Parsons clearly demonstrates misogynistic tendencies when he refers to the “compulsive search for power and exclusive attention” that drives “glamor girls” to employ “feminine devices” (Applerouth, & Edles, 2008). Parsons seems to be deriding glamorous girls and presupposing their reasons for enhancing their femininity. Gilman’s theory also describes the phenomena as occurring, but for very different reasons. Gilman explains that enhancing a woman’s femininity further differentiates her from the male thereby causing her to become even more attractive to men (Women & Economics, 1898). This drive that women have developed to make themselves more feminine in order to become more attractive to males is the way in which society has evolved to make her only access to the economy (and survival) dependent on the man she ultimately attracts and marries. It is not the “compulsive search for power and exclusive attention” that Parsons so arrogantly proposes that it is.
Do you agree with Parsons’ alleged motivations of glamour girls? Is Gilman's theory more or less plausible than Parsons?
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When looking at Parson the thing that stuck out to me was three types of need dispositions he differentiated. The first type are those who look for love, approval and so forth from their relationships. The second type are those that follow cultural standards because of an internilization of values and third there are those that give and get appropriate responses due to role expectations( Ritzer,George.Sociological Theory.Mcgraw Hill:Boston,2008). I think this is what drives women to becoming more feminine. They have evolved around the concept that their environment is men. Perhaps this is not the case anymore because the role of women has been changing and they are more independant and able to be in the workforce where they are most human but this isn't the case for all women. Along with this men have come to realize that womens environments are men so in a capitalist society some men capitalize on who's "hottest". As a result you get women trying to be hotter and guys capitalizing on it but in a way it works both ways because if a girl gets all prettied up she doesn't just want any guy. She in turn has ideas of what fits in her "environment".
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