The Character of John in The Yellow Wallpaper -- The Yellow Wallpaper E

The Character of John in The Yellow Wallpaper  Ã‚         John's fascination with observing his wife can be attributed to a physician's distorted interest in the body. We can certainly speculate that, as physicians at the turn of the century were beginning to explore the female body assisted by "developments" in gynecology, John may have been equally interested in these new techniques of viewing the female body. More so than ever, the patient and her body became subject to the physician's privilege to intimately observe and diagnose her.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ostensibly, the narrator's illness is not physiological, but mental. John concludes that his wife is well except for a "temporary nervous depression--a slight hysterical tendency," a diagnosis that is confirmed by the narrator's own physician-brother (Gilman 10). John's profession, and moreover his diagnosis, is a license to closely observe, scrutinize, watch, gaze upon, seek out, and investigate his wife and her ailments, which consequently permits him to deploy seemingly inexhaustible (medical, scientific) means for (re)formulating and (re)presenting the hysteric female--not only for the purpose of giving her discursive representation, but in order to "de-mystify" her mystery and reassure himself that she is, finally, calculable, harmless, and non-threatening. To speak of John in psychoanalytic terms, his preoccupation with his wife, her body, and her confinement, reveals unspoken anxieties: the fear of castration and the "lack" the female body represents.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  There are, as Mulvey explains, two ways a man can potentially escape castration anxiety. One is a voyeuristic route in which the man is concerned with re-enacting the "original trauma." Here the man is concerned with asc... ...ican Fiction. 17 (1989): 193-201. Haney-Peritz, Janice. "Monumental Feminism and Literature's Ancestral House: Another Look at 'The Yellow Wallpaper'" Women's Studies. 12 (1986): 113-128. Kasmer, Lisa. "Charlotte Perkins Gilman's 'The Yellow Wallpaper': A Symptomatic Reading." Literature and Psychology. 36, (1990): 1-15. Jordanova, Ludmilla. Sexual Visions: Images of Gender in Science and Medicine between the 18th and 20th Centuries. London: Harrester Wheatsheaf, 1989. Mulvey, Laura. "Pandora: Topographies of the Mask and Curiosity." Sexuality and Space. Ed. Beatriz Colomina. Princeton: Princeton Papers on Architecture, 1992. 53-71. ------. "Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema." Screen. 16 (1975): 6-18. Wigley, Mark. "Untitled: The Housing of Pleasure." Sexuality and Space. Ed. Beatriz Colomina. Princeton Papers on Architecture, 1992. 327-389.

