Feminism Essay Example: The Personal Is Political

The personal is political or also known as the private is political is a famous political slogan used by a feminist to express their personal experiences among political and gender equality issues. The slogan became more popular in the early 1970's due to a publication of a The Personal is a Political essay written by Carol Hanisch, an American feminist who argued about women personal experiences in the second wave feminism. I will briefly discuss about how the essay influenced and encouraged other feminists in the fight for radical feminism and gender equality.

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In Hanisch essay, she focused more on the power men have over women where they place women's personal behavior and decisions issues of political significance. Issues like sex, appearance, childcare or abortion should be left as private issues for one to decide (Hanisch 114). She also urged women in the society to work together collectively to survive in the male-dominated society. Due to the connection of the daily experiences of most women, more feminist have come up relating with this phrase in whatever subject they are advocating for against gender equality. Heidi Hartmann encouraged other women that what they are going through can only be solved by responding to the current oppression and exploitations instead of waiting for gender equality. Paula Rust also had a compilation of a list of several feminists movements relating to the same phrase in understanding various female issues.

Alternative Visions: Women at Work in the City - Thomas Hart Benton

Thomas Hart Benton spent more than ten months designing and painting the ten pieces of iconic murals that relate the lives of Americans in their work and entertainment environments. I will briefly describe the alternate visions as portrayed in Women at Work in the City artwork.

The artwork is merely a commentary on different levels of work and entertainment in the 1920's especially those involving women in their operation. We can see the difference in the outreaching hands; the contrast shows how the poor fight for bread and coffee while the rich wit coats and cuffed shirts are grasping money. In the lower foreground, there is a child and a teacher performing an arithmetic operation on a chalkboard in which the answer 42 matches with the Benton's at the time he completed painting the murals. An acrobat flying through the air showed the achievements of human creativity (Benton 35). There is also a sign at a bar that says "Your health demands it SMOKE" that was a campaign used by cigarette companies to target women in the 1920's to smoke convincing them it could lower their weights. Their strategy became highly successful since a number of women who smoked skyrocketed during that time.

Works cited

Hanisch, Carol. "The personal is political." Radical feminism: A documentary reader (1969): 113-16.

Benton, Thomas Hart. "My American Epic in Paint." Creative Art 3 (1928): 31-36.