• “Women have served all these centuries as looking glasses possessing the magic and delicious power of reflecting the figure of man at twice his natural size…And this serves to explain how restless [men] are under her criticism; how impossible it is for her to say to them this book is bad, this picture is feeble, or whatever it may be, without giving far more pain and rousing far more anger than a man would do who gave the same criticism” (19). AND “This is an important book, the critic assumes, because it deals with war. This is an insignificant book because it deals with the feelings of women in a drawing room…The whole structure of the early 19th century novel was raised, if one was a woman, by a mind which was slightly pulled from the straight and made to alter its clear vision in deference to external authority” (41). Virgina Woolf’s __A Room of One’s Own__.
• As a young woman, I had one and only one intense and ceaseless pastime…watching boys do stuff…I read women, (some, but not enough), but I didn’t watch them. I didn’t give them megaphones in my mind…I watched the boys, watched to learn. I wanted to write something Cormac McCarthy would like, something Thomas Pynchon would come out of hiding to endorse…I have been reenacting in my artmaking the undying pastime of my girlhood: watching boys, emulating them, trying to catch the attention of the ones who have no idea I exist.” Claire Vaye Watkins, “On Pandering.”
• This notion of audience—and who we reflect our words back to—keeps reoccurring, whether in 1928 or in 2016. How, in a patriarchal society, do we get outside the notion that the male gaze/audience is the normative when it comes to writing? What would this escape look like for both male and female writers?
“A Room of One’s Own” Chapters 1-4 – Virginia Woolf
(I liked a lot of quotes, these are only some)
“At any rate, when a subject is highly controversial--and any question about sex is that--one cannot hope to tell the truth. One can only show how one came to hold whatever opinion one does hold. One can only give one's audience the chance of drawing their own conclusions as they observe the limitations, the prejudices, the idiosyncrasies of the speaker” 2 “Fiction must stick to facts, and the truer the facts the better the fiction” 9 “Why did men drink wine and women water? Why was one sex so prosperous and the other so poor? What effect has poverty on fiction? What conditions are necessary for the creation of works of art? . . . If truth is not to be found on the shelves of the British Museum, where . . . is truth?” 14 “Why are women, judging from this catalogue, so much more interesting to men than men are to women?” 15 “'Wise men never say what they think of women'? Wise men never say anything else apparently. . . . what is so unfortunate is that wise men never think the same thing about women.” 17 “Have[women] souls or have they not souls? Some savages say they have none. Others, on the contrary, maintain that women are half divine and worship them on that account.” 17 “They were worthless scientifically, that is to say . . . they had been written in the red light of emotion and not in the white light of truth.” 19 “Always to be doing work that one did not wish to do, and to do it like a slave, flattering and fawning, not always necessarily perhaps, but it seemed necessary and the stakes were too great to run risks; and then the thought of that one gift which it was death to hide . . .perishing and with it my self, my soul” 21 “to suggest to the students of those famous colleges that they should rewrite history, though I own that it often seems a little queer as it is, unreal, lopsided; but why should they not add a supplement to history,” 26 “Yet her genius was for fiction and lusted to feed abundantly upon the lives of men and women and the study of their ways.” 27 “Had she survived, whatever she had written would have been twisted and deformed, issuing from a strained and morbid imagination. . . . her work would have gone unsigned . . . all the victims of inner strife as their writings prove, sought ineffectively to veil themselves by using the name of a man.” 28 “All the conditions of her life, all her own instincts, were hostile to the state of mind which is needed to set free whatever is in the brain. But what is the state of mind that is most propitious to the act of creation?” 29 “What one would expect to find would be that rather later perhaps some great lady would take advantage of her comparative freedom and comfort to publish something with her name to it and risk being thought a monster.” 32 “For masterpieces are not single and solitary births; they are the outcome of many years of thinking in common, of thinking by the body of the people, so that the experience of the mass is behind the single voice.” 37 “'It is vain to say human beings ought to be satisfied with tranquillity: they must have action; and they will make it if they cannot find it.’” 39 “She knew, no one better, how enormously her genius would have profited if it had not spent itself in solitary visions over distant fields; if experience and intercourse and travel had been granted her. But they were not granted; they were withheld” 40
“We feel the influence of fear in it; just as we constantly feel an acidity which is the result of oppression, a buried suffering smouldering beneath her passion, a rancour which contracts those books, splendid as they are, with a spasm of pain.” 41 “She was admitting that she was 'only a woman', or protesting that she was 'as good as a man'. . . . She had altered her values in deference to the opinion of others.” 42 “Lock up your libraries if you like; but there is no gate, no lock, no bolt, that you can set upon the freedom of my mind.” 43 “It is useless to go to the great men writers for help, however much one may go to them for pleasure. . . . --whoever it may be-never helped a woman yet, though she may have learnt a few tricks of them and adapted them to her use.” 43
“Vision Stains” - Writer/Director Karim Hussain (a man), The Theater Bizarre. (HORROR/GORE WARNING)
The Theater Bizarre is a horror film I originally watch on Netflix (where it is now unavailable), which depicted a woman who took fluid out of the eyes of other (usually drug-addicted or homeless) women at their death and transcribed their stories to pass them on. Sadly, I could not find the clip on YouTube that showed the 18 minute scene, but I typed direct quotes from it. “I only choose women who want to die. And if you think about it, I’m giving them a voice, something they never had in life. Because of me, everything they've gone through won't just disappear. I preserve their history. I love them . . . this has become my work; I’m their biographer. . . . Their dreams finally give me purpose. . . . To understand them I have to live like them. The fact that I don’t exist is fine with me. The only things that matter are the books. I am just a technicality, a technicality with a body. That’s my only weakness. I’m only interested in women's stories, they're the true creators, the ones who suffer. Men’s predictable stories hold no interest to me. No blood, no life. The strongest memories come from women who live long lives, who've had it all then lost it, either by choice or by decisions. Those stories hurt the most, because I feel everything they did.”
Guiding Questions: Do you think that there are facts behind every work of fiction? Do facts make fiction stronger? Do you think that men have felt enough pain to create traditionally emotional pieces of literature that can appeal to women? If writing is so gendered, can it appeal to gender non-conforming people (i.e. non binary, gender fluid, etc.)?
I need not hate any man; he cannot hurt me. I need not flatter any man; he has nothing to give me. So imperceptibly I found myself adopting a new attitude towards the other half of the human race. It was absurd to blame any class or any sex, as a whole. Great bodies of people are never responsible for what they do. They are driven by instincts which are not within their control. They too, the patriarchs, the professors, had endless difficulties, terrible drawbacks to contend with. Their education had been in some ways as faulty as my own. (22)
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie “We Should All Be Feminists” TED Talk
“A Nigerian acquaintance once asked me if I was worried that men would be intimidated by me. I was not worried at all. In fact it had not occurred to me to be worried because a man who will be intimidated by me is exactly the kind of man I would have no interest in.” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hg3umXU_qWc (13:42)
Both of these women express the notion that women are, in some way, supposed to please men. Where do you think this belief stems from? Woolf speaks about the “instincts” that men are driven by that are not in their control, do you agree with her? What are some examples of these instincts? When you write, do you write to please anyone, or do you worry about intimidating someone?