Maritime Trade, Global Economies, and the Megaports Initiative

Maritime Trade, Global Economies, and the Megaports Initiative The purpose of this posting is two-fold. Part one is to describe the importance of maritime trade to global economies, and part two is to illustrate the importance of the Megaports Initiative to international trade. Part One: Obviously, global trade involves moving finished goods and heavy commodities over long distances. From both a tonnage perspective and value perspective, an overwhelming share of inter-hemispheric and trans-oceanic trade involves the use of maritime (as opposed to aviation) transportation. Therefore, as I composed this response, I considered â€Å"global trade† and â€Å"international trade† nearly synonymous with â€Å"maritime trade. † Rather than simply â€Å"describe† the importance of maritime global trade, I shall actually â€Å"emphasize† its importance so that you, the reader, know right away that I am a staunch and firm proponent of free trade. Free, unfettered, and unregulated global trade (with some notable exceptions below) is hugely beneficial to the aggregate welfare of the world at large. The explosion of global trade over the last 5 decades has lifted entire segments of populations throughout China, India, Vietnam, Brazil, and nearly ALL of Korea out of poverty and into a new working and stable middle class. Ancillary benefits include significant improvements in literacy, life expectancy, and gains in personal freedom and self determination, with China being a frustrating exception. Critics of global trade (a wily bunch ranging from thoughtful academics to concerned unions to undisciplined and uninformed â€Å"anarchists†) have all sorts of counter arguments against a global economy. Their protestations are far too numerous to address at length in this forum, but a quick review of some of the fallacious and unfounded concerns would include: global trade suppresses the â€Å"locally grown† movement; it enriches the wealthy at the expense of the world's poor; it â€Å"increases† global output of carbon dioxide, etc. These â€Å"fringe† concerns are fallacious because world trade allows the most efficient producer access to all markets. Efficiency, by definition, means the producer who uses the LEAST amount of ggregate raw material (be it feed-stocks, acreage, labor, energy per unit produced, scarce components, etc) will be rewarded with global business. A more valid concern, generally advanced by American unions, might be the loss of manufacturing and textile jobs in the United States. A painful reality of global trade is that the benefits are NOT pareto optimal: they are not distributed evenly, and there will be both winners and losers. In thi s context, trade unions and isolationists in the U. S. ave felt the economic pain as cost conscious manufacturers have moved production overseas. In some industries (automobiles, in particular) overseas competitors simply beat long dominant American producers at their own game. In response, American unions have sometimes confused protectionism with patriotism. There is nothing â€Å"patriotic† about preserving an uncompetitive and underperforming industry. On the contrary, protectionism denies the American consumer choices and it stifles American innovation. Global trade, which is realized by a robust maritime trade, encourages all producers to be innovative, and it elevates the real purchasing power of the world consumer. As promised, there are some brief caveats, however, to the argument I advanced above. Free, unfettered, and unregulated trade should strive to resemble â€Å"fair trade† to the maximum extent possible. The world economy should not benefit from the producer who achieves a competitive edge through the use of child labor, slave labor, indentured servitude, or a total disregard for the environmental effects of his production. The mechanisms to establish those standards (much less enforce them) is a topic for another paper, but it should be mentioned in light of the argument I have advanced above. Part Two: The exact statement we are being asked to consider is the following: â€Å"Illustrate the importance of the Mega Ports to International Trade. † Here's my contrarian assessment: The Megaports initiative is a SECURITY measure, NOT a trade measure. So I would argue that it has little â€Å"importance† to international trade, but very significant importance with respect to national security. The Megaports initiative is a U. S. lead, internationally coordinated effort to scan containerized cargo for radiation hazards and threats. Thus, Megaports WILL become an important concern to international trade only if it manages to DISRUPT it†¦ which it might, depending upon the capabilities of the screening equipment used and the rigidity of DHS/DOE's ambitious goal of screening 50% of containerized cargo by 2015. I have some reservations about the ability of the federal government to reach its stated goal of 50% screening, and I also am skeptical about the efficacy claims of the equipment that is to be deployed. The manufacturers of expensive, high tech screening equipment that cater to DHS have a pretty solid record of over-promising (or, at least exaggerating) the abilities of their wares. Radiological detectors can produce some impressive diagnostic results, but they are too slow to handle large volumes of cargo. Full spectrum scans can take several minutes for a 56 foot intermodal ITU (International Transport Unit). The larger U. S. ports handle upwards of 2000 imported containers per day. In layman's terms, there is simply not enough time in the day to screen 1000 TEU's per day with existing technology. I'm also concerned that the deployment of screening equipment (the most precise equipment is not mobile, but fixed) will create chokepoints around ports and may delay trade and interfere with the well choreographed transfers between railways, trucking companies, and shipping. My final concern deals with what is perhaps an unavoidable obstacle. Exactly what is the point of screening for radiological WMD's when those WMD's have already arrived at a U. S. port? If a nefarious group has the means to procure a nuclear device (either â€Å"dirty† or truly fissile), then we can safely assume those same bad actors could incorporate inertial navigation (which does not rely on GPS reception) to detonate the device at a desired location along the transport route. In conclusion, I am skeptical of the cost-benefit mix of this initiative. If it's going to be deployed, it should be deployed honestly: as a â€Å"spot check† mechanism of deterrence. The United States should also do everything in its power to screen U. S. A. bound cargo at the cargo's port of origin, rather than at the port of destination. References: The National Nuclear Security Administration, Megaports Initiative (October 2009), U. S. Department of Energy. (Retrieved from the AMU HLSS 645 course materials folder on 14 December 2009)

The Rights of Women in the Middle Ages - 1154 Words

Throughout Ancient History, there is a trend where women are inferior to men. Even to this day, in some communities, men are superior to women. Women’s rights have been a popular topic of conversation today. People all around the world are striving to bring equal rights to the genders. Gender equality is where men and women are represented equally. It doesnt mean that both genders are the same but rather the same value; thus both genders should be given equal treatment. In the fight for equal rights, many feminists have pointed to the Middle Ages as an example of where men are superior to women, and that women had virtually no rights. However, during the Middle Ages with the development of individualism, women had a considerate amount of rights similar to their male counterparts. The most significant development in gender equality in Western Civilization before 1350 C.E., was the development of individualism in the Middle Ages. Women were generally looked down upon during the Middle Ages. This was because of the biblical story of Adam and Eve. In this story Eve was created with Adam’s rib. God did not allow Adam nor Eve to eat the fruit. Eve however ate the fruit and got herself and Adam kicked out of paradise. In a Christian dominated society of the Franks, this story of Adam and Eve serves to support the difference between Man and Women, where women were inferior to men. At this time, men were the dominant sex. Gender equality was not very equal, but the differenceShow MoreRelatedComparing and Contrasting the Role of Women during the Roman Empire and the Middle Ages1564 Words   |  7 PagesInvestigation This investigation strives to compare and contrast of the role of women during the Roman Empire and the Middle Ages. The inquiry is significant because in order to understand the culture and ethics of the Roman Empire and the Middle Ages it is crucial to understand the importance of women. 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