Wednesday, October 16, 2013
A Vindication of the Rights of Women
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this because it touches on subjects that are still a problem in today's society regarding women. Women were denied their rights to become full citizens because they were treated as a man's property. Lack of education is much to blame, so women are taught at a very young age to be appealing to the eye, fair, and graceful. "It is acknowledged that they spend many of the first years of their lives in acquiring a smattering of accomplishments; meanwhile strength of body and mind are sacrificed to libertine notions of beauty, to the desire of establishing themselves,- the only way women can rise in the world, - by marriage" (Wollstonecraft 101). Women are taught that their looks are their primary concern, because heaven forbid they become independent. "Rousseau declares that a women should never, for a moment, feel herself independent, that she should be governed by fear to exercise her natural cunning, and made a coquetish slave in order to render her a more alluring object of desire, a sweeter companion to man, whenever he chooses to relax himself" (107). Women didn't have the education where they could learn and not just be a housewife. At a young age, it is instilled in their minds that they must be afraid that they might never find a man, and to be as beautiful as possible to please her husband. I feel that even today women feel that they need a man by their side in order to be a full member of society and a successful human being. Also, we see in adds what a woman should look like, and there are adds that show women being submissive to a man. My question would have to be, do you think women were exposed to this piece? And if so, do you think it made a real difference in how women are perceived in society?
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I think that women could have definitely been exposed to this piece. Though this work was written in 1792, far before any feminist action really became popular, I'm sure women were inspired by "A Vindication of the Rights of Women." I think this piece did make a difference on how women are perceived and surely gave some women hope for the future.
ReplyDeleteKate's point is well made, this essay is written far before an organized women's movement was created. It is also ironic that women were often harsh critics of Wollstonecraft's work, coming down on her as being a bitch or over masculine. It was even worse when biographers exposed her sexually promiscuous past. Does this response demonstrate an even deeper issue with the way women were raised or even are still? How often are women demeaned as whores or bitches still that try to be artists or push the envelope?
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