Abstract
This paper examines three essays on different aspects of medieval Japanese culture that use legends to subjugate women - the blood pool hell to which all women are damned by virtue of their biology, the Five Obstructions which are the five states of enlightenment which women cannot achieve after death because of the inferiority of their gender, and the use of images of women being transformed into snakes and dragons to tell stories about women's threats to men.

From the Paper
"This paper considers the positive and negative effects of Buddhism for women in the medieval and early Edo periods through the introduction oft he apocryphal text known as the Blood Pool Hell Sutra. The rise of popularity of the sutra was connected to ..."

Tags:Japanese, culture, Medieval, Women

Noh

blood pool hell

sutra

Abstract
This essay will argue that, both in the colonial and in the national (post-Independence) eras, the same social forces responsible for the subjugation of women to men have also used "women" as collective signifiers of social virtue, honour, and even national identity. Indian women have been both active participants in this process as well as leaders of the resistance against such "honours". The conflicting role of Indian women in this process is due largely to the fact that their subjugation is not confined to the field of gender relations. Historically, colonialism and nationalism, family, caste and class have all participated in this process.

Abstract
This paper explores how how two contemporary Irish female writers, Eilis Ni Dhuibhne and Mary Dorcey, in two structurally and stylistically different short stories, "Midwife to the Fairies" and "The Husband" (respectively), challenge the Irish sensibilities regarding the continued subjugation of women and repression of female sexuality through ignorance and intolerance. The paper then discusses the strengths and weaknesses of each approach, and proposes which is more effective, critically.

From the Paper
"Her self-centeredness, however, is far outweighed by her passivity in the face of a crisis and a tragedy waiting to happen. She first is shown to be passive in her decision to become a midwife: "My mother did it before me and her mother before her" (33). Mary shows herself to do what is traditional to do--she doesn't challenge the status quo. But her passivity has more grievous consequences when she chooses not to act and save a baby girl after delivering her into bleak circumstances."

Tags:patriarchal, infanticide, lesbianism, sexuality, ignorance, intolerance

Abstract
The paper examines "Women of Algiers in Their Apartments", a collection of short stories which illustrates how the women in Algerian society are imprisoned by custom and search for their freedom. The paper identifies the fundamental theme of this book, that these Muslim women are still cultural prisoners. The paper discusses how Djebar uses the painting of Delacroix entitled "The Forbidden Gaze, Severed Sound" to symbolize the mentality and the state of mind of the women in coping with their plight. The paper also looks at how the story illustrates the meaning of the harem society in Algeria.

From the Paper
"The book is a collection of three long stories, three short ones, and a theoretical essay depicting the plight of urban Algerian women who have thrown off the shackles through the liberation of Algeria. However women find that ear of post-Colonial regime is no improvement, and Algerian society perpetuates the religious customs and imposes them even further to deny and subjugate the women. It is only the men who are liberated by the Revolution. The stories are political criticisms of Algeria, but they are highly stylized and lyrical. Their value is in the quality of the prose, not the message they deliver. However, within the excellent writing, a powerful message is delivered. It is about the cloistering of women in society, and they way women cope with the reticence that they naturally feel for a liberation which has forgotten them and passed them by completely. There is a quantifiable and demonstrated link between the language of the women and oppression, and it arises in direct reaction to oppression as perhaps the central theme of the book."

Tags:harem, society, Islam, opression, subjugation

Abstract
This paper reviews and analyzes the plots and characters of several well-known novels, which have to do with the Victorian era and the limitations placed on women living in that era. Works such as "The Awakening", "The Case of Daniel Deronda", and "Jane Eyre" are discussed and analyzed in terms of what they say about women's independence, rights, and individuality.

From the Paper
"In The Awakening, according to Elizabeth Elz, Kate Chopin uses symbolism to communicate her ideas about the status of women at the turn of the century. Birds, for example, are utilized to convey women's entrapment in marriage and society (14). Wives such as Edna Pontellier are encaged like birds, and when trying to escape their confines they confront difficult obstructions."

Tags:edna, language, difficulties, mockingbird, constraints, eliot, women's, subjugation, rochester, miss, temple

Abstract
The paper examines the role of the protagonists in Kate Chopin's "The Awakening", Nathaniel Hawthorne's "The Scarlet Letter", Charlotte Perkins Gilman's "The Yellow Wall-Paper" and Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley's "Frankenstein". The paper shows how each author writes of the realities of women's lives in the 19th century, which, for the most part, were unfulfilled and controlled by the men around them. The paper highlights how the status of women evolved throughout the 19th century.

From the Paper
"Edna Pontellier is a new type of heroine in 19th century fiction. She is truly "awakening" and realizing there is more to life than the roles assigned to women of the time. Chopin writes, "In short, Mrs. Pontellier was beginning to realize her position in the universe as a human being, and to recognize her relations as an individual to the world within and about her" (Chopin 16). She illustrates how women all over the country were looking at life differently, and how they had evolved during the 19th century, from little more than domestic servants to educated women who were seeking meaning and fulfillment to their lives, even if it meant leaving the home to find them."

