Using Satire to Create Awareness of Gender Roles: Egalia’s Daughters

Egalias Daughters and sultanas DreamEgalias Daughters and Sultanas Dream both portray examples of what it would be like to open gender roles reversed in societies. They both criticize gender roles and show mass how gender discrimination leaves the submissive gender in suppressed conditions. Poking fun at gender role reversal was whizz steering these books helped in educating the readers. Sultanas Dream has a time of setting of the early twentieth century. The author of Egalias Daughters is Gerd Brantenberg, innate(p) on October 27th, 1941 and is presently still a recognize.She was natural in Oslo but grew up in Fredrikstad which is the largest city in Nor guidance. Some of her greatest accomplish workforcets are establishing wo mens shelters, working in lesbian movements, in 1978 she created a literary Womens Forum, her drive being to encourage wholly women to write and publish, and lastly she has also published ten novels and two plays. In 1983 she was awarded the Mads Wiel Nygaards Endowment. Rokeya Hossain was born in 1880 and died on December 9th, 1932. She was born into a Bengali Muslim upper-class family in the village of Pairaband.Her main accomplishments were establishing the Sakhawat Memorial Girls School in 1909, in 1916 she founded the Anjuman-e-Khawatin-e-Islam, and even though English was her 5th language she still wrote a book in English to show her proficiency in English to her husband. In Gerd Brantenbergs novel she clearly shows that in her society women were put on the back burner just like the men were in her novel. Gerd was born back when women had really little rights. She lived during a time where women were stepping up and rallying against the fact that they were not allowed certain rights that men were allowed and this showed in her book.For example in Egalias Daughters the guys or the menwim have the burning of the pehos along with other masculist activities. 1 In Rokeya Hossains short yarn she is trying to relate to her reade rs about the inequality of her society and the dominance of one gender over another. In ladyland men are a part of the society but are shorn of power, as women were in Rokeyas India. They live in seclusion and look aft(prenominal) the house and the children, again, just like the women in Rokeyas India. 2 Her society must have had a fold of sins and hatred along with harm because in the short story it says this is Ladyland, free from sin and harm.3 In Sultanas Dream women became dominant allele when men failed to win the war against a nearby country. The women then became the dominant gender by using science and advanced technology to then win the war. At first they were taunted for being smart and into science instead of being focused on military strength like the men. In the end it paid send off being smart because they directed all of the rays of the sunlight and heat toward the enemy. The heat and light were too much for them to bear. They all ran away panic-stricken, not kno wing in their bewilderment how to counteract the scorching heat.4 This was a major turning point in the story because at that moment the men thought that on that point was no hope for their country which is why they went into the zenanas without protest and were locked in. The men then remained in seclusion and got used to the purdah system.4 The women then tower over the country and controlled all social matters. 5 Since that point there had been no more crime or sin and that is how it remained.5 In Egalias Daughters women being the dominant gender went a little differently. The women in this novel govern from the beginning. There was never a time in their culture that males ruled before the females.Spinnerman Owlmoss explained to the boys that the menstrual cycle in wom was precisely what bound the huwom race to life, to personalitys own great cycle and to the phases of the moon. By virtue of this infinitely recurring rhythm in her body, she was bound in a very different way, to nature, and this contact with her natural surroundings gave her an inner power and strength, which allowed her to dominate nature and the environment. In the same way that she dominated her own body by releasing an egg once a month. Wim therefore had greater control over everything over their own bodies, over the cultivation of the soil, and over the world.6 Therefore, the wim were in charge from the very beginning. In Sultanas Dream womens trust was based on love and truth. 7 The women say we dont take pleasure in killing a creature of god, especially a human being. 7 They believe this works because unlike the men who were violent and fought in the war, they used science to win without hurting anyone. As out-of-the-way(prenominal) as biology goes, basically the women explained their power over the men because of the simple fact that they were smarter and that womens brains are rather quicker than mens. They pretty much verbalise men are good for nothing.All of that together w as their argument for why they were biologically better. In the novel, Sister Sarah explains why women are smarter than the males. She says our good fairy wish science very much. She circulated an line of battle that all the women in her country should be educated. Accordingly a number of girls schools were founded and supported by the Government. Education was spread far and wide among women. And early marriage also stopped. This is her explanation of why the women are so much smarter than men and now are the dominant race. Religion in Egalias Daughters is quite different.In this novel, God is a wim instead of a manwim. Donna, who is wim and also Gods daughter who is like Jesus for Egalia, and they are the ones all Egalia are supposed to look up to. The undercoat wim in Egalia are more biologically dominant is because they bear the children and have the menstrual cycles. For some reason the people of Egalia felt that since they had a monthly natural cycle it connected them to n ature and made them powerful, more powerful than any man. This in their thoughts made them the dominant gender as if they were the chosen ones.As far as history goes Spinnerman Owlmoss taught his class the history of the wim. Like we in our society have fore fathers they had a version of those except they were women. Those women created rules and regulations for Egalia that were always followed. In Ladyland the men and the women both had very different telephone circuits. The men do no skilled work and they look after the house and children. 