Author: rong.94

Text Reviews: Why Women Kill, Sexual differences

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There was a drama that was really popular in 2019 called Why Women Kill. The drama follows three women living in different eras: a housewife in the 1960s, a socialite in the 1980s and a lawyer in 2018, and how they deal with marital “infidelity” in different ways. This show not only reveal sexual difference but also depicts the cultural differences between people of different ages.
According to sexual differences, we can see from this drama in different ages, there are more or less repressed female consciousness. In the 1960s, Beth gave up her dream of becoming a piano player because her husband expected her to run the house and cook dinner. In the 1980s, Simone was unable to end her marriage to her openly gay husband because of public opinion. In 2019, Taylor seems to be the most independent female representative in the whole series. She has financial independence and an open marriage, but she never complains about her husband who has no job. However, if our roles were reversed, her situation as a woman might be completely different.
In the 1960s, Beth and Rob are typical of a strong-man, weak-woman marriage. Their nominally monogamous relationship is behind Rob’s constant infidelity and betrayal. Beth tolerated many times but did not get good results, so she chose to fight back.
In the 1980s, When it became public that Simone was in love with Tommy, an 18-year-old boy, it was Simone who was the first to be condemned. Despite Tommy’s efforts to explain that he was actively pursuing her, in the public eye the affair was just a ridiculous farce in which Simone used the female character to seduce Tommy.
In 2019, Taylor, the protagonist, is financially and emotionally responsible for taking care of her husband. This kind of excessive feminism is not supported by men, and the quarrel between two people often revolves around the fact that the woman is stronger than the man.
Why Women Kill shows how Social ideology or a deep-rooted historical side effect on women’s imprisonment. Despite the progress of culture, women still suffer discrimination from different aspects. Such discrimination may well end up, as the story ends, in murder. Despite for feminism , There are also microcosms of different eras. Although the show did not emphasize any ethnic content, the three protagonists with different skin colors reminded viewers of cultural differences and may think deeply about the status of women not only in marriage but also in the whole society.

Diary of Systemic Injustice Showcase: Gender Discrimination

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There are a very serious systemic injustice which is sexism—gender discrimination. In China, I’ve heard of many families prefer son than daughter. The son preference in China was a very serious problem. There are forms of surnames in China which is children should take their father’s last name. Therefore, many parents hope to carryon their family trait and preferred to have a son. They believe that boys have more value than girls. Many families, if the first child is a daughter, will continue until they have a son. The sex selection in favor of boys is a serious violation of women’s human rights and injustices against women. “There is huge pressure on women to produce sons which not only affects women’s reproductive decisions, with implications for their health and survival, but also puts women in a position where they must perpetuate the lower status of girls through son preference.” According to a statement issued by UN Women. Nevertheless, with the development of the Chinese economy, the son preference phenomenon has gradually disintegrates in urban area, but some rural area still persist having a boy.

Despite the son preference discrimination against women, Women also face a lot of discrimination in the workplace. With the Same experience and qualification, many companies would rather hire man than women especially when a woman is planning to have a child within a year, Companies believe that Women need maternity leave which reduces productivity. There are also devaluing women’s views or voice. This is considered as men interrupting or talking over women, and they would some how ignore women’s opinion as they believe that women have not enough knowledge for the issues. Women may feel like their views are not heard or supported until re-stated by a man. A woman said, “if I really want to get an idea up, I brief my male colleague to propose it in the meeting. I don’t like it but it’s a means to an end.” The truth is Women lose many voices in the work place.
There are still many other phenomenon about systemic injustice towards women in the society everyday. It might appears in families, in work place, at school or anywhere. Related to what we learned in class, men are considered as “One” and women are considered as “Other”. “One” may stand still in the society while “Other” has to deal with all these discrimination.

Resources:

https://www.unicef.org/media/media_58924.html

https://www.smartcompany.com.au/people-human-resources/six-common-manifestations-everyday-sexism-work/

 

Sexism and gender discrimination continue to hold women back in the workplace, concludes survey by BE Offices

 

Week11: How American Indians are caught in the middle of two different cultures

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The novel “Interpreter of Maladies” included the difficulties for Indians to fit in American culture and how they struggle with their identity between the two different cultures. The author, Jhumpa Lahiri was born in London in 1967, and raised in Rhode Island. Her father and mother were emigrated from India, and Lahiri spoke Bengali with them at home. It was her parents’ immersion in Indian culture at home that made Lahiri never felt fully American. Although Lahiri never lived in India, she had frequently visit to Calcutta and decided to marry there in 2001. They are Indian but not of India, their dress and manners were thoroughly American.

In this story, though Mr. Kapasi and the Dases do share an Indian heritage, their marriage reveals the truth of truly different cultures. Mr. Kapasi was shocked and confused by Dases’ behavior and understanding of marriage so that in the end they could not establish friendship. In his opinion, the culture gap between him and Mrs. Das was too vast which we can see “In different cultural contexts, the values have different weights but in the main the relationship structure between personality types and values is similar.” (Routamma&Pollari, 1998)

People like Lahiri would consider as Third Culture Kids (TCK). They have to get used to new culture or even their original culture when they grow up. “A TCK can create a sense of rootlessness and restlessness, where home is ‘everywhere and nowhere’.” (Kate Mayberry, 2016) instead of receiving the culture of their own country, they have to adapt to a new culture different from that of their parents. But when they grow up, it is also difficult for them to adapt to their traditional culture. This is what made them always struggle with their identity. “the mobility and cross-cultural experiences affect the children’s process of developing who they are, where they belong, and whom to connect with.” (Jungmin Kwon, 2018)

 

 

 

 

Work cited:

Routamaa, V. and Pollari, A-M (1998) Leadership styles in the cultural context- A comparison of finish and south African managers. Retrieved January 9, 1998.

https://www.univaasa.fi/materiaali/pdf/isbn_978-952-476-749-1.pdf

Kate Mayberry(2016) Third Culture Kids: Citizens of everywhere and nowhere. Retrieved November 19, 2016.

https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20161117-third-culture-kids-citizens-of-everywhere-and-nowhere

Jungmin Kwon(2018) Third Culture Kinds: Growing up with mobility and corss-cultural transitions. Retrieved July 2018.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/326241050_Third_Culture_Kids_Growing_up_with_mobility_and_cross-cultural_transitions