Gender in Anthropological Perspective

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Gender is culturally constructed like race. When you are born, you are born with a sex, which is either male or female. However, Gender is used as a status symbol for male and female. If you are male, you are supposed to act masculine and strong and if you are female, you are supposed to be less masculine and act sensitive. Gender roles have been changing but it is still a controversial issue in which many people get offended when they are talked to about their roles and why are they acting a certain way, if they are not acting like a man or a woman. There are a lot of contemporary issues which is a concern in the topic of gender in today’s societies. There are always hot topics in the news, a trial going on, something happening in sports, politics, and industries. Gender inequality has been prevalent in society for many years, but its source is debatable. Problems are being shown in the media recently, Famous personalities are being accused of sexual misconduct towards people that wanted to make it big in the Hollywood Industry. What I am going to investigate is what does a concern for gender adds to our understanding of the current controversies in the media today? How can we understand the media through the lens of gender stratification and gender violence? What does an appreciation for gender and gender politics add to this discussion? What does it add to our understanding of underlying issues? How does looking at gender shine new light on the issue, or help us see things from a new perspective?

Sample Solution

This stanza typically adheres to Petrarchan norms: Raleigh is on an impossible quest for his love who rests among the “heaven above”. The employment of mystical lexis which is typically transcendent – a talk of souls, the heavens – indicates that Elizabeth is now unattainable to Raleigh, and ‘fortune’ has played its part in this. The OED indicates how fortune, (defined as ‘chance, hap, or luck, regarded as a cause of events and changes in men’s affairs’) can also be personified as the goddess of fortune (Fortuna), a symbol of good luck; ‘the power supposed to distribute the lots of life according to her own humour’ (OED). The emblem of the wheel (rota fortunae) is indicative of Raleigh’s fall, after his rise – this is the fortune of life. It is inevitable that he will lose his love, (and in turn, his favoured rank), but as the dominant Petrarchan male he reaches for the ‘object’ of his desire in any case. As such, Elizabeth, as portrayed by Raleigh – the typical male, literary figure of the Elizabethan court – is feminised. This traditional approach is perhaps why the likes of Stephen Greenblatt have continued to shine a light on its work. It adheres neatly to the literary (and gender) norms. Elizabeth’s response, which strays from these lines is not wholly ‘Petrarchan’. She dismisses the romanticised notion that ‘fate’ has drifted to the two apart, jibing at the overly-precautious wording. Though I do not believe Elizabeth’s response is fully ‘defamatory’, it certainly deserves to be held in a higher regard than Greenblatt deems appropriate for its effective criticism of her audience at court, and patriarchal norms.

‘Ah silly pug, wert thou so sore afraid?
Mourn not, my Wat, nor be thou so dismayed;
It passeth fickle Fortune’s power and skill
To force my heart to think thee any ill.’

This opening of Elizabeth’s response is warmly ironic. There is a fondness to the terms of address, ‘pug’, and ‘my Wat’. ‘Wat’ was used towards a person (OED), particularly one of closeness (‘a great wat’ was common). It was also one of Elizabeth’s pet names for Raleigh stemming from his first name, Walter. ‘Pug’ too was a term of endearment, ‘also applied to a plaything, as a doll or pet’. Indeed, the tone of this sonnet rather resonates with an adult affectionately correcting a foolish child. It is, to an extent mocking, and a role-reversal as it demeans Raleigh to something which can be objectified, and simply discarded. Evident a

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