“The most transient visitor to this planet, I thought, who picked up this paper could not fail to be aware, even from this scattered testimony, that England is under the rule of a patriarchy” (19).
“The Second Shelf: On the Rules of Literary Fiction for Men and Women” – Meg Wolitzer
“As a woman writer, you get points if you include the ‘male’ world in your work, and you lose points if you omit it.”
“But the top tier of literary fiction – where the air is rich and the view is great and where a book enters the public imagination and the current conversation – tends to feel peculiarly, disproportionately male.”
Literature is, and always has been, dominated by men. It doesn’t take too much research to realize this. Any work written by a woman, no matter how complex, layered, and thematically powerful it is, seems to get dumped under the “Women’s Fiction” category. This is not only limiting these writers’ audiences but also labels the content of their work, based on the associations people make with “Women’s Fiction, in a way that is often debilitating. Woolf talks extensively about how genius women writers of the past have been suppressed to the point where their thoughts never saw the light of day. It has been a historical trend to discourage women from any forms of creative expression. In what other ways does this trend manifest itself today? Especially in the literary world? Are we on the path to improvement, or are we stuck in a rut?
When you mentioned how it's been a historical trend to discourage women from any forms of creative expression, it made me think of how that has kind of transformed over time, and it's now a stereotype for women to pursue studies in the humanities, while men are typically encouraged to pursue studies in the hard sciences. Throughout middle school and high school, it seems like educators focus more on encouraging girls to pursue careers in the humanities, and little/no focus on encouraging girls to study in the "STEM" field.
Because of this trend, it seems to me that discouraging women from creative expression has diminished over time, but has manifested itself in other ways. For example, I feel like women are socialized to be somewhat impersonal and unemotional in personal writing.
I really like the connection you made between the class reading and the article you read online. I saved the link and I'm planning to read it in full on my own time, because the quote you pulled from it looks really interesting, and connects directly to "A Room of One's Own."
“A Room of One’s Own” Chapters 1-4 -Virginia Woolf “Clearly her mind has by no means 'consumed all impediments and become incandescent'. On the contrary, it is harassed and distracted with hates and grievances. The human race is split up for her into two parties. Men are the 'opposing faction'; men are hated and feared, because they have the power to bar her way to what she wants to do--which is to write.”
“Infographic: Women only wrote 37% of reproductive issue stories”- Sesali B.
“Looking at 12 of the top media outlets, not a single one of them had women writing the majority of their stories. WMC’s research also reveals how this imbalance has consequences for who gets quoted in those stories. They found that male reporters were more likely to quote male sources in their stories, while female reporters were more likely to quote women. The study also looked at which topics related to reproductive health were covered most.” http://feministing.com/2016/01/22/116119/ Discussion Questions: Why do you think that media gives so many opportunities for men to write about issues that are clearly issues for women such as reproductive health? Do you think there are ways that women can gain power over having the ability to write about this issue or any issues that they find important? Why are men’s voices heard over the voices of women in media?
Virginia Woolf’s “A Room of One’s Own” “Indeed, if woman had no existence save in the fiction written by men, one would imagine her a person of the utmost importance; very various; heroic and mean; splendid and sordid; infinitely beautiful and hideous in the extreme; as great as a man, some think even greater.” (pg 24)
“Imaginatively she is of the highest importance; practically she is completely insignificant. She pervades poetry from cover to cover; she is all but absent from history. She dominates the lives of kings and conquerors in fiction; in fact she was the slave of any boy whose parents forced a ring upon her finger. Some of the most inspired words, some of the most profound thoughts in literature fall from her lips; in real life she could hardly read, could scarcely spell, and was the property of her husband.” (pg 25)
“Lock up your libraries if you like; but there is no gate, no lock, no bolt, that you can set upon the freedom of my mind.” (pg 43)
“I hesitate to mention this, lest it occasion a sophisticated groan, but it may not have crossed your minds that one of the dons who will interview you may be a woman. I’m reluctant at this stage in the game to expose you to new ideas, but having taught you all history of a strictly non-gender-orientated basis, I just wonder whether it occurs to any of you how dispiriting this can be? Can you, for a moment, imagine how depressing it is to teach five centuries of masculine ineptitude? Why do you think there are no women historians on TV? I’ll tell you why; because history if not such a frolic for women as it is for men. Why should it be, they never get around the conference table? In 1919, for instance, they just arranged the flowers, then gracefully retired. History is a commentary on the various and continuing incapabilities of men. What is history? History is women following behind. With the bucket. Now, Mr Rudge. How do you define history?” (The History Boys, Allen Bennett)
Guiding Question: The absence of women in our written has not meant the absence of female characters in literature. Was this due, perhaps, to strong women in male writer’s lives? In Shakespeare’s time, for example, the country was being ruled by a women for the first time in its history.
“A Room of One’s Own” Chapters 1-4 -Virginia Woolf "Have you any notion of how many books are written about women in the course of one year? Have you any notion how many are written by men? Are you aware that you are, perhaps, the most discussed animal in the universe?" (page 15)
The New England Review pie charts on the number of men and women in Fiction, Non-Fiction, Poetry, and Overall. http://www.vidaweb.org/new-england-review-2014-vida-count-larger-literary-landscape/
Discussion Question: If women are the "most discussed animals" then why is it that, even today, women aren't equally (or more often) getting to write/represent written women in media?
“How explain the anger of the professors? Why were they angry? For when it came to analysing the impression left by these books there was always an element of heat. This heat took many forms; it showed itself in satire, in sentiment, in curiosity, in reprobation. But there was another element which was often present and could not immediately be identified. Anger, I called it. But it was anger that had gone underground and mixed itself with all kinds of other emotions. To judge from its odd effects, it was anger disguised and complex, not anger simple and open.” pg. 18 “Does it explain my astonishment of the other day when Z, most humane, most modest of men, taking up some book by Rebecca West and reading a passage in it, exclaimed, 'The arrant feminist! She says that men are snobs!' The exclamation, to me so surprising--for why was Miss West an arrant feminist for making a possibly true if uncomplimentary statement about the other sex?--was not merely the cry of wounded vanity; it was a protest against some infringement of his power to believe in himself. Women have served all these centuries as looking glasses possessing the magic and delicious power of reflecting the figure of man at twice its natural size” pg. 20 “The looking-glass vision is of supreme importance because it charges the vitality; it stimulates the nervous system. Take it away and man may die, like the drug fiend deprived of his cocaine.” pg. 21 (Virginia Woolf, “A Room of One’s Own”)
“A woman is calling out men who shame women for sharing “half naked” photos online – by tweeting their remarks alongside topless pictures they’ve shared of themselves online.” “#shirtlessshamers2016” http://www.buzzfeed.com/rossalynwarren/shirtless-shamers#.vfzYq5OVlr (Rossalyn Warren,“A Woman Is Calling Out The Men Who Shame Women For Sharing Nude Photos”, Buzzfeed)
While most men no longer write scathing critiques of “the mental, moral and physical inferiority of women”, the double standards Woolf mentions are still going strong, such as the #shirtlessshamers2016. How does social media perpetuate this “looking glass effect”? How is the rise of feminism affecting the effect, and what do you think will become of it in the future? Will we finally cast aside the long tradition of squashing the weaker to make oneself seem better, or will the surge of equality bring about more of these double standards from people refusing to step aside on the gender power hierarchy?
