Sunny Side

Patriarchy A patriarchy, from the ancient Greek  patriarches , was a society where power was held by and passed down through the elder males. When modern historians and sociologists describe a "patriarchal society," they mean that men hold the positions of power and have more privilege: head of the family unit, leaders of social groups, a boss in the workplace, and heads of government. Feminist theorists have expanded the definition of patriarchal society to describe a systemic bias against women. As second-wave feminists examined society during the 1960s, they did observe households headed by women and female leaders. They were, of course, concerned with whether this was uncommon. More significant, however, was the way society  perceived  women in power as an exception to a collectively held view of women's "role" in society. Rather than saying that individual men oppressed women, most feminists saw that oppression of women came from the underlying bias o...

"The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman is one of the feminist literary studies that was first published in 1892. The story is written like a kind of secret journal by the narrator. This story illustrates the development of the narrator's mental illness from the perspective of the first person in her journal. The narrator's identity is not revealed in the story, but she can be identified as a woman who is described as having a mental illness. John, the narrator's husband, described her mental illness as temporary nervous depression but she felt her illness was more serious. Despite the narrator's request, that she has a more serious illness, John refuses to change his treatment. The story begins with a mystery: the house seems to have  "something queer about it" . If we read further, it can be seen that the house is not the only strange thing in this story. John’s diagnosis and the women’s treatment It can be seen in the story, that th...