Not a Slave to Society, but an Independent, Happy Woman - Essay Example

“Marjane Satrapi: Graphic Novels & Her Family's Influence” demonstrates that Satrapi’s family has numerous independent women as role models, especially her grandmother and mother. These women did not allow society to undervalue them, and instead, their vibrant personalities helped them become independent individuals in a conformist society. Satrapi had strong women role models as her inspiration for her freedom-loving spirit.

Besides the new things I learned about Satrapi and her society, the videos are related to the reading, “The Social Construction of Gender” by Judith Lorber, because they provide examples of how gender is a social process, stratification, and structure, and how Satrapi coped with the social construction of gender in Iran. Lorber argues that gender is a “process” of socially conditioning girls on how to be women, a stratification is a form of gender “ranking” where women are lower than men, and social structure is the organization of work and life according to gender (114-116).

In these videos, Satrapi showed that she also went through the process of being socially taught how to be a woman because of the pressure to be beautiful and to be noticed. In addition, she experienced gender stratification through people who told her where women’s place should be (i.e. as a wife, not an activist) and how they should act in society (i.e. get married and have a family). However, instead of being a woman in society’s terms, Satrapi emphasizes that she will do what is meaningful for her and what makes her happy.

I agree with Satrapi that people should do what makes them happy because their happiness is more important than aligning their identities with gender norms and behaviors. Satrapi says in “Marjane Satrapi LinkTV” that she does things as she likes. She has an independent spirit and she does not work to please others. She says that a person who enjoys her work produces work that will also be appreciated by others. I appreciate her work and how she inspires me to become a person who lives for her dreams of freedom and self-determination. My questions are: (1) How does Satrapi deal with those who criticize her as a “slut” because she is sexually liberated? (2) What can she advise to women who want to be like her, but experience religious and cultural constraints on their gender?