"In a hundred years, I thought, reaching my own doorstep, women will have ceased to be the protected sex. Logically they will take part in all the activities and exertions that were once denied them." -Woolf's "A Room of One's Own" (p. 23)
"Trump claims to "cherish women" and has indeed hired women into positions of power over the years, but the truth is: He has always had a streak of misogyny in his public persona. He has commented on the importance of "a young and beautiful piece of ass"; he has called a breastfeeding woman "disgusting"; he has suggested that sexual assault is a natural byproduct of putting men and women together in the military." - Gray's "Donald Trump Is Giving America Permission To Hate Women" http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/megyn-kelly-donald-trump-misogyny_us_56aa4143e4b05e4e37037cb5?ir=Women§ion=us_women&utm_hp_ref=women
While women may be present in formerly restricted areas of the work force, it is clear that the respect for those individuals is almost completely absent inside and outside of the work place (as demonstrated by Trump and his many trolls). How can women resist the hate and rise to the challenge? What ways could women use this degradation to their advantage? If Woolf said we would be in a time where women are not the protected sex, are women currently the hated sex? If not, what would be a better description? Where will women be in the next 100 years?
-"But how impossible it must have been for them not to budge either to the right or to the left. What genius, what integrity it must have required in face of all that criticism, in the midst of that purely patriarchal society, to hold fast to the thing as they saw it without shrinking" (42). ~Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own.
-Marley Dias, an 11-year-old student from New Jersey started a project titled #1000BlackGirlBooks. Tired of reading about "white boys and dogs," she hopes to collect 1,000 books where black women are the protagonists and to inspire other young girls to do the same. She wants other young girls to do this project and not to treat it as a chore. She is creating a fun way for young girls to find protagonists they can look up to. http://jezebel.com/11-year-old-sick-of-reading-about-white-boys-and-dogs-l-1755021888 http://grassrootscommunityfoundation.org/marley-promotes-1000blackgirlbooks/ (Marley's official fundraising page)
-It's exciting and refreshing to see young people take action against patriarchal society on their own terms. Just as authors like Bronte fought for women's representation in literature, young people like Marley seem to carry their torch to fight for what they believe. This concept has much to do with intersectionality. Not only do women tend to lose their voice, but there is an even bigger lack of non-white women being represented. How do people like Marley help make a difference? How do we make sure everyone is represented in fair ways?
I like the idea that 11 year old Marley Dias is making get more books that speak a different tune than the typical notion of white boys and dogs. As a young girl doing something of a movement that is pretty big but it also speaks value that young kids are starting to realize things that older people usually wouldnt think they would realize. I also believe its a good movement for young Marley to do because as a young black girl it gives a different voice to be spoken as to what needs to be done. Instead of having the typical older people speaking out against it, it shows that, that voice alone isn't enough therefore calling out all young women and older ladies to speak out and have a voice.
Woolf- "A Room of One's Own" "But however small it was, it had, nevertheless, the mysterious property of its kind--put back into the mind, it became at once very exciting, and important; and as it darted and sank, and flashed hither and thither, set up such a wash and tumult of ideas that it was impossible to sit still. It was thus that I found myself walking with extreme rapidity across a grass plot.Instantly a man's figure rose to intercept me. Nor did I at first understand that the gesticulations of a curious-looking object, in a cut-away coat and evening shirt, were aimed at me. His face expressed horror and indignation. Instinct rather than reason came to my help, he was a Beadle; I was a woman. This was the turf; there was the path. Only the Fellows and Scholars are allowed here; the gravel is the place for me." -Woolf, Chapter One, page 3
Pittman, "Male Engineering Student Perfectly Explains Why Female Classmates Aren't His Equals" "A study published in the Harvard Business Review in March 2015 highlights the sexism that exists in STEM fields. According to the study, two-thirds of the 557 female scientists surveyed 'reported having to prove themselves over and over again.'" -Pittman, page 1 http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/women-men-engineers-arent-equal-jared-mauldin-letter_us_561699b9e4b0e66ad4c6bee5?utm_hp_ref=girls-in-stem
Guiding Questions: The opening scene in Woolf's narrative describes an image that metaphorically describes the limitations women have in education and in expressing thought; this idea of limitation comes up a lot in women's literature. Does the way these works of literature are taught (or not taught) have an impact on how female intellectuals in other fields are being treated? If women's works were taught more widely, would today's females have less obstacles to overcome because of their sex?
"I need not hate any man; he cannot hurt me. I need not flatter any man; he has nothing to give me. So imperceptibly I found myself adopting a new attitude towards the other half of the human race. It was absurd to blame any class or any sex, as a whole. Great bodies of people are never responsible for what they do. They are driven by instincts, which are not within their control. They too, the patriarchs, the professors, had endless difficulties, terrible drawbacks to contend with. Their education had been in some ways as faulty as my own." (22) A Room of One's Own by Virgina Woolf
"The most dangerous thing society teaches boys and men, especially white boys and men, is that their emotions are objective logic and reason and that anyone who disagrees is being irrational." http://yikyaksexism.tumblr.com/post/118644963975/jean-luc-gohard-the-most-dangerous-thing
To me, it is very important that we not only think about how and why women are traditionally so stigmatized, but also why men -- and some women -- are socialized into that kind of thinking. It is crucial that we consider what we as women can do to overcome these challenges, but I also think it is important to consider how we can reform certain ways of thinking. Women are obviously socialized into thinking they are "less than," and by proxy, men are socialized into thinking they are "more than" or "different than," or they are also socialized to think that women are "less than." According to both of these texts, what men and women are socialized to believe is obviously different, and many of the means of reform seem divisive in terms of gender. How might both boys/men and girls/women both learn gender equality in the same way? Is this even a good idea, or is it best if they are taught differently? Is there a way to socialize people the other way -- to break down gender stereotypes? Do you think it is objectively more harmful for men to be taught that women are "less than," or is it more harmful for women to be taught that? If you think both are equally harmful, how might men and women receive that message differently?
