Freud's Femininity, 20th Century Feminism, and Lifespan Investigation

This essay provides a detailed exploration of femininity and feminism, starting with an examination of Freud's perspectives on femininity and how they contrast with the evolution of feminist movements. It delves into the historical context, highlighting the societal changes and the waves of feminism that shaped the discourse. The essay investigates the psychological perspectives on feminism, including gender reform, resistant, and revolution feminisms. It also analyzes the role of media in shaping perceptions of feminine issues, such as body image, female sexuality, and female rights. Furthermore, the essay suggests areas for lifespan investigation, emphasizing the challenges women face across their lives and the impact of societal pressures and stereotypes. The study also explores the impact of media and cultural perspectives on feminine issues, including body image and female sexuality, and suggests areas open to lifespan investigation, highlighting how modern-day issues such as eating disorders and body objectification are impacting women. The essay concludes by discussing the changing dynamics of feminism in the 21st century and the importance of awareness and education.

Running head: FREUD’S FEMININITY AND TWENTIETH CENTURY FEMINISM
FRUED'S FEMININITY AND TWENTIETH CENTURY FEMINISM
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

1FRUED'S FEMININITY AND TWENTIETH CENTURY FEMINISM
Feminism is a conceptual code of the belief where men and women will share equal
social political and democratic rights. In the 19 the century, rapid change in social political and
industrial perspectives differentiating men with women led to the movement of feminism. The
history of modern Western feminist movement can be divided into three periods, first during the
beginning of the 19th century, changes in rice lead to many men from different parts of United
States in Europe to participate in feminist movement. The second wave of feminism movement
during 1960 to 1980, lead to wider debate where women were secluded in cultural aspects,
various gender Norms, the importance of women in society (Marecek, 2016). The third
movement of feminism was in late 90s entering into the 20th century, which increased the anger
of women due to continuation of dominance by men. Therefore, the study will demonstrate the
difference between feminism in past decades aligning to the recent changes in 21st century. The
further demonstration will be on, firstly, thorough investigation of femininity and the actual
aspects of feminism in psychological spheres. Secondly, the role of media in changing the
concepts of feminism gradually through two decades will also be depicted. Thirdly, this will help
in exploring the areas of Lifespan investigation. In case of psychology, feminism is differentiated
in three main perspectives, gender reform feminism's,gender resistant feminism's and gender
revolution feminisms. The various perspectives of feminism described in fields of psychology
will be discussed in a detailed manner.
Modern feminism was first inaugurated by Mary Wollstonecraft in the year 1792, where
she proclaimed the concept of Modern Feminism or referred to as “Vindication of the Rights of
the Women”. Women was not allowed to gain education, work or acquire their own property by
until 1877. Female was surrounded by their jobs and roles as daughter, wife and a mother, they
even instigated the mentality into women that this are the major roles they need to follow, as this

2FRUED'S FEMININITY AND TWENTIETH CENTURY FEMINISM
their sole role in life. Many women were blinded by this mentality from their birth, many
religious and societal norms preach about their concepts that women should stay at home to
nurture their children and fulfill their ambitions and desires only through their sons. They even
did not have the control on their life, as women on an average basis gave birth to even children,
higher education were prohibited and considered waste of time and money. The most deterring
factor was that they did not have any domestic authority as well as devoid of property rights and
economic autonomy.
According to Carl Jung school of analytical psychology, there are mainly four types of
archetypes in which a women is represented in four forms namely, maiden, mother, crone and
queen. According to Freud, in the times of 1856-1939, considered women to be disruptive and
dangerous. The various orthodox practices to demean women included seclusion of poor women
as unhygienic, immoral and mostly involved in prostitution. Women were highly objectified
sexually, even women of upper class, were confined into homes, so to maintain their purity and
chastity, being submissive, fulfilling her womanly duties especially towards her husband and
excluding themselves from any intellectual discussion. The biological issues like menstruation
we're hidden, many women suffering from child birth complications, or post partum psychosis
were ignored resulting in death. According …., Hospital child birth was very less in 1927 being
15 percent, 54 percent in 1946, 87percent in 1970 and 98.8 percent in 1980, the lack of proper
sterilizing technique lead to many deaths until 1937 (Muir, 2017). Whereas, in the recent times,
the current death rate due to child birth complications is 0.1/1000.
The various other speculations made by famous scientists including Darwin, in the 1800 have
shown there constant forceful attitude in proving that women are less intelligent than men due to
their smaller brain size.

