In times that seem so progressive, such as 2014, admitting that horrible distinctions existed (and continue to exist) in the world is a brave feat. We all know that women couldn’t own property for many years; we all know they did not attain the right to vote until the 1920s. We think our society is near perfect and that everything is okay because we’re equal in the political sense. But it’s still hard to admit the truth about the long-prevailing societal labels placed upon our ancestors and even, to some extent, ourselves.
In the passage “Shakespeare’s Sister,” Virginia Woolf describes what a female literary genius in the Elizabethan era would look like. One key thing that Woolf mentions keeps her from becoming a renowned author is that she is “the property of her husband.” Also, she mentions that her family places great pressure upon her to conform to the societal roles as a mother and caretaker for her husband, thus giving her no freedom to write without being ridiculed or punished.
This hypothetical situation may seem extreme to us now (Women as property? Excuse me?), but when we look deeper into the phenomenon, we must hold our noses and admit that this situation was a true one. In Kate Chopin’s The Awakening, written in 1899, a husband, Leonce, is mentioned as looking at his wife Edna in the same way that one looks at “a valuable piece of property which has suffered some damage.” Although the author’s reference is metaphorical, it reveals an ugly truth about society’s progression.
Women achieved the right to own property, they attained suffrage rights, they advocated for the passage of Title IX, we’ve gone through multiple waves of feminism, but the view of women as property, although diminishing in obviousness, continues to remain, woven deeply into the constructs of society. We won’t admit it, though. We won’t admit that women were viewed as property back then, and we won’t admit that the view continues to exist in a less-obvious manner in the world today. Why do we still use the term “trophy wife?” If we seek to find an answer to the question, we may be forced to admit the truth. This awful view of women has not gone away, and without tremendous effort, it never will. :(
I think what you're saying is especially prevalent in the way people try and convince men to think about women's issues as everybody's issues. Often, it is presented like "imagine if this was your wife, mother, or your daughter". This phrasing says to men that they should care about women because of the women that are "theirs"; not solely because women are people.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree. We act like everything is okay now, but in truth, there are still problems with women being objectified. There has been progress, but as you said, there is still much more needed. I think that doing as you have said and recognizing that there are still problems is an important step to fixing them.
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