Woolf- "A Room of One's Own" "Football and sport are'important'; the worship of fashion, the buying of clothes 'trivial'."
Guo-"Researchers have found a major problem with ‘The Little Mermaid’ and other Disney movies" "For a film centered on a young woman, there’s an awful lot of talking by men. In fact, this was the first Disney princess movie in which the men significantly outspoke the women."
Guiding questions:How much of societal stigmas and sterotypes are perpetuated by the other themselves? If we're to determine what is and isn't trivial and to find truth in fictions, how should women go about defining themselves in a way that is not only female centric?
“It would have been impossible, completely and entirely, for any woman to have written the plays of Shakespeare in the age of Shakespeare” From Virgina Woolf.
“When I was starting to write—in the late fifties, early sixties—there was a kind of social tradition in which male novelists could operate. Hard drinkers, bad livers. Wives, wars, big fish, Africa, Paris, no second acts. A man who wrote novels had a role in the world, and he could play that role and do whatever he wanted behind it. A woman who wrote novels had no particular role. Women who wrote novels were quite often perceived as invalids. Carson McCullers, Jane Bowles. Flannery O'Connor, of course. Novels by women tended to be described, even by their publishers, as sensitive. I'm not sure this is so true anymore, but it certainly was at the time, and I didn't much like it. I dealt with it the same way I deal with everything. I just tended my own garden, didn't pay much attention, behaved—I suppose—deviously. I mean I didn't actually let too many people know what I was doing.” – From Joan Didion: http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/3439/the-art-of-fiction-no-71-joan-didion
According to Woolf, and didion, there is an inequality to the way men and women are treated in regards to writing and being contributors to the literary world, is this still true today? Are men still seen superior? Have women writers achieved equality?
3. “A Room of One’s Own” by Virginia Woolf - Quote from the text: “SHE shall be inferior as that HE will be superior, which plants him wherever one looks, not only in front of the arts, but barring the way to politics too, even when the risk to himself seems infinitesimal and the suppliant humble and devoted” ( Woolf 31).
- Connection to Contemporary Text: Female World Leaders (Presidents and Prime Ministers) No body stopped these women, but it doesn’t mean they didn’t try. http://www.jjmccullough.com/charts_rest_female-leaders.php
Looking at a couple of these women in particular, their stories reveal the tragedies and stuggles they have overcome to take power and authority to better their countries. http://www.biography.com/news/women-presidents-from-around-the-world-21145269
“Despite being an unmarried female in a deeply patriarchal society, it appears that President Park’s sordid political inheritance helped her win the votes of conservative Korean men. Sworn into office just this past month, Park has promised to have more interaction with North Korea.” (South Korea)
” As she promised her citizens, President Banda has gotten rid of excess waste (e.g. the multi-million presidential jet), repealed discrimination laws against homosexuals, advocated for women’s and children’s rights, and called for President Omar al-Bashir of Sudan to be arrested if he steps into her turf.” (Malawi)
- My Guiding Question: Why do men feel the need to stop women from doing the things they want to do? Is this another “society” problem or must we look to change individual mindsets more so? Are we gradually getting better with this today? Are women gaining footing?
"A Room of One's Own" - Woolf "So obviously we cannot have wine and partridges and servants carrying tin dishes on their heads, she said. We cannot have sofas and separate rooms... Every penny which could be scraped together was set aside for building, and the amenities had to be postponed" (12).
"The Pink Tax" - Candice Elliott "The pink tax refers to the extra amount women are charged for certain products or services. Things like dry cleaning, personal care products and vehicle maintenance. So not only do we make less but we pay more. Some bullshit. How much more? About $1351 more a year in extra costs. Where are we paying more? Below are the some of the biggest culprits."
This article goes on to explain the differences between products that women buy, and products men buy. They are the same, but have different costs. So, here's the question: why one earth are women being charged more for the same products as men?
Is it because the process and "ingredients" in women's products are more expensive? If so, why are they? Why not use the same things as men's products? Are they simply the same cost to make but companies charge more for women's products? If so, why?
Have you any notion of how many books are written about women in the course of one year? Have you any notion how many are written by men? Are you aware that you are, perhaps, the most discussed animal in the universe? (pg 12)
Famous celebrities speaking out on the everyday issue of women not being treated fairly, or compensated fairly. "It's still completely s**t. I don't think there's any appreciable improvement and I think that, for women, the question of how they are supposed to look is worse than it was even when I was young. So no, I am not impressed, at all." http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/the-powerful-women-and-a-few-men-speaking-out-against-sexism-and-ageism-in-hollywood-a6672256.html
Guiding Question: What else should be done in order for women to be treated as fairly as men? How can we get to this position in history in order to move forward not only as a nation but as individuals that's effecting the nation?
After becoming the first black woman to win best lead actress in a drama series, Viola Davis said, "The only thing that separates women of color from anyone else is opportunity. You cannot win an Emmy for roles that are simply not there. So here’s to all the writers, the awesome people that are Ben Sherwood, Paul Lee, Peter Nowalk, Shonda Rhimes, people who have redefined what it means to be beautiful, to be sexy, to be a leading woman, to be black." (http://www.nytimes.com/live/emmys-2015/viola-daviss-emotional-emmys-acceptance-speech/)
Representation matters. If writers do not provide roles to women of color, they won't have opportunities to win awards. It has nothing to do with talent, just opportunity. To have women treated as fairly as men, it needs to be a joint effort. Davis cites the producers/directors who are doing great work, but still knows there is so much more to be done.
“I need not hate any man; he cannot hurt me… It was absurd to blame any class or any sex, as a whole. Great bodies of people are never responsible for what they do.” –Woolf, A Room of One’s Own http://elitedaily.com/women/why-being-a-feminsit-has-nothing-to-do-with-hating-men/592257/ -“Feminism is a multi-faceted movement. It is as nuanced as it is broad, but there is one thing for absolute certain: Misandry has no place in feminism and it never will.” Guiding Question: It seems a very popular notion that feminists hate men. Where does this perception come from and is it one of the principal excuses people use to put feminism down?
"Lock up your libraries if you like; but there is no gate, no lock, no bolt that you can set upon the freedom of my mind." -Woolf, A Room of One's Own.
"I have a real issue with anyone trying to protect children from their own imaginations." -JK Rowling.
How are "imagination" and "freedom of mind" alike in the context of writing? How, if at all, are they different?
• “Women have served all these centuries as looking glasses possessing the magic and delicious power of reflecting the figure of man at twice his natural size…And this serves to explain how restless [men] are under her criticism; how impossible it is for her to say to them this book is bad, this picture is feeble, or whatever it may be, without giving far more pain and rousing far more anger than a man would do who gave the same criticism” (19). AND “This is an important book, the critic assumes, because it deals with war. This is an insignificant book because it deals with the feelings of women in a drawing room…The whole structure of the early 19th century novel was raised, if one was a woman, by a mind which was slightly pulled from the straight and made to alter its clear vision in deference to external authority” (41). Virgina Woolf’s __A Room of One’s Own__.