2 They mind babies, cook, and do all sorts of domestic work. 2 The women in Ladyland embroider engage in scientific researches and garden.Sister Sarah says that our noble Queen is exceedingly fond of botany it is her ambition to convert the whole country into one grand garden. 5 Therefore, they are never sitting still and unceasingly gardening and such. In the town of Egalsund, the wim and menwim had very different jobs. The menwim do nothing but sit at home and take care of their children. Once they mystify fatherhood protection from the wim, they are to stay home and raise the children while the wim goes to work and does as she pleases.8 The wim of course, do all the things a man would do in our society now.They were sailors too. Menwim were never sailors and hardly allowed to be either because the wim said theyre always trouble They never leave the us in stillness and therell be strife and quarrelling and jealousy in the crew. 9 The wim also hold government positions and hunt as well. In both the short story and novel the womens jobs were viewed as more important even though staying home and taking care of the kids was a really big and important job as well. It was just not viewed that way by the women. In both Egalias Daughters and Sultanas Dream the women/wim were very happy.They were at the top of the pecking order and they liked it that way. Women/wim ruled and things happened as they wanted it to, not the other way around. On the other hand, the men/menwim were by any means happy with their lives. The men in Sultanas Dream at first protested. The men wanted to be free, but Her Royal Highness told them if their services were ever infallible they would be sent for, so therefore, they should remain where they were. After that they slowly became accustom to the purdah system. 4 In Egalias Daughters at first they were accustom to the way things were.Then later on in the book, the menwim began to protest. They give speeches, burn pehos, and strip down at the menstrual games out of chicken costumes as a way of protesting.10 Women have always been suppressed throughout history, constantly having to fight for their rights. Women in history have always been taken advantage of and also been satisfactory to be rough housed a lot easier than men because of their gentle nature. Therefore, these fictional books are related in the sense that in these books, the mens roles are actually what womens roles have been all along throughout history.Women are the ones that have always been raped and beaten but in the novel Egalias Daughters the boys are actually the ones that are terrorized. Is satire an effective way of drawing attention to gender inequality? Yes, it is because it makes things appear even more ridiculous which in turn makes it more entertaining to read. For example if both books had it where womens and mens roles were normal, the books would have been boring and lacked in attention grabbers. But since it was a comical setting, it makes you immediately more interested and it puts a twist on things so that it captures your attention. . Brantenberg, Gerd. Egalias Daughters A jeering of the Sexes, translated by Louis Mackay. (California Seal Press, 1977), 218.2. Jahan, Roshan. Sultanas Dream Purdah Revisited, in Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain, Sultanas Dream and Selections from the mysterious Ones. redact and translated by Roushan Jahan. (New York The Feminist Press, 1988), 4. 3. Jahan, Roshan. Sultanas Dream Purdah Revisited, in Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain, Sultanas Dream and Selections from the Secluded Ones. Edited and translated by Roushan Jahan. (New York The Feminist Press, 1988), 8. 4.Jahan, Roshan. Sultanas Dream Purdah Revisited, in Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain, Sultanas Dream and Selections from the Secluded Ones. Edited and translated by Roushan Jahan. (New York The Feminist Press, 1988), 14. 5. Jahan, Roshan. Sultanas Dream Purdah Revisited, in Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain, Sultanas Dream and Selections from the Secluded Ones. Edited and translated by Roushan Jahan. (New York The Feminist Press, 1988), 15. 6. Brantenberg, Gerd. Egalias Daughters A Satire of the Sexes, translated by Louis Mackay. (California Seal Press, 1977), 168. 7. Jahan, Roshan. Sultanas Dream Purdah Revisited, in Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain, Sultanas Dream and Selections from the Secluded Ones. Edited and translated by Roushan Jahan. (New York The Feminist Press, 1988), 16. 8. Brantenberg, Gerd. Egalias Daughters A Satire of the Sexes, translated by Louis Mackay. (California Seal Press, 1977), 37. 9. Brantenberg, Gerd. Egalias Daughters A Satire of the Sexes, translated by Louis Mackay. (California Seal Press, 1977), 72. 10. Brantenberg, Gerd. Egalias Daughters A Satire of the Sexes, translated by Louis Mackay. (California Seal Press, 1977), 251.