WOLSTONECRAFT
Okay, so Mary Wolstonecraft was a feminist who thought that the rights of all people, both genders, are important. Then she has a daughter, and what does her daughter do, but go on to write an influential, intelligent book that is still taught in schools today.
I don't understand why sexism exists. Can I say that? I mean...when people treat women with love, and respect, and they allow (allow!) women to be educated and have equal rights and do what they want to do, then those women grow up to be better, more caring, more fulfilled people. They contribute more to society.
Why on earth would anyone want to stop women, or men, or anyone from contributing all that they can to the world? Isn't it obvious that sexism just holds all of us back? What happened to Kant, and the golden rule?
I guess a lot of it is fear...men in Wolstonecraft's time didn't want women to be equal to them because then women would, what...stop ironing their fucking shirts? Then men would have to work to reach their place in the world, and wouldn't automatically be given privileges and jobs and rights just because they had a penis?
What sort of man would rather marry a subservient, meek woman whose only duty and goal was to care for him? Is that a real thing? Wouldn't most dudes want to marry and be around someone who thought for themselves?
Anyway, Wolstonecraft cautions women from becoming comfortable with being cared for. She advises not to rely too much on beauty, because beauty fades.
Beauty definitely does fade, and when one's self worth is attached entirely to their looks, then it makes sense that they would be left with nothing. In the long run, the size of a person's waist or the number of eyelashes they have doesn't make them a lovable or unlovable person. And really, who wants to be loved by anyone who only loves them because their appearance is pleasing to their eyes?
It's undeniable that a lot of people form friendships and fall in love with other people because they are attracted to those people. Of course! Of course. And attraction is a wonderful thing. Speaking as a woman, it is nice to be called beautiful or whatever. But I would hate to be loved for the way I look and only the way I look, and part of it is because I spend all of my life looking out of my eyes at the world. Yes, I really live that way, and so, as people, we have to make our insides feel nice and we have to mean something, we have to love things and stand for things ourselves, in order to amuse ourselves and BECOME who we are. To be loved only for one's appearance is to be told that what is on the inside, what we have spent our lifetimes building and caring for, our very composition, is not as important as the size of our breasts or the way our mouth feels on someone else's.
No. Attraction is a part of the package, a nice part of life, but it isn't everything. And to teach women or men that looks are the main focus, or even that they're a big focus, is dangerous.
Science is more important. Books are more important. Family, friends, dogs, climbing mountains. Etc.
I love this paragraph: "Would men but generously snap our chains, and be content with rational fellowship instead of slavish obedience, they would find us more observant daughters, more affectionate sisters, more faithful wives, more reasonable mothers - in a word, better citizens. We should then love them with true affecton, because we should learn to respect ourselves; and the peace of mine of a worthy man would not be interrupted by the idle canity of his wife, nor the babes sent to nestle in a strange bosom, having never found a home in their mother's..."
Yes. Thank God for women like Wolstonecraft, and women like her. It's easy for me to sit at my computer and write about the importance of equality and everything, because women (and men) before me have already fought and died for the rights I consider obvious and necessary. I can't imagine a man assuming that he is better than me for no reason, just because of, as Wolstonecraft said, of "fate". But I'm lucky enough to find such an idea ludicrous. Wolstonecraft's female contemporaries must have been sort of shocked to read what she was writing, because of all the bullshit they had to take about being weaker, delicate, decorative flowers, who were supposed to raise children.
How many more women who have lived and died before me could have made great contributions to society, if they were allowed to stand up for themselves, and were allowed access to books and...if they were allowed to have their voices heard? Why have so many women had to scream for their rights? And why are we still having to scream now, in order to not be forced to give birth if we don't want to, and so that we can be paid in fair wages, and so we can be seen as just as powerful as we ourselves are inherently, regardless of our genitalia?
Like, seriously?
How many women today will die without ever realizing their full potential? And I don't mean "potential" as far as success or monetary wealth or fame or anything, but success as far as becoming what we want to be, and living the life we could create for ourselves if other people weren't telling us "no"?
And of course men face challenges too, and people of color face challenges, people without money face challenges, but speaking as a woman, I feel...enraged that any other woman should be kept down for no good reason.
As Amy Poehler once said, "DON"T TELL ME WHAT TO DO!"
Yeah, Wolstonecraft seems like a really brave lady, and the world is better for her existence, if only because she raised an intelligent daughter and probably had a good effect on others who met her, and because she took a stand for the good of future generations.
"For man and woman, truth, if I understand the meaning of the word, must be the same; yet the fanciful female character, so prettily drawn by poets and novelists, demanding the sacrifice of truth and sincerity, virtue becomes a relative idea, having no other foundation than utility, and of that utility en pretend arbitrarily to judge, shaping it to their own convenience."
Yay, Wolstonecraft. Preach.
No comments:
Post a Comment