ReplyDelete• As a young woman, I had one and only one intense and ceaseless pastime…watching boys do stuff…I read women, (some, but not enough), but I didn’t watch them. I didn’t give them megaphones in my mind…I watched the boys, watched to learn. I wanted to write something Cormac McCarthy would like, something Thomas Pynchon would come out of hiding to endorse…I have been reenacting in my artmaking the undying pastime of my girlhood: watching boys, emulating them, trying to catch the attention of the ones who have no idea I exist.” Claire Vaye Watkins, “On Pandering.”
• This notion of audience—and who we reflect our words back to—keeps reoccurring, whether in 1928 or in 2016. How, in a patriarchal society, do we get outside the notion that the male gaze/audience is the normative when it comes to writing? What would this escape look like for both male and female writers?
“A Room of One’s Own” Chapters 1-4 – Virginia Woolf
ReplyDelete(I liked a lot of quotes, these are only some)
“At any rate, when a subject is highly controversial--and any question about sex is that--one cannot hope to tell the truth. One can only show how one came to hold whatever opinion one does hold. One can only give one's audience the chance of drawing their own conclusions as they observe the limitations, the prejudices, the idiosyncrasies of the speaker” 2
“Fiction must stick to facts, and the truer the facts the better the fiction” 9
“Why did men drink wine and women water? Why was one sex so prosperous and the other so poor? What effect has poverty on fiction? What conditions are necessary for the creation of works of art? . . . If truth is not to be found on the shelves of the British Museum, where . . . is truth?” 14
“Why are women, judging from this catalogue, so much more interesting to men than men are to women?” 15
“'Wise men never say what they think of women'? Wise men never say anything else apparently. . . . what is so unfortunate is that wise men never think the same thing about women.” 17
“Have[women] souls or have they not souls? Some savages say they have none. Others, on the contrary, maintain that women are half divine and worship them on that account.” 17
“They were worthless scientifically, that is to say . . . they had been written in the red light of emotion and not in the white light of truth.” 19
“Always to be doing work that one did not wish to do, and to do it like a slave, flattering and fawning, not always necessarily perhaps, but it seemed necessary and the stakes were too great to run risks; and then the thought of that one gift which it was death to hide . . .perishing and with it my self, my soul” 21
“to suggest to the students of those famous colleges that they should rewrite history, though I own that it often seems a little queer as it is, unreal, lopsided; but why should they not add a supplement to history,” 26
“Yet her genius was for fiction and lusted to feed abundantly upon the lives of men and women and the study of their ways.” 27
“Had she survived, whatever she had written would have been twisted and deformed, issuing from a strained and morbid imagination. . . . her work would have gone unsigned . . . all the victims of inner strife as their writings prove, sought ineffectively to veil themselves by using the name of a man.” 28
“All the conditions of her life, all her own instincts, were hostile to the state of mind which is needed to set free whatever is in the brain. But what is the state of mind that is most propitious to the act of creation?” 29
“What one would expect to find would be that rather later perhaps some great lady would take advantage of her comparative freedom and comfort to publish something with her name to it and risk being thought a monster.” 32
“For masterpieces are not single and solitary births; they are the outcome of many years of thinking in common, of thinking by the body of the people, so that the experience of the mass is behind the single voice.” 37
“'It is vain to say human beings ought to be satisfied with tranquillity: they must have action; and they will make it if they cannot find it.’” 39
“She knew, no one better, how enormously her genius would have profited if it had not spent itself in solitary visions over distant fields; if experience and intercourse and travel had been granted her. But they were not granted; they were withheld” 40
(see more in the comments)
“We feel the influence of fear in it; just as we constantly feel an acidity which is the result of oppression, a buried suffering smouldering beneath her passion, a rancour which contracts those books, splendid as they are, with a spasm of pain.” 41
Delete“She was admitting that she was 'only a woman', or protesting that she was 'as good as a man'. . . . She had altered her values in deference to the opinion of others.” 42
“Lock up your libraries if you like; but there is no gate, no lock, no bolt, that you can set upon the freedom of my mind.” 43
“It is useless to go to the great men writers for help, however much one may go to them for pleasure. . . . --whoever it may be-never helped a woman yet, though she may have learnt a few tricks of them and adapted them to her use.” 43
“Vision Stains” - Writer/Director Karim Hussain (a man), The Theater Bizarre. (HORROR/GORE WARNING)
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-VHxu7Hq5VJg/T7STuBbg3gI/AAAAAAAAIRk/tlEK25NstLA/s1600/Theatre-of-the-Bizarre-Tom-Savini-Publicity-Photo.jpg
The Theater Bizarre is a horror film I originally watch on Netflix (where it is now unavailable), which depicted a woman who took fluid out of the eyes of other (usually drug-addicted or homeless) women at their death and transcribed their stories to pass them on. Sadly, I could not find the clip on YouTube that showed the 18 minute scene, but I typed direct quotes from it.
“I only choose women who want to die. And if you think about it, I’m giving them a voice, something they never had in life. Because of me, everything they've gone through won't just disappear. I preserve their history. I love them . . . this has become my work; I’m their biographer. . . . Their dreams finally give me purpose. . . . To understand them I have to live like them. The fact that I don’t exist is fine with me. The only things that matter are the books. I am just a technicality, a technicality with a body. That’s my only weakness.
I’m only interested in women's stories, they're the true creators, the ones who suffer. Men’s predictable stories hold no interest to me. No blood, no life. The strongest memories come from women who live long lives, who've had it all then lost it, either by choice or by decisions. Those stories hurt the most, because I feel everything they did.”
Guiding Questions: Do you think that there are facts behind every work of fiction? Do facts make fiction stronger? Do you think that men have felt enough pain to create traditionally emotional pieces of literature that can appeal to women? If writing is so gendered, can it appeal to gender non-conforming people (i.e. non binary, gender fluid, etc.)?
Virginia Woolf “A Room of One’s Own” Chapter Two
ReplyDeleteI need not hate any man; he cannot hurt me. I need not flatter any man; he has nothing to give me. So imperceptibly I found myself adopting a new attitude towards the other half of the human race. It was absurd to blame any class or any sex, as a whole. Great bodies of people are never responsible for what they do. They are driven by instincts which are not within their control. They too, the
patriarchs, the professors, had endless difficulties, terrible drawbacks to contend with. Their education had been in some ways as faulty as my own. (22)
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie “We Should All Be Feminists” TED Talk
“A Nigerian acquaintance once asked me if I was worried that men would be intimidated by me. I was not worried at all. In fact it had not occurred to me to be worried because a man who will be intimidated by me is exactly the kind of man I would have no interest in.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hg3umXU_qWc (13:42)
Both of these women express the notion that women are, in some way, supposed to please men. Where do you think this belief stems from? Woolf speaks about the “instincts” that men are driven by that are not in their control, do you agree with her? What are some examples of these instincts? When you write, do you write to please anyone, or do you worry about intimidating someone?