3FRUED'S FEMININITY AND TWENTIETH CENTURY FEMINISM
In case of Friend's speculations on femininity, female are most prone to narcissism, they
have a stronger feeling of being loved than to love, they indulge in more body beautification due
to their lack of penis. This result in shame as they think they have physical deficiency, women
therefore refrain themselves from making their own career and indulge in other intellectual
activities.
Although, to clearly notify there are much involvement of women where they have made
many inventions which have contributed to our civilization. In contrast with the past decade
theories, in the recent times many women researchers have presented that in the 1960-70,
theories and researchers suppressed the truth largely due to negligence to women, and that
sexism covered all the real facts and speculations about woman body and intelligence. Many
feminists have argued that the biasness has included wrong facts of female behavior, attitude,
intelligence which created a series of wrong belief in past decades.
In the present times, the study of women and gender variation has become a main attraction in
psychological science.
In present 21st century the conditions have improved, but bodily objectification and it's
pressures have given way to new problems as well obsession among women. The most prevalent
issues in United States is the increasing levels of eating disorders, because of the constant
pressure of Western culture that to be successful women should be lean and presentable. This
stereotype has been inculcated even in teenagers, influencing 35percent of normal girls to be
underweight, and the practice of dieting involves 12 percent of teenagers (Riger, 2017).
The pressure comes from the concept of bodily objectification that leads to constant peer
pressure. Peer pressure includes constant self-monitoring and making oneself better than other,
leads to stress, anorexia and bitterness among women. Anorexia has become an alarming health

4FRUED'S FEMININITY AND TWENTIETH CENTURY FEMINISM
issue among United States and United kingdom children and teenagers as well as grown up
people. It has indulged a highest mortality rate among psychiatric disease, recently surveyed that
10 percent of people have the highest possibility of death within 10 years. The 21st century, has
been struggling with strong aspects of body representation in certain way, and ideologies have
also been created according to the size of the body. The ideologies involve slender figures to be
more dedicated and in control of their life, as a fatter or bigger body is considered to be less
competent, lazy, and lack of activities in their life, which not only affects the personal life as well
as professional standards of a women, even in men. According to statistics, even in adulthood
female and male with fatter body structures find it difficult to rent a property, find a suitable
dating partner and marriage partner, as well getting admitted to good US colleges, and even
getting a job in comparison to slimmer people, as they are considered to be potential.
In case of bodily perspectives, the involvement of women in highlighting their feminine areas,
such as breasts and buttocks has increased, which have led to dangerous involvement of going
through surgical options to increase and highlight those body parts. In the western culture,
voluptuous breasts and buttocks are considered to be important element in boosting up
confidence and self-esteem among women. This type of mentalities and ideologies has been
created due to the constant stereotyping and classification of women on their bodily structure.
Therefore, Social Learning Theory is the most applicable in understanding this kind of
situations, where women has to live up to the expectations and standards created by society and
men to create their importance in society and make them noticeable in case of professionalism
and academic culture. According to American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery, 2017,
women generally go through augmentation and surgical procedures to increase their breast
size,as men prefer larger breasts. It has been observed that, body weight, the perfect ratio of

5FRUED'S FEMININITY AND TWENTIETH CENTURY FEMINISM
waist to hip ratio, breast size are considered to be factors of attraction and good health in many
countries, especially in UK and UN as well as France and other nations. Social learning theory
can be considered an important theory in depicting a Lifespan theory, where women has heavily
influenced by the perception and preferences of men.
Another factor which has influenced the extreme figure conscious women, including
teenagers, as celebrity women, actresses depict perfect figure and rate of desirability through
their body structure compelled women to act in a repulsive manner. According to statistics,
projected by “American Society of Aesthetic Plastic Surgery”, showed an increase in plastic
surgery by 7882 women majority being teenagers (Reissis, Shiatis, & Nikkhah, 2016). This
statistics was 3087, in the year 2006, which has increased to a considerable rate by 2014,
involving mainly in having breast implants. The top five surgeries that is indulged by women is
Breast reduction or silicon implantations, liposuction, nose augmentation, eyelid surgery and
tummy tuck to be most prevalent. This has also helped the plastic surgery infrastructures to
increase in a considerable amount.
The technologies are increasingly manipulating the perception of women, as technologies
like photoshop and variations in photography style creates an impression of celebrities to be
picture perfect. This indulges normal women in increased unhealthy practices, and decreasing the
food intact of many teenagers. According to the psychology of feminism, the concerning factors
are various challenging situations women have faced throughout their lifespan. Even in the
modern times, their identity are being challenged every day. In the past decades, there were
wrong speculations speeded through literature and researches, and in the recent times, television
and internet are creating the same types of stereotypes, which bind women in constant self-

