Virginia Woolf wrote, "one might go even further and say that women have burnt like beacons in all the works of all the poets from the beginning of time--Clytemnestra, Antigone, Cleopatra, Lady Macbeth, Phedre, Cressida, Rosalind, Desdemona, the Duchess of Malfi, among the dramatists; and among the prose writers: Millamant, Clarissa, Becky Sharp, Anna Karenina, Emma Bovary, Madame du Guermantes--the names flock to mind, nor do they recall women 'lacking in personality and character.' Indeed, if woman had no existence save in the fiction written by men, one would imagine her a person of the utmost importance...but this is woman in fiction. In fact, as Professor Trevelyan points out, she was locked up and flung about the room."
Now, I know that's an unnecessarily long quote, but she has a point. Men write these amazing women characters. Women "as great as man, some think even greater." Writing characters like these would lead one to believe that maybe, just maybe, they wanted women to behave as their women characters. It would only make sense, right? Wrong.
Men may have written these wonderful, heroic, honorable women, but how did they treat the women in their lives? The women surrounding them were property. They were dolls, little squirrels, they were driven crazy from being locked in a room with bars on the windows. So I can say with a little confidence, that we have every right to be a little hard to please, because men said to the outside world that they wanted one thing, but acted in another way entirely. Apparently treating women was easier said than done.
This blog may not have much "integrity," because it's true, I do have a bone to pick, I am upset at how things have been between women and men. There was such a disparity between what men said and what they did that I think we deserve our credit now. Today sexism is not nearly as prevalent. In many cases it is almost completely gone, which is great. Women know that we are capable of anything that men can do, if not more (I mean hey, we do it in heels). We teach little girls that they can be anything they want to be, and the same goes for little boys. If you set your heart to it, you can do anything. If anyone tells you that you can't do something, look them straight in the face and say "watch me."