Virginia Woolf’s “A Room of One’s Own”
ReplyDelete“The most transient visitor to this planet, I thought, who picked up this paper could not fail to be aware, even from this scattered testimony, that England is under the rule of a patriarchy” (19).
“The Second Shelf: On the Rules of Literary Fiction for Men and Women” – Meg Wolitzer
“As a woman writer, you get points if you include the ‘male’ world in your work, and you lose points if you omit it.”
“But the top tier of literary fiction – where the air is rich and the view is great and where a book enters the public imagination and the current conversation – tends to feel peculiarly, disproportionately male.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/01/books/review/on-the-rules-of-literary-fiction-for-men-and-women.html?_r=0
Literature is, and always has been, dominated by men. It doesn’t take too much research to realize this. Any work written by a woman, no matter how complex, layered, and thematically powerful it is, seems to get dumped under the “Women’s Fiction” category. This is not only limiting these writers’ audiences but also labels the content of their work, based on the associations people make with “Women’s Fiction, in a way that is often debilitating. Woolf talks extensively about how genius women writers of the past have been suppressed to the point where their thoughts never saw the light of day. It has been a historical trend to discourage women from any forms of creative expression. In what other ways does this trend manifest itself today? Especially in the literary world? Are we on the path to improvement, or are we stuck in a rut?
When you mentioned how it's been a historical trend to discourage women from any forms of creative expression, it made me think of how that has kind of transformed over time, and it's now a stereotype for women to pursue studies in the humanities, while men are typically encouraged to pursue studies in the hard sciences. Throughout middle school and high school, it seems like educators focus more on encouraging girls to pursue careers in the humanities, and little/no focus on encouraging girls to study in the "STEM" field.
DeleteBecause of this trend, it seems to me that discouraging women from creative expression has diminished over time, but has manifested itself in other ways. For example, I feel like women are socialized to be somewhat impersonal and unemotional in personal writing.
I really like the connection you made between the class reading and the article you read online. I saved the link and I'm planning to read it in full on my own time, because the quote you pulled from it looks really interesting, and connects directly to "A Room of One's Own."
“A Room of One’s Own” Chapters 1-4 -Virginia Woolf
ReplyDelete“Clearly her mind has by no means 'consumed all impediments and become incandescent'. On the contrary, it is harassed and distracted with hates and grievances. The human race is split up for her into two parties. Men are the 'opposing faction'; men are hated and feared, because they have the power to bar her way to what she wants to do--which is to write.”
“Infographic: Women only wrote 37% of reproductive issue stories”- Sesali B.
“Looking at 12 of the top media outlets, not a single one of them had women writing the majority of their stories. WMC’s research also reveals how this imbalance has consequences for who gets quoted in those stories. They found that male reporters were more likely to quote male sources in their stories, while female reporters were more likely to quote women. The study also looked at which topics related to reproductive health were covered most.”
http://feministing.com/2016/01/22/116119/
Discussion Questions:
Why do you think that media gives so many opportunities for men to write about issues that are clearly issues for women such as reproductive health? Do you think there are ways that women can gain power over having the ability to write about this issue or any issues that they find important? Why are men’s voices heard over the voices of women in media?
Virginia Woolf’s “A Room of One’s Own”
ReplyDelete“Indeed, if woman had no existence save in the fiction written by men, one would imagine her a person of the utmost importance; very various; heroic and mean; splendid and sordid; infinitely beautiful and hideous in the extreme; as great as a man, some think even greater.” (pg 24)
“Imaginatively she is of the highest importance; practically she is completely insignificant. She
pervades poetry from cover to cover; she is all but absent from history. She dominates the lives of kings and conquerors in fiction; in fact she was the slave of any boy whose parents forced a ring upon her finger. Some of the most inspired words, some of the most profound thoughts in literature fall from her lips; in real life she could hardly read, could scarcely spell, and was the property of her husband.” (pg 25)
“Lock up your libraries if you like; but there is no gate, no lock, no bolt, that you can set upon the freedom of my mind.” (pg 43)
“I hesitate to mention this, lest it occasion a sophisticated groan, but it may not have crossed your minds that one of the dons who will interview you may be a woman. I’m reluctant at this stage in the game to expose you to new ideas, but having taught you all history of a strictly non-gender-orientated basis, I just wonder whether it occurs to any of you how dispiriting this can be? Can you, for a moment, imagine how depressing it is to teach five centuries of masculine ineptitude? Why do you think there are no women historians on TV? I’ll tell you why; because history if not such a frolic for women as it is for men. Why should it be, they never get around the conference table? In 1919, for instance, they just arranged the flowers, then gracefully retired. History is a commentary on the various and continuing incapabilities of men. What is history? History is women following behind. With the bucket. Now, Mr Rudge. How do you define history?” (The History Boys, Allen Bennett)
Guiding Question: The absence of women in our written has not meant the absence of female characters in literature. Was this due, perhaps, to strong women in male writer’s lives? In Shakespeare’s time, for example, the country was being ruled by a women for the first time in its history.
“A Room of One’s Own” Chapters 1-4 -Virginia Woolf
ReplyDelete"Have you any notion of how many books are written about women in the course of one year? Have you any notion how many are written by men? Are you aware that you are, perhaps, the most discussed animal in the universe?" (page 15)
The New England Review pie charts on the number of men and women in Fiction, Non-Fiction, Poetry, and Overall.
http://www.vidaweb.org/new-england-review-2014-vida-count-larger-literary-landscape/
Discussion Question:
If women are the "most discussed animals" then why is it that, even today, women aren't equally (or more often) getting to write/represent written women in media?