6FRUED'S FEMININITY AND TWENTIETH CENTURY FEMINISM
modification to be accepted by the society. The stereotypes are still being considered dominant
and is well structured to determine the differences between men and women.
The good side of the increased feminism is seen in recent times, and the increased awareness
among people, as women are taking up education parallel to men, involving in professional
activities to create their own identities. Women have shown and proven that they can excel in
any field, presenting themselves as epitome of strength and intelligence. Another theory that
relates to the present times is the “Post Modernism theory” that excludes any kind of
superstitions, religious or scientific beliefs but depends on rationality, social constructivism and
adhering to the realities.
As per different social activists, there are different types of feminisms existing the world.
Some of the important types are gender revolution feminism, gender reform feminism and
gender resistant feminism. Each of the types have their importance in the current society and it is
essential that each of them have been analysed and their importance in the modern reform has
been detailed properly.
In accordance with Wadham et al. (2018), the gender reform feminism has its importance and it
is related to the social uplifting by making a logical deduction of the condition in which the
women are. In contradiction to the thoughts Goetz & Jenkins (2018), says that, management of
the issues related to women rights can only be understood if proper knowledge is gained in
context to current masculine society. The feminism talks about the Marxist and socialist
feminism, which is a major factor to consider in order to understand the ideology. Therefore, it
can be deduced that, women are being oppressed from the initial period of the social uplifting
and in this context, a better scenario analysis is necessary. According to Baehr, (2017), liberal

7FRUED'S FEMININITY AND TWENTIETH CENTURY FEMINISM
feminism is another thing to be considered in order to make a logical assessment of the scenario
to nourish the thought process of overall social development. From the viewpoint of Wadham et
al., (2018), the gender reform feminism has taught about the theoretical implication and the
importance where it has missed the necessary practical applicability vehemently. Therefore, it is
evident that there is a gap in proper analysis of the situation and it might lead towards a negative
turn of events if not analysed deeply.
The thought process named gender resistant feminism is a major factor to consider in this case as
well. The thought process has helped in analysing the current ambience of male dominated
world. According to (Roberts, Calogero & Gervais, 2018), the male dominated provenances are
often considered a prohibited place for the women and hence it is seen that the social activists
considered it to be a negligible. In accordance with (Squire, 2016), the gender resistant feminism
process is one of the main aspects of gaining a social hold in the male dominated world but, the
possibilities of acceptance is still lower in many segments. It can be elucidated that making
changes in the situation is only possible if acknowledgement is gained from the other parties in a
proficient manner.
According to Ellison, (2017) the radical feminism teaches to be more dominant regarding the
rights that are necessary to be fulfilled in a proficient manner. This is a major factor to consider
in order to make a significant assessment of the scenario. In accordance with Fahs (2019), the
radical feminism process helps in gaining the understanding of the people and then decisions
regarding approach can be taken accordingly. On the other hand, Browne, Olasik & Podmore
(2016) says that, the options of getting engaged to someone is detailed in the theory of lesbian
feminism which is a major factor. The Taboo of thinking that only opposite gender can mate has

8FRUED'S FEMININITY AND TWENTIETH CENTURY FEMINISM
been demolished with this feminism, which is a major factor to consider. In accordance with
Robinson (2016), making a logical assessment is a necessary option to consider in order to make
a significant assessment of the scenario. From the above given detailed assessment it is
prominent that the assessment of women thinking is done based on male desires. Considering the
thoughts given above it is evident that the process of development is only possible with proper
analysis of knowledge only.
The eradication procedures for these stereotypical situations should be done by adapting
specific measures. As for the model of Bronfenbrenner, the change of culture is necessary to
create a balance in normative values and experiences that differentiate men from women by
depicting them as inferior creatures.
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