Farva Ashraf
Professor Joseph Berenguel
English 1004
24 July 2014

The concept of “the Other” is a complex one, and it is hard to pinpoint exactly what it means. Does it have any meaning at all? The question of who the other is might seem useless, because in some way we are all “others” to someone, and everyone else is “other” to us. We can never fully know the other, and even if we strive to do so, “the other” is constantly changing. At the same time, there can be no “I” without a relation to and a concept of the other. We need something that in some degree is different from ourselves to actually constitute a self. When we “other” another group, we point out their perceived weaknesses to make ourselves look stronger or better. It implies a hierarchy, and it serves to keep power where it already lies.

Almost everything we say or do consists of othering in some way, whether we may realize it or not. The most commonly used form of this is to other by ones gender. (female vs. male).

Simone de Beauvoir wrote a wonderful piece called The Second Sex and in it she states that “One is not born, but rather becomes, a woman” . What an orthodox one would imagine this to be. However, this quote alone summarizes human nature. Everything, how one must dress, walk, talk, and even breathe has been set to certain standards that are to be met regardless of what the individual may wish to be. Men have always had the upper hand in every subject. They have it all, it is always the woman competing against herself to please the desires of the men she is surrounded by.

Everything comes down to what society perceives as perfection and we all can assume that these societal rules were made by man as well. After all no man has to worry about the shade of lipstick he wears in the summer vs the winter or if his eyebrows have the perfect arch. Everything has been made so unfair to woman, and they unknowingly follow these rules set out by men, fooled to believe this is what they want themselves.

From the beginning of time, it is difficult and almost impossible to recall a single movement aimed towards men. It has always been womans rights being faught for. Titles such as “the first female engineer” and events such as woman being able to have the right to vote make this issue even more othersome. Beauvoir has written “If the feminine issue is so absurd, is because the male's arrogance made it "a discussion” . Perhaps if men were not treated as the norm of society, woman would not have to be categorized as the lesser half.

These forms of othering have been drilled into our brains ever since we were children. Fairy tales such as Cinderella and Beauty and the Beast all prove that woman must meet certain standards in order to gain success. Success in these movies happens to be achieved when the prince marries the average girl. It does not matter what the prince looks like, whether he is a beast or a spoiled rich man the focus always stays on how the girl transforms into this beautiful perfection. Cinderella for example, lived a hard life of chores and torture. The movie somehow portrayed her trying to run from the typical womanly job by pleasing the prince through a make over rather than her true self. She too is being changed. Similarly girls now a days unknowingly mimick these movies and dress up only to one day fall into this trap that men have created for them.