Tags:subjugation, freedom, independence, males, society

Abstract
The paper discusses how the feminist movement in Brazil can be seen as a direct refutation of the strict patriarchal society that was established by the previous social and moral dogma of the country. The paper refers to the book "Brazilian Women Speak" and looks at how Daphne Patai describes interviews with Brazilian woman in the early 1980s that tell, both explicitly and between the lines, the story of the feminist struggle in Brazil in the latter half of the twentieth century. The paper posits that the uniqueness of the Brazilian feminist movement makes it especially worthy of study.

From the Paper
"In her book "Brazilian Women Speak", Daphne Patai has collected and edited many of her interviews with Brazilian woman in the early 1980s that tell, both explicitly and between the lines, the story of the feminist struggle in Brazil in the latter half of the twentieth century. The women interviewed by Patai do not al come from the same background, have not had the same experiences, and do not necessarily have the same perspectives and opinions. The commonalities that do exist among these women (at least insofar as they appear through Patai's interviews), however, clearly reveal the patriarchal structure against which many Brazilian women rebelled, and the increasing prominence of their position in a society trying to silence them.
"These interviews are not all, or even mostly, explicitly about the feminist movement. But even the most basic reading of some of the simplest statements made by the women in these interviews shows the highly subjugated roles of women in traditional Brazilian women and their subsumed senses of their own identity. For instance, the woman identified as Carolina recalls her conflicting feelings regarding feminine dependence on men for purposes of money and a livelihood: "I never worked to support myself. I never wanted to. I didn't mind depending on my father and mother, but not on anyone else. Not even on this boy I loved" (Patai 66)."

Tags:patriarchy, subjugation, identity

Abstract
This paper begins with a look at the oppressive treatment of women in Mulsim societies and how this oppressive treatment took root. The paper then points out how Muslim women who recognize the civil rights abuses under many current Islamist regimes, remove themselves from Muslim society, which makes them unable to affect other Muslims. Consequently, these women cannot necessarily effect a change within Muslim society. The paper argues that women who are practicing Muslims are precisely the people who need to become interested in civil rights. In fact, women in Islam need to work for human rights, before there are no Muslim women left who believe in human rights. The paper concludes that by refusing to stand up to the unjust deprivation of their basic human freedoms, Muslim women are allowing people to corrupt their religion. Therefore, the preservation of Islam is the strongest argument for Muslim women working for Human Rights.

From the Paper
"First, it is important to note that, in its purest form, Islam may be the least-sexist of the world's major religions. Even the hijab, which is seen by many Westerners as a sign of anti-female oppression, was not initially intended as a means of suppressing women. On the contrary, the hijab was seen as a temporary solution to an increase in anti-female violence, meant as a stop-gap measure until men gained the appropriate self-control. However, cultural norms interfered. Like all cultures, Muslim culture sprang from a background of sexism. Purist ideals that were meant to elevate women to the status of equal were twisted and perverted to be used as a means of suppressing women. In fact, women faced a serious problem; because the subjugation of women was so intertwined into daily practice and absorbed into the religion, to question the role of women in Muslim society was oftentimes seen as questioning the existence of Allah. Therefore, many women suffered silently, internalizing Islam's negative teachings about women."

Tags:subjugate, freedom, messages, of, equality, discriminate

Abstract
This paper discusses the power of the Hindu religion in subjugating lower castes and women and asserts that, even if supposedly divinely decreed, this subjugation is not right and contradicts the notion of universal human rights.

From the Paper
"The caste system, as determined by Hinduism, first appeared in the Upanishads and was absorbed into Indian society around 500 BC. Basically, the caste system is used to separate all individuals in Indian society into separate, strictly regimented castes. The four castes are Brahmins, or priests, Kshatriyas, or warriors, Vaisyas, or producers, and Shudras, or servants. Below even the Shudras are outcastes, which included the untouchables. This last, unfortunate group consisted of the lowest, most unclean, most hopeless members of Indian society, if they could even be called members. Indeed, before walking down a street, they were required to announce their presence so others could move away and avoid being supposedly defiled by these untouchables."

Tags:ancient, religion, india, sacred, faith, dharma, life, thought, vedas, upanishads, scripture, believe, rewards, punishments, reincarnation

Abstract
This paper analyzes Ahern's article in terms of the main theme, which is how, through subjugation, society disenfranchises women because of the potential power and great influence that they wield over the society. This stance is supported by Ahern's article and two articles discussing the same theme in Gary Seaman's "The Sexual Politics of Karmic Retribution" and Margery Wolf's "The Woman Who Didn't Become a Shaman."

From the Paper
"Ahern, through the article, discusses three important facets that illustrate women oppression in the Chinese society: physical/natural/biological image of women, social reasons supporting the prevailing women image, and response of the people to justify norms that are implemented against women. In "The Power and Pollution of Chinese Women," images of women in their society connotes a negative idea, portraying them as dirty and undesirable in their community because of one important woman characteristic that men do not have: blood released through menstruation and during birth-giving. According to Ahern, "[i]n Chinese society women are regarded as both ritually unclean and dangerously powerful" bodily effluvia associated exclusively with women are unclean: menstrual blood and postpartum discharge" (269-270). Because of these beliefs, women in Chinese society are considered unclean and powerful, opposing qualities that reflect the society's fear in women. This is because through women, society, especially men, can see that they have the power to create and maintain social ties with other people, which men perceive as women's way in reversing the social order in the society, i.e., men as the outcasts and women are put in a higher, more dignified, and desirable status and role in the society."

Tags:eastern, disenfranchise, society