Pub 3
Egalitarianism is the idea of human equality. No one should be segregated in any way due to their skin color, gender, social status or their ability to perform certain tasks. We are still fighting for equality among everyone today. There may never truly be full equality, but we have fight, we aren’t just handed things we don’t fight for. This statement relates to a quote by Dr. Martin Luther King. Dr. King stated, “Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.” This quote is clearly stating that one cannot simply demand for there to be change; they must fight back for what they believe in and demand for there to be change. Dr. King was a strong leader who believed in gaining equal rights for black Americans. He did not simply sit back and hope that someone else would do something about the oppression. King got up and protested for what he believed was right and gained many supporters and did make a change. His impact is still seen today, we are still not one hundred percent equal, we may never be, but without King we would have much progress to still make. Many authors write to escape their oppression. They write stories about what is happening, and they may be shunned for this, but they are standing up for what they believe. Charlotte Perkins Gilman is one example of this. Gilman wrote the story “The Yellow Wallpaper” in a time where women were seen as solely homemakers and she was not ok with that.
In the story “The Yellow Wallpaper” written by Charlette Perkins Gillman is a perfect example of inequality and Gilman herself helps to show the idea of fighting for what you believe in. The story revolves around a woman and her struggle with “insanity” and then true insanity. Women were supposed to only want to raise children and clean the house. When the main character had had her child, she had not wanted to do so. Her husband being a doctor used his authority to say she was crazy. She was seen as insane and forced to rest and go into the room with the yellow wallpaper. The wallpaper she despised, but then grew to relate to the paper. She began to see patterns in the paper. She states “And she is all the time trying to climb through. But nobody could climb through that pattern-it strangles so…” (Gilman 325.) The woman in the pattern is herself and she is trying to break out of the bars that is the pattern, yet no matter how hard she tries so can’t escape reality. Gilman writes this relating to the time she had been living in. She was one of many women who believed that there needed to be more of a voice for women. There was a societal norm that men were in charge and society is patriarchal and if women want to be breadwinners they are insane. Gilman did not believe that and she would prove so through her writing. She is a true advocate of Dr. Kings quote of fighting and not sitting back and hoping someone else acts.
One example of true inequality today is within the prison system. The men are treated differently based on the color of their skin and women are treated differently because they are women. Initially men who are white tend to not be arrested as much or seen as suspects. If they are acquitted, they tend to get off easier, with parole or just paying a fee. Men of other races are targeted more as suspects. There is a concept in the criminal investigation world called Belief Perseverance which is when they want someone to be the perpetrator so bad they will only find evidence making said person look guilty, yet there is evidence pointing the opposite. Many women who end up in prison are also not given the same opportunities as men. They tend to have more traumatic pasts and or reasoning for being in the jail. According to the APA “73 percent of women in state prisons and 75 percent in jails have mental health problems, compared with 55 percent and 63 percent of men, respectively.” Women are just not being treated as they should in prison. They need to be in different programs throughout the prisons because if they are released their lives will be different from those males who get released. Some may even have children who rely on them. The prison system may be slowly improving the idea of equality, but someone needs to stand up for what they believe in order to see actions start to be taken.
Works Cited
Clark, Jared C. Inequality in Prison. American Psychological Association. 2009 http://www.apa.org/monitor/2009/10/recidivism.aspx
“The Yellow Wallpaper.” The Norton Introduction to Literature, by Alison Booth and Kelly J. Mays, W.W. Norton & Co., 2010, pp. 315–328.
In the story “The Yellow Wallpaper” written by Charlette Perkins Gillman is a perfect example of inequality and Gilman herself helps to show the idea of fighting for what you believe in. The story revolves around a woman and her struggle with “insanity” and then true insanity. Women were supposed to only want to raise children and clean the house. When the main character had had her child, she had not wanted to do so. Her husband being a doctor used his authority to say she was crazy. She was seen as insane and forced to rest and go into the room with the yellow wallpaper. The wallpaper she despised, but then grew to relate to the paper. She began to see patterns in the paper. She states “And she is all the time trying to climb through. But nobody could climb through that pattern-it strangles so…” (Gilman 325.) The woman in the pattern is herself and she is trying to break out of the bars that is the pattern, yet no matter how hard she tries so can’t escape reality. Gilman writes this relating to the time she had been living in. She was one of many women who believed that there needed to be more of a voice for women. There was a societal norm that men were in charge and society is patriarchal and if women want to be breadwinners they are insane. Gilman did not believe that and she would prove so through her writing. She is a true advocate of Dr. Kings quote of fighting and not sitting back and hoping someone else acts.
One example of true inequality today is within the prison system. The men are treated differently based on the color of their skin and women are treated differently because they are women. Initially men who are white tend to not be arrested as much or seen as suspects. If they are acquitted, they tend to get off easier, with parole or just paying a fee. Men of other races are targeted more as suspects. There is a concept in the criminal investigation world called Belief Perseverance which is when they want someone to be the perpetrator so bad they will only find evidence making said person look guilty, yet there is evidence pointing the opposite. Many women who end up in prison are also not given the same opportunities as men. They tend to have more traumatic pasts and or reasoning for being in the jail. According to the APA “73 percent of women in state prisons and 75 percent in jails have mental health problems, compared with 55 percent and 63 percent of men, respectively.” Women are just not being treated as they should in prison. They need to be in different programs throughout the prisons because if they are released their lives will be different from those males who get released. Some may even have children who rely on them. The prison system may be slowly improving the idea of equality, but someone needs to stand up for what they believe in order to see actions start to be taken.
Works Cited
Clark, Jared C. Inequality in Prison. American Psychological Association. 2009 http://www.apa.org/monitor/2009/10/recidivism.aspx
“The Yellow Wallpaper.” The Norton Introduction to Literature, by Alison Booth and Kelly J. Mays, W.W. Norton & Co., 2010, pp. 315–328.
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