Top-Rated Free Essay
Preview

An Analysis of "Looking At Women" by Scott Russell Sanders

Good Essays
345 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
An Analysis of "Looking At Women" by Scott Russell Sanders
Scott Russell Sanders in his essay "looking at Women" has his views shaped by the people he is surrounded by. This trend is apparent even in his early child hood. He continues this trend thru early adulthood. Well into adult hood this trend show it self through his actions, and through the quotes that he chooses. Sanders forms his opinions from the opinions of others in this essay, and demonstrates thoroughly.

Two people, the first of which is a friend, affect Sanders first realization of sexuality. Norman, his friend, points out the girl to Sanders, saying, "check out that chassis." This sets the tone for half of Sanders views on looking at women. He considers this half to be the evil half to be controlled and withheld from society.

Another person to have an effect on view of how women should be looked upon is his college roommate. This person enlightened Sanders to a completely different view on women; one, which he felt, was disgusting. That feeling was derived from the initial sexual experience. His emotional state is interesting as he describes what he sees in the highly derogatory manor as a "meat Market."

Norman's mother also played an integral part in the formation of Sanders views on women and sexuality. She taught him to think of the feelings of others and to consider their emotional well being as well. She essentially asks him "How do you think she feels?" That question stuck with him through out is life.

Another group that affected him was his neighbors who owned a store called bare essentials. They distributed lingerie or "intimate apparel." This interests him because it seems to him to provide no functional purpose but to dehumanize the wearer. It puzzles him why any one would dehumanize them self.

Feminist writers have also had a large amount of influence on Sanders. They have provided him with a woman's perspective and shown him that point of view. This is evident due to his heavy quoting of feminist writers. A good example of this is Simon De Beauvoir whom he quotes several times.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Throughout the essay, Saunders uses vivid contrast, and personal reflections to reveal the relationship between gender roles of men and women, and the social class they fall into. With his early use of contrast, reflection, and narration, Sanders uses memories of his personal up bringing in order to expose his initial perspective of the duties men and women are subject to. On one hand, he proclaims that the men he views throughout his childhood are ones that are “killing themselves or preparing to kill others” (295). This conveys how they vigorously strain their bodies to bring money into the family, and prepare to go to war. However, on the other hand he also emphasizes that in his mind women live freer and less confining lives than men since they work in “handsomer places than any factory” (295). Growing up within a mid century lower class, Sanders is exposed to the “toiling” (293) and strenuous lives of the many male figures surrounding him. This initially shapes his “early vision of manhood”(293) and enables him to obtain a personal perspective and prejudice of what role men should play in a typical society. Nevertheless, Sanders also details how his fathers ability to obtain an important office job within his company, allows Sanders and his family to move upwards into a higher social class. This movement permits him to attend college where he meets the daughters of high status jobholders. These women accuse Sanders that because of his male sex, he is destined to “become like their…

    • 559 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    women have had no face at Ground Zero. They go on to show that the stories…

    • 572 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Tough Guise Gender

    • 553 Words
    • 3 Pages

    I have learned a lot from this assignment, it has shown me how much society has grown from its past views. However, we can also see how much we still need to advance in other areas. Men and women have always been said to be completely different. However, this assignment has shown me that both genders deal with many similar issues. Both men and women have high expectations that society placed on us through the media. Growing up we are unconsciously receiving rules and expectations on how we need to act, speak, and look. Both men and women are told to act and feel a certain way. Jack Katz allowed to see how much men are hindered by these unsaid rules.…

    • 553 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    This is a rhetorical essay comparing, Looking At Women, written by Scott Russell Sanders; and What Is A Homosexual?, Written by Andrew Sullivan. These two essays describe in detail how children are growing up and knowing at an early age that they are either heterosexual or homosexual. When comparing these two essays both boys are going through puberty, watching their body change and develop. Mr. Sanders essay is about boys learning when they are attracted to girls, usually it's around the time they are going through puberty; while Mr. Sullivan essay is about when boys learn that they are attracted to boys. This also was when the boy went through puberty.…

    • 590 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Sanders also express his views on women. He believe that women have it harder than men, “This must be a hard time for women…. they have so many paths to choose from, and so many voices calling them”…

    • 701 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Yet his greatest trait has proven to be his unwavering stances on his fundamental views and his unwillingness to compromise, which has been fully realized over the course of his career in . despite obvious political expediency and dissent from his colleagues in the House and Senate. Specifically, Senator Sanders’ unfaltering position gay rights, which was first publicly declared during his time as mayor of Burlington, is a testament to his personal intrepidity as a champion of social…

    • 754 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Pathos Analysis

    • 1018 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Sanders’ primary appeal is pathos, and he uses it in various ways to illustrate his purpose. Firstly, his diction demonstrates use of pathos, because the author incorporates words with emotional contexts and meanings such as “seductive”, “unglamorous”, “tolerance”, and “respect”. Second of all, Sanders connects with the reader and their feelings through the use and repetition of personal pronouns, especially “we”, “our”, and “you”. On the same note, the author employs words such as “people”, “human”, and “Americans” to appeal and relate to a particular yet diverse group, pulling them into what the writer is truly trying to say and attempting to make their emotions grow stronger for what Sanders is speaking about. Finally, Sanders utilizes pathos…

