Feminist Criticism Essay -- Feminism Female Essays

Feminist CriticismContemporary feminist criticism focuses on various specified topics such as womens biographical writings, lesbian and literature, and the role of film and the media in portraying feminine gender. It is no eternal easily separated into categorical goals by nationalities or land boundaries. Instead, feminist criticism is now characterized according to whether the category of woman is the major focus, or whether gender identity is defined by sexual and other identities as well. These other differences include, but argon not limited to, cultural identities as a woman, lesbian writings, sexual preference, and religious differences.Most feminist critics instantly stress the fact that while all women are female, they are oftentimes more than that. Each womans goals and problems make them who they are by creating a unique identity. The understanding of woman not as a single group has led modern feminist critics to advocate individual(prenominal) and autobiographical cr iticism. It has also fostered contemporary gender criticism. sexual urge critics explore divergent categories of gender and sexuality. Gender criticism does not only focus on womens gender and sexuality, but also includes male gender issues. Gender criticism began solely as feminist criticism, and now the two are still overlapped.Elaine Tuttle Hansen has applied feminist criticism in her analysis of The milling machines Tale in a segment of the chapter Women as the equal from the book Chaucer and the Fictions of Gender. While earlier critics have focused on the risible side of what they consider an innocent prank, Hansen focuses on Alisouns escape from punishment. At the same time she recognizes that it was only by accident that Nicholas intervened to receive the punish... ...astly, I found reference to Alisoun being objectified as something only to saying at in two separate, yet closely related examples. First, in lines 3247-3248 of her portrait, the milling machine states tha t She was ful more blisful on to collar / Than is the newe pere-jonntte tree. Secondly, Absolon refers to Alisouns objectification by stating to loke on hir him thoughte a merye lyf (3344). Valued objects are often set away from normal areas to look upon for enjoyment purposes. And happiness is sometimes thought to be achieved through masking a thing of beauty this is how these men viewed Alisoun. In conclusion, it is clear to see through these examples how Chaucer used animal characteristics to objectify Alisoun. Furthermore, I belief that Hansens views on The Millers Tale were correct and justified. Overall, I feel that the views expressed by Hansen are enlightening.