“How explain the anger of the professors? Why were they angry? For when it came to analysing the impression left by these books there was always an element of heat. This heat took many forms; it showed itself in satire, in sentiment, in curiosity, in reprobation. But there was another element which was often present and could not immediately be identified. Anger, I called it. But it was anger that had gone underground and mixed itself with all kinds of other emotions. To judge from its odd effects, it was anger disguised and complex, not anger simple and open.” pg. 18
ReplyDelete“Does it explain my astonishment of the other day when Z, most humane, most modest of men, taking up some book by Rebecca West and reading a passage in it, exclaimed, 'The arrant feminist! She says that men are snobs!' The exclamation, to me so surprising--for why was Miss West an arrant feminist for making a possibly true if uncomplimentary statement about the other sex?--was not merely the cry of wounded vanity; it was a protest against some infringement of his power to believe in himself. Women have served all these centuries as looking glasses possessing the magic and delicious power of reflecting the figure of man at twice its natural size” pg. 20
“The looking-glass vision is of supreme importance because it charges the vitality; it stimulates the nervous system. Take it away and man may die, like the drug fiend deprived of his cocaine.” pg. 21
(Virginia Woolf, “A Room of One’s Own”)
“A woman is calling out men who shame women for sharing “half naked” photos online – by tweeting their remarks alongside topless pictures they’ve shared of themselves online.” “#shirtlessshamers2016”
http://www.buzzfeed.com/rossalynwarren/shirtless-shamers#.vfzYq5OVlr
(Rossalyn Warren,“A Woman Is Calling Out The Men Who Shame Women For Sharing Nude Photos”, Buzzfeed)
While most men no longer write scathing critiques of “the mental, moral and physical inferiority of women”, the double standards Woolf mentions are still going strong, such as the #shirtlessshamers2016. How does social media perpetuate this “looking glass effect”? How is the rise of feminism affecting the effect, and what do you think will become of it in the future? Will we finally cast aside the long tradition of squashing the weaker to make oneself seem better, or will the surge of equality bring about more of these double standards from people refusing to step aside on the gender power hierarchy?
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ReplyDelete"In a hundred years, I thought, reaching my own doorstep, women will have ceased to be the protected sex. Logically they will take part in all the activities and exertions that were once denied them." -Woolf's "A Room of One's Own" (p. 23)
ReplyDelete"Trump claims to "cherish women" and has indeed hired women into positions of power over the years, but the truth is: He has always had a streak of misogyny in his public persona. He has commented on the importance of "a young and beautiful piece of ass"; he has called a breastfeeding woman "disgusting"; he has suggested that sexual assault is a natural byproduct of putting men and women together in the military." - Gray's "Donald Trump Is Giving America Permission To Hate Women"
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/megyn-kelly-donald-trump-misogyny_us_56aa4143e4b05e4e37037cb5?ir=Women§ion=us_women&utm_hp_ref=women
While women may be present in formerly restricted areas of the work force, it is clear that the respect for those individuals is almost completely absent inside and outside of the work place (as demonstrated by Trump and his many trolls). How can women resist the hate and rise to the challenge? What ways could women use this degradation to their advantage?
If Woolf said we would be in a time where women are not the protected sex, are women currently the hated sex? If not, what would be a better description? Where will women be in the next 100 years?
-"But how impossible it must have been for them not to budge either to the right or to the left. What genius, what integrity it must have required in face of all that criticism, in the midst of that purely patriarchal society, to hold fast to the thing as they saw it without shrinking" (42). ~Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own.
ReplyDelete-Marley Dias, an 11-year-old student from New Jersey started a project titled #1000BlackGirlBooks. Tired of reading about "white boys and dogs," she hopes to collect 1,000 books where black women are the protagonists and to inspire other young girls to do the same. She wants other young girls to do this project and not to treat it as a chore. She is creating a fun way for young girls to find protagonists they can look up to.
http://jezebel.com/11-year-old-sick-of-reading-about-white-boys-and-dogs-l-1755021888
http://grassrootscommunityfoundation.org/marley-promotes-1000blackgirlbooks/ (Marley's official fundraising page)
-It's exciting and refreshing to see young people take action against patriarchal society on their own terms. Just as authors like Bronte fought for women's representation in literature, young people like Marley seem to carry their torch to fight for what they believe. This concept has much to do with intersectionality. Not only do women tend to lose their voice, but there is an even bigger lack of non-white women being represented. How do people like Marley help make a difference? How do we make sure everyone is represented in fair ways?
I like the idea that 11 year old Marley Dias is making get more books that speak a different tune than the typical notion of white boys and dogs. As a young girl doing something of a movement that is pretty big but it also speaks value that young kids are starting to realize things that older people usually wouldnt think they would realize. I also believe its a good movement for young Marley to do because as a young black girl it gives a different voice to be spoken as to what needs to be done. Instead of having the typical older people speaking out against it, it shows that, that voice alone isn't enough therefore calling out all young women and older ladies to speak out and have a voice.
DeleteWoolf- "A Room of One's Own"
ReplyDelete"But however small it was, it had, nevertheless, the mysterious property of its kind--put back into the mind, it became at once very exciting, and important; and as it darted and sank, and flashed hither and thither, set up such a wash and tumult of ideas that it was impossible to sit still. It was thus that I found myself walking with extreme rapidity across a grass plot.Instantly a man's figure rose to intercept me. Nor did I at first understand
that the gesticulations of a curious-looking object, in a cut-away coat and evening shirt, were aimed at me. His face expressed horror and indignation. Instinct rather than reason came to my help, he was a Beadle; I was a woman. This was the turf; there was the path. Only the Fellows and Scholars are allowed here; the gravel is the place for me." -Woolf, Chapter One, page 3
Pittman, "Male Engineering Student Perfectly Explains Why Female Classmates Aren't His Equals"
"A study published in the Harvard Business Review in March 2015 highlights the sexism that exists in STEM fields. According to the study, two-thirds of the 557 female scientists surveyed 'reported having to prove themselves over and over again.'" -Pittman, page 1
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/women-men-engineers-arent-equal-jared-mauldin-letter_us_561699b9e4b0e66ad4c6bee5?utm_hp_ref=girls-in-stem
Guiding Questions: The opening scene in Woolf's narrative describes an image that metaphorically describes the limitations women have in education and in expressing thought; this idea of limitation comes up a lot in women's literature. Does the way these works of literature are taught (or not taught) have an impact on how female intellectuals in other fields are being treated? If women's works were taught more widely, would today's females have less obstacles to overcome because of their sex?
"I need not hate any man; he cannot hurt me. I need not flatter any man; he has nothing to give me. So imperceptibly I found myself adopting a new attitude towards the other half of the human race. It was absurd to blame any class or any sex, as a whole. Great bodies of people are never responsible for what they do. They are driven by instincts, which are not within their control. They too, the patriarchs, the professors, had endless difficulties, terrible drawbacks to contend with. Their education had been in some ways as faulty as my own." (22) A Room of One's Own by Virgina Woolf
ReplyDelete"The most dangerous thing society teaches boys and men, especially white boys and men, is that their emotions are objective logic and reason and that anyone who disagrees is being irrational."
http://yikyaksexism.tumblr.com/post/118644963975/jean-luc-gohard-the-most-dangerous-thing
To me, it is very important that we not only think about how and why women are traditionally so stigmatized, but also why men -- and some women -- are socialized into that kind of thinking. It is crucial that we consider what we as women can do to overcome these challenges, but I also think it is important to consider how we can reform certain ways of thinking. Women are obviously socialized into thinking they are "less than," and by proxy, men are socialized into thinking they are "more than" or "different than," or they are also socialized to think that women are "less than." According to both of these texts, what men and women are socialized to believe is obviously different, and many of the means of reform seem divisive in terms of gender. How might both boys/men and girls/women both learn gender equality in the same way? Is this even a good idea, or is it best if they are taught differently? Is there a way to socialize people the other way -- to break down gender stereotypes? Do you think it is objectively more harmful for men to be taught that women are "less than," or is it more harmful for women to be taught that? If you think both are equally harmful, how might men and women receive that message differently?