    • 1018 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Throughout world, and particularly in mainstream media, women and girls are depicted in a sexualizing manner. I know that this exists because I have grown up in a society that objectifies women and it has had a negative effect on my whole life as well as the lives of all my female friends. Sexual objectification is vicious and it needs to stop because it is harming women everywhere; women are essentialized as sex objects rather than individuals with personalities, thoughts, emotions, and their own desires.…

    • 789 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Re-Addressing Identity

    • 1024 Words
    • 5 Pages

    After the anecdote, Williams creates an instant shift from a colloquial maternal figure to a writer of liberal perspectives in culture and politics. Descriptive phrases such as "smiled warmly" and "gosh-darned adorable" turn into, "center of an international controversy" and "a full fledged commitment to life-long gender suppression or neutered identity." Having written with these intellectual word bombs award credibility to Williams once again and with sophisticated…

    • 1024 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Before The Women's Liberation Movement, domestic violence was seen as a forbidden subject. In the play Streetcar Named Desire, Tennessee Williams shows how society accepted had ignored it. One of the characters, Stanley Kowalski, even found it to be a positive and very sexual part of him and his wife, Stella's, relationship. Throughout the play, Williams shows that he believes that it is wrong. In Streetcar Named Desire, the forbidden subject of domestic violence is a major theme.…

    • 359 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    I personally agree with Michael Kimmel claim. We as men let the guy code control every aspect of our life. The subject Being a Man Among Men show us how the guy code are being imprinted in young boys life. In that process young boys are being verbal abuse for not following the guy code. Now the process of becoming a men is cruel and dangerous. Michael stated that men are more likely to have mental problems than girls.…

    • 79 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    One of the ways that Jackson portrays feminism in her story is the relationship between the main character, Eleanor, and Hill House. At first, Eleanor is frightened and unsettled by the house (Jackson 35). This symbolizes how women in the 50s felt about being thought of as housewives. They wanted to be more, to not be stuck in their house. Also, the fact that they…

    • 905 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Men like the way women look.‭ ‬Whether it‭ ‬is women on TV or in magazines,‭ ‬they seem to like to look at women.‭ ‬Is this common among all men to want to look at that girl in the cute dress or the tight jeans‭? ‬Or maybe‭ ‬it‭’‬s only certain guys that have to stare at women as they pass.‭ ‬But what if the man looking is married‭? ‬That certainly changes the innocence of the stare. In "The Girls in their summer dresses", by Irwin Shaw,‭ ‬Michael Loomis is a guy that likes to stare at women other than his wife.‭ ‬She constantly catches him looking at these women and she calls him out on it.‭ ‬He tries to reassure her that he loves her and is happily married but she isn't convinced.‭ ‬Michael Loomis thinks‭ ‬it‭’‬s perfectly fine to look at other women because‭ ‬it‭’‬s natural.‭ "God gave me eyes and I look at women and men and subway excavations and moving pictures and the little flowers of the field. I casually inspect the universe.", he tells her.‬ He sees no difference and he thinks its the same either way. In his opinion,‭ ‬looking at other women is just as natural as looking at‭ ‬anything else.‭ Natural to him is that this looking is involuntary, for example, a woman passes him on the street and he can't help but look at her. ‬ Being an older man, admiring these women takes him back to when he was younger. This older man is "trapped" in a marriage that restricts how far he can go with other women. On top of all this, his wife sees their marriage differently than he does. She sees their marriage as them being a whole; like she just wants him to herself and that he should want only her. She can't understand why he would want anybody else or even consider looking at another woman. "I haven't even looked at another man since the first time i went out with you." Verisimilitude means‭ ‬“likeness to truth‭” or "the quality or realism in something". ‬ Michael has no choice other than to look at women and that Michael Loomis is…

    • 1428 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    How Do Men View Women

    • 830 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Sanders uses begging the question when he describes his first sexually attracting experience at the age of eleven. Him and his friend Norman sat in their car as the young girl with the pink shorts walks by. He tried to understand how the young girl had the ability to make him feel the way he did. He states, “I sank into the seat, and tried to figure out what power had sprung from that sashaying girl to zap me in the belly” (180). Did the young girls dressing in reveling clothes and walking around presenting her self the way she did cause him to shift from one world to the next? The passage mentions that the girl left very little to the imagination as her pink halter bared her stomach. Sanders also demonstrates begging the question in his passage when he goes into depth explaining his first encounter with a naked woman through photographs. He explained as he entered college his roommate hanged photos of playboy magazines. Further he describes that he would dwell over the poster and ask himself why did he see them as objects and not human beings. As mention before this contributes to why woman are viewed as sexual objects.…

    • 830 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Claudia Jones Patriarchy

    • 820 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Patriarchy is something so ingrained into society that it was even present in Jones’s political party. Although she was considered someone high up she realized the idea of patriarchy was still very present there. When Walter Lowenfels Jones wrote a piece about female inferiority recognized something very important. “These ideas also circulated un-criticized among party members [because it was] consistent with her own Marxist-Leninist ideology” . She recognized that her own party and beliefs had patriarchal aspects to it, but also realized the critiquing and challenging Lowenfels beliefs and statements could help expel these types ideas in her England based paper (as well leaving in a community where everyone contributed) could combat these types of beliefs in her…

    • 820 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays