I've realized that my focus in writing has been based on families. Whether it is analyzing a poem my grandpa and dad used to read to me, stories about a mother talking to her daughter, analyzing an article about the purposefully childless, ect., I have a focus with things that involve family, or my family. I began to think of how I would relate this to literature and everything, and I decided to look deeper into what has been a common theme amongst my posts. I decided to start by asking my friends on Facebook, "I have a question for all of you. How do you believe the American Dream, the role of women and the importance of motherhood change from what it was 50 years ago? Any comments will be incredibly helpful :) Thanks guys!" and I had a friend leave with this response, "I think that the feminist movement of the 60s, that not only encouraged women to enter the workforce but denegrated those that chose to stay home, helped the decline of the traditional family. Add to that " the pill" which encouraged promiscuity and the lack of a stigma attached to unwed mothers (so the fathers decided they did not have to stick around) all aded tothe decline. Motherhood is no longer a valued vocation...except in çertain areas." I feel like my question has evolved. Now, I want to know how literature from all genres might push the feminist movement, and how it might have ultimately changed what we consider the American Dream, the role of women and the importance of motherhood.
Literature is incredibly powerful. It has a way of changing the entire world. We learn about stories like To Kill A Mockingbird, poems and plays by Shakespeare, speeches and letters by Martin Luther King Jr. I feel like literature places the idea in the mind of the reader and attempts to lead them in the direction of this idea. I feel like literature had to be a large part of how the feminist movement took control and changed our world and the family drastically. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not saying to be a feminist means your bad or wrong, it just means you are sepreated into a class of people that changed the world and the way things are done in our country.
I hope to get more comments in my status to understand other ideas on how it changed, and maybe hear some of my feminist friends mention something that can help answer my new question.
Its true! In England, during the Victorian Age (and before), women were constantly writing and trying to get more rights and change how women were seen and what their roles were. They wanted to work and not be at home all day. Interestingly enough, Queen Victoria thought that women should be allowed to get an education but not vote or have power. That may not be our country but I'm sure it did have an affect.
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