Domestic violence The Difficult Conditions of Living under Chinese Patriarchal Culture
that the women must live in the same pattern from generation to generation. Patriarchal culture has the power to make women always depend on men and
eventually makes women can be controlled. Women actually have an awareness of gender inequality. As Humm states,
“feminism is the ideology of women’s liberation since intrinsic in all its approaches is the belief that women suffer injustice because of our sexes” Humm, 1990: 74.
Women only have the awareness that women and men should be treated equally, but they do not have the courage to refuse the patriarchal system. Women should have
courage to face the challenge to free them from the suffering they experienced. As the quotation of Simone de Beauvoir in Bressler’s Literary Criticism: An
Introduction to Theory and Practice, women should have courage to break what all this time they believed that the position of women in society was not born, but it was
created by the society through the patriarchal system. Women should establish their own identity if they want to be free completely as autonomous beings Beauvoir in
Bressler, 1999: 182. However, not all women are brave enough to take the challenge because there will definitely be many risks that will be received. There are
many women who are not sure of themselves and they have already felt comfortable with their lives by submitting themselves to patriarchal system. They feel fear and
doubt that when they make a change as expressing their opinions in public, their opinions are not heard even rejected because it is considered as worthless. This
ultimately leaves them with no other choice but to follow the patriarchal system. PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
They do not have the courage to take risks as alienated by society and prefer to submit to patriarchal system.
Because the system of patriarchy is so powerful, the most serious problem is women do not realize that they become the agent of this patriarchal culture. They are
not an agent of change but the agent who participates in perpetuating Chinese patriarchal culture. As an example is the practice of footbinding. Even though
women know that the practice of footbinding is very painful, they continue doing this practice to their daughter when they became a mother. Women do not have any
other choice because it is the way they should take to survive in Chinese patriarchal culture. As mentioned earlier the importance of footbinding for women who live in a
patriarchal culture makes women must give up one of the most important parts of his body were tortured to get a perfect feet according to Chinese patriarchal culture. The
main characters in this novel, Lily and Snow Flower, join to continue the painful tradition of footbinding to their daughter. Lily and Snow Flower enter into the
patterns of patriarchy. Lily and Snow Flower force their daughters to do the practice of footbinding because when they were children, they had been brainwashed to
accept that the practice footbinding is a reasonable or normal practice they need to do to live in a patriarchal culture. As Lily said before she started footbinding “All I
knew was that footbinding would make me more marriageable and therefore bring me closer to the greatest love and greatest joy in a woman’s life–a son.” See, 2005:
25. It is obvious that since childhood, the thought of women have been formed to PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI
accept that their purpose in life is to be married to someone, taking care of the household, and having sons.
To achieve all that, they have to do footbinding first. Because Lily and Snow Flower have done the painful practice of footbinding and
eventually they are able to get married and have children especially sons, this makes Lily and Snow Flower increasingly believe that they also have to do the practice of
footbinding to their daughter. Although it is a hurtful and hard decision, Lily and Snow Flower still should do the cruel tradition of footbinding to their daughter. “We
sat down and spoke of what was foremost in our minds–our daughters.” See, 2005: 187.
For women, living under a patriarchal system where women have to follow all the traditions that have been arranged very neatly in a patriarchal culture and see the
position of women as a human being it is not valuable because being only regarded as an object is very difficult. It is no wonder there are women who die because they
cannot stand and survive living under Chinese patriarchal culture, such as suicide and died during footbinding process. However, there are also women who survive in
this Chinese patriarchal culture. Women use a bond to survive in the Chinese patriarchal culture. The bond of female friendship is very important to the lives of
women who live under Chinese patriarchal culture. Although female friendship has a very small scale or a narrow but women consider this female friendship as a hope
that can make women survive in Chinese patriarchal culture. Female friendship helps women to face all kinds of life challenges
found in Chinese patriarchal culture
.
Therefore, there are four points that make this female friendship become so important for the survival of women living under Chinese patriarchal culture.