrative†.   Although these words are rather restrictive in definition, the word myth can be said to fail to take into account the large body of twentieth century work on myth from many angles.   Myth, is also described or defined to be the compilation of some type of field work; and the aim may be to produce something of value for religious studies.   A myth theory can also be defined as raw material for transformation into artistic productions.   In some way shape or form, every culture or ethnic group is an original author of theoretical myths.   Fo r example, there has been scientific evidence that at one point there were parts of the earth that were covered in water and are now dry.   Other myths tell of an island, floating in the sky where sky people lived long before the world was created. A theoretical approach call the New Criticism/Formalism is said to be used when there is out of date text with no author or historical background.   It is misleading to read Greek or Latin text that is translated into another language word for word.   There is no way to trace the changes in myth over time because the text will not be chronological.   Late authors especially the Romans liked Traditional Biographical Criticism when they created life-records.   Traditional Biographical Criticism also works well for writings of political people who interpreted political stories in myth over time.   Many of these myths go unnamed and it becomes hard to analyze the author’s life in such cases. Folklore Studies and Anthropology explores unidentified works since in Folklore there are no individual creators of tales necessary.   Folklore studies and Anthropology work well when it comes to comparative literature approaches.   It is not limited to one version or text of a myth.   It works well when it comes to Greek and Roman magic or superstitions.   These studies are not good when it comes to complex symbolism.   However, it does show similarities between myths and legends. Earth Diver-Myths speaks of scientific evidence where the Earth has parts that are now dry and once were covered with water.   The myth says that a person dove into the water to retrieve some Earth.   The Earth that was brought to the surface is the same land we live on today.   There are other myths that say it was mud that was brought to the surface in a different way until it became the Earth.   The creation myth of Christians and Jews tells of the Earth once being covered completely by water.   The Japanese creation myth tells of muddy oceans covering the world at the beginning of time.   A GOD named Izanagi and GODDESS named Izanami were curious about what was under the Ocean.   Izanagi threw his staff into the ocean and pulled out some Earth which became the island of Japan.   Iroquois creation myth states that the island floating in the sky before the world was created had sky people who never died nor was born.   They never experienced sadness except for one day when a sky woman who discovered that she was going to give birth to twins.   She told her husband and this news made him very upset because they had never experienced this before and it did not seem possible.   He was so angry that he went to the center of the island where there was a big tree that gave off light over the entire island.   The husband was so angry and in disbelief that he tore down this tree tearing a big hole in the center of the island.   He then pushed his wife through the hole and she fell towards the water below.   There were water animals that existed on the Earth and saw the lady falling towards the water.   The water animals saved the lady and began to help her by diving to the bottom of water to get mud to build land.   The animals then took the mud and spread it on the back of a big turtle.   They continued and continued as it grew and grew becoming the size of North America. The idea of a personal approach to mythology happened in 1926 says Stanley Krippner.  Ã‚   However, you can make a strong case that the first proposed mythological foundation for an individual human experience was published a decade earlier.   C.G. Jung published, Symbols of Transformation, in 1912.   This was his vision of a mythological basis to the operation of human psyche.   Jung wrote in his memoir, Memories, Dreams, and Reflections which was his theme of the mythic nature of personal experience near the end of his life in 1961.   He was telling his own personal myth, telling one’s story in mythic terms.   Jung declared, whether the story is true or not is not the problem.   The only question is whether what I tell is truth or fable. References Myths, Models, and Paradigms: A Comparative Study in Science Religion. New York: Harper Row, 1976. Barbour, Ian G. Theoretical Approach Strengths and Weaknesses for Analysis of Myths web.cn.edu /KWHEELER/documents/Theory_Myth.pdf Living Myth: Personal Meaning as a Way of Life. Boston: Shambala, 1993. Bond, D. Stephenson. Creation Myths www.cs.williams.edu/~lindsey/myths/myths.html

Educational Issues Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Educational Issues - Essay Example The effects of bullying to the students and the entire community were also addressed in the study (Cordeiro, 2006) argues that bullying tends to lower the self esteem of the students who are always subjected under the stress of bullying. The issues facing new comers in schools especial the immigrants are suppose to be addressed through such programs that will aim to find the safest practices to address the issue. According to ISLLC standards 1 leaders are suppose to enhance the success of each and every leaner through the development ,articulation stewardship and implementation of learning vision that is accommodated and supported by all the stake holders. Hence through these standards, the principal should always aim to address the issue of bullying so as to facilitate the achievement of this vision. There many challenges and problems that any administrator may face in this state. However the problem of multiculturalism is the most outstanding problems in many schools in this state. There is need for the students and the various departments to be involved in the awareness campaigns activities so as to be able to deal with the issue cultural diversity within the school. The issue of a diverse culture has been caused by the ever increasing number of immigrants from other countries hence many staff members in this state are not happy with the issue of other communities from outside enrolling into schools around this state. Majority of those who enroll are always treated as the minority and a lot of learning resources are kept away from them. This situation creates a lot of disparity among the students in terms of performance hence the African Americans who are the minority, end up being disadvantaged. All this is attributed to by the lack of enough experience on how to work in a multi cultural environment. Another issue affecting education in this state is the fact that majority of staff members in this state are Caucasians hence this denies students from the min ority group a chance to develop their relationship with students or workers from their ethnic community. The issue of multi races in the state has caused racism in the schools hence it is important for the leaders in the education sector including the school administrators/principal to address this issue by applying the ISLLC standards no 6 diversity which advocates for the school principal to be able to understand ,be able to respond and influence relationship between students and the staff both in terms of political ,economical, legal and cultural relationship this kind of relationship should be reflected both in the class room and in the school compound and in the community. Also the principal should be able to plan and use his thinking and problem solving techniques that will enable him handle the issue of racism as stated in standards 5 of the ISLLC decision making strategies Discouraging test score is another area that has tried to evaluate the number of drop outs in schools i n relation to failing common exams like English language .in this state ,there is a big assumption that the use of F/R/L program has dropped drastically because learners fear being embarrassed because of failing exams. Hence in order to address the issue of discouraging test scores, parents and the educational community have a role to play in