Woolf- "A Room of One's Own"
ReplyDelete"Football and sport are'important'; the worship of fashion, the buying of clothes 'trivial'."
Guo-"Researchers have found a major problem with ‘The Little Mermaid’ and other Disney movies"
"For a film centered on a young woman, there’s an awful lot of talking by men. In fact, this was the first Disney princess movie in which the men significantly outspoke the women."
Guiding questions:How much of societal stigmas and sterotypes are perpetuated by the other themselves? If we're to determine what is and isn't trivial and to find truth in fictions, how should women go about defining themselves in a way that is not only female centric?
“It would have been impossible, completely and entirely, for any woman to have written the plays of Shakespeare in the age of Shakespeare” From Virgina Woolf.
ReplyDelete“When I was starting to write—in the late fifties, early sixties—there was a kind of social tradition in which male novelists could operate. Hard drinkers, bad livers. Wives, wars, big fish, Africa, Paris, no second acts. A man who wrote novels had a role in the world, and he could play that role and do whatever he wanted behind it. A woman who wrote novels had no particular role. Women who wrote novels were quite often perceived as invalids. Carson McCullers, Jane Bowles. Flannery O'Connor, of course. Novels by women tended to be described, even by their publishers, as sensitive. I'm not sure this is so true anymore, but it certainly was at the time, and I didn't much like it. I dealt with it the same way I deal with everything. I just tended my own garden, didn't pay much attention, behaved—I suppose—deviously. I mean I didn't actually let too many people know what I was doing.” – From Joan Didion: http://www.theparisreview.org/interviews/3439/the-art-of-fiction-no-71-joan-didion
According to Woolf, and didion, there is an inequality to the way men and women are treated in regards to writing and being contributors to the literary world, is this still true today? Are men still seen superior? Have women writers achieved equality?
3. “A Room of One’s Own” by Virginia Woolf
ReplyDelete- Quote from the text: “SHE shall be inferior as that HE will be superior, which plants him wherever one looks, not only in front of the arts, but barring the way to politics too, even when the risk to himself seems infinitesimal and the suppliant humble and devoted” ( Woolf 31).
- Connection to Contemporary Text:
Female World Leaders
(Presidents and Prime Ministers)
No body stopped these women, but it doesn’t mean they didn’t try.
http://www.jjmccullough.com/charts_rest_female-leaders.php
Looking at a couple of these women in particular, their stories reveal the tragedies and stuggles they have overcome to take power and authority to better their countries.
http://www.biography.com/news/women-presidents-from-around-the-world-21145269
“Despite being an unmarried female in a deeply patriarchal society, it appears that President Park’s sordid political inheritance helped her win the votes of conservative Korean men. Sworn into office just this past month, Park has promised to have more interaction with North Korea.” (South Korea)
” As she promised her citizens, President Banda has gotten rid of excess waste (e.g. the multi-million presidential jet), repealed discrimination laws against homosexuals, advocated for women’s and children’s rights, and called for President Omar al-Bashir of Sudan to be arrested if he steps into her turf.” (Malawi)
- My Guiding Question:
Why do men feel the need to stop women from doing the things they want to do? Is this another “society” problem or must we look to change individual mindsets more so? Are we gradually getting better with this today? Are women gaining footing?
"A Room of One's Own" - Woolf
ReplyDelete"So obviously we cannot have wine and partridges and servants carrying tin dishes on their heads, she said. We cannot have sofas and separate rooms... Every penny which could be scraped together was set aside for building, and the amenities had to be postponed" (12).
"The Pink Tax" - Candice Elliott
"The pink tax refers to the extra amount women are charged for certain products or services. Things like dry cleaning, personal care products and vehicle maintenance. So not only do we make less but we pay more. Some bullshit. How much more? About $1351 more a year in extra costs. Where are we paying more? Below are the some of the biggest culprits."
This article goes on to explain the differences between products that women buy, and products men buy. They are the same, but have different costs. So, here's the question: why one earth are women being charged more for the same products as men?
Is it because the process and "ingredients" in women's products are more expensive? If so, why are they? Why not use the same things as men's products? Are they simply the same cost to make but companies charge more for women's products? If so, why?
Have you any notion of how many books are written about women in the course of one year? Have you any notion how many are written by men? Are you aware that you are, perhaps, the most discussed animal in the universe? (pg 12)
ReplyDeleteFamous celebrities speaking out on the everyday issue of women not being treated fairly, or compensated fairly. "It's still completely s**t. I don't think there's any appreciable improvement and I think that, for women, the question of how they are supposed to look is worse than it was even when I was young. So no, I am not impressed, at all." http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/features/the-powerful-women-and-a-few-men-speaking-out-against-sexism-and-ageism-in-hollywood-a6672256.html
Guiding Question: What else should be done in order for women to be treated as fairly as men? How can we get to this position in history in order to move forward not only as a nation but as individuals that's effecting the nation?
After becoming the first black woman to win best lead actress in a drama series, Viola Davis said, "The only thing that separates women of color from anyone else is opportunity. You cannot win an Emmy for roles that are simply not there. So here’s to all the writers, the awesome people that are Ben Sherwood, Paul Lee, Peter Nowalk, Shonda Rhimes, people who have redefined what it means to be beautiful, to be sexy, to be a leading woman, to be black." (http://www.nytimes.com/live/emmys-2015/viola-daviss-emotional-emmys-acceptance-speech/)
DeleteRepresentation matters. If writers do not provide roles to women of color, they won't have opportunities to win awards. It has nothing to do with talent, just opportunity. To have women treated as fairly as men, it needs to be a joint effort. Davis cites the producers/directors who are doing great work, but still knows there is so much more to be done.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete“I need not hate any man; he cannot hurt me… It was absurd to blame any class or any sex, as a whole. Great bodies of people are never responsible for what they do.” –Woolf, A Room of One’s Own
ReplyDeletehttp://elitedaily.com/women/why-being-a-feminsit-has-nothing-to-do-with-hating-men/592257/
-“Feminism is a multi-faceted movement. It is as nuanced as it is broad, but there is one thing for absolute certain: Misandry has no place in feminism and it never will.”
Guiding Question:
It seems a very popular notion that feminists hate men. Where does this perception come from and is it one of the principal excuses people use to put feminism down?
"Lock up your libraries if you like; but there is no gate, no lock, no bolt that you can set upon the freedom of my mind."
ReplyDelete-Woolf, A Room of One's Own.
"I have a real issue with anyone trying to protect children from their own imaginations."
-JK Rowling.
How are "imagination" and "freedom of mind" alike in the context of writing? How, if at all, are they different?