ORAL LLCE How can arts influence mentalities about women’s conditions ?

« ORAL LLCE How can arts influence mentalities about women’s conditions ? ● INTRODUCTION ● I/ CHALLENGING MENTALITIES THROUGH LITERATURE ○ ○ Jane Eyre, 1847 The Way of All Flesh, 2018 ● II/ THE POWER OF MUSIC ○ ○ Virgin Mary, 2023 Riot Girls, 90s ● III/ EXPANDING TO VISUAL ARTS ● ○ Medusa with the head of Perseus, 2008 ○ Hidden figures CONCLUSION Art is known for being a way of expression and denunciation, reflecting the different ways of thinking and society’s beliefs through decades, even centuries.

Many times throughout history, art helped to change mindsets and encourage movements of rebellion and gave minorities a path to follow and a culture to relate to.

So, how can arts influence mentalities about women’s condition ? We are first going to see the challenges created by literature on prejudices about women’s role in society.

Then, the power music can have on expression and can report some inequalities, mistreatment or excessive pressure on women.

Finally, we’ll see the impact of visual arts such as sculpture or cinema. I. CHALLENGING MENTALITIES THROUGH LITERATURE 1) Helena Wojtczak said in an article for hastings press “We take for granted nowadays that almost any woman can have a career if she applies herself.

We take for granted that women can choose whether or not to marry, and whether or not to have children, and how many.” Helena Wojtczak highlights that women had to fight for their rights and 150 years ago women were not considered at all by society.

The complaints about their situation have nothing recent. During the last centuries movements such as suffragettes were born in England and women fought for the right to vote.

They wanted to denounce the discrimination against men, the lack of freedom and respect they have known… Also, some brave writers wrote stories with strong women as protagonists who broke the prejudices about the woman who only had to marry and have children . Such as Charlotte Brontë, she herself was a teacher and really sensitive to the difficulties faced by women, especially young girls.

In her book Jane Eyre (in the first doc), she created a strong female protagonist at a time where women’s talents, skills and independence were far from being valued.

Brontë was well aware of the subservient position of women in Victorian society and the difficulties women faced if they wanted to make their own way in the world. Thus, Charlotte Brontë made clearly obvious the difficulties faced by women to, first, simply find a proper job, and then to own their life.

Charlotte brontë undoes all these prejudices with her independent protagonist. 2)Even nowadays writers write about women's conditions as Ambrose Parry in The Way Of All The Flesh in 2018.

Ambrose Parry is a pseudonym for the writers, behind this name there is Chris Brookmire (French surgeon) and his wife Marisa Haetzman (Scottish anesthetist). This book was written by both of them. In document 2 I picked an extract of this book where they underline how women are despised and not considered as well as men. In the thirteenth line the character who is a woman says that she was told his opinion was irrelevant, that she was accused of being difficult and obstructive.

She finishes his line by quoting Mary Wollstonecraft who is known to be the first British woman to ever have defended the women's cause in equality of gender in the 18th century. The character here wants to be considered as a woman in society and not only be an object for marriage to serve a man and wants to.... »