Some Points on Feminism

1. What is wrong with the Cinderella story?

2. Do women allow society to shape them? “Sell-by date” and “Wedding cake” and similar terms illustrate this.

3. Are the women in the text portrayed as dependent and blindly accepting or as active in creating and determining their own lives and futures?

4. Is marriage a woman’s ultimate goal? How often are women portrayed as being on a quest for a husband, a mate or a benefactor?

5. Is a woman’s life portrayed as meaningful without a man in it?

6. Are the women oppressed by a patriarchal society? Are they marginalized and playing secondary roles? Is the power imbalance reflected in the text?

7. Does the text give voice and value to women’s opinions, or are they instead trivialized?

8. The Space of the Other. Are the women objects whose existence is defined by men?

9. Can we find misogyny in the text? “The Catbird Seat” and “A&P” immediately come to mind.

10. Does the text expose patriarchal premises and the resulting prejudices?

11. Sex is biologically determined and gender is a psychological concept referring to culturally acquired sexual identity. True?

12. Male writers seem more interested in closure; female writers often respond with open endings. Feminine logic in writing is often associational, male logic sequential, i.e., goal oriented. Male objectivity is challenged by feminine subjectivity.