A woman must have money and a room of her own if she is to write fiction.
Finally, a gender's issue that isn't forced! Mary Beton/Seton/Carmichael very plainly, easily, and happily writes a story for us which we can understand. She contends that Judith Shakespeare, a fictional sister of William's, would not have been afforded the same respect had she the same talents as her brother. In a metaphorical sense she asks for five hundred pounds a year to sustain any female author as she writes.
But this is not any militant feminism. Instead, she seems to be promoting the poetic license of any artist, so long as all are given equal credit and equal criticism for their individual efforts. Oxbridge, then, becomes a satire of the previously masculocentric literary world.
That a woman should be given the same opportunity as a man seems justified and fair.
Tuesday, February 19, 2008
A Tomb of One's Own
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3 comments:
Yes, you are right: The feminist ideals in this story are NOT forced. We saw a preview of that when we read this from the introduction: "Woolf advocated the creation of a literature that would include women's experience and ways of thinking, but instead of encouraging an exclusively female perspective, she proposed literature that would be 'androgynous in mind' and resonate equally with men and women" (2082). So it seems Woolf is one of those feminists who is not out to make women all-powerful but rather to level the playing field between men and women. She's not a "man hater," as the stereotype goes.
How sure are we that this is in fact the truth, as we saw with her first thesis she is infact questioning herself throug h out much of the story. Is this truly a call for the equality for women or do we as naive young women not want to see that this could possible be a sattire in the idea that she is only striving for the equality of women. Personable, I feel that this is in fact not a call to equality, yet a call to reality. For so long women have been shunned by society, and Wolfe is finally calling for the rightful equality and respect of women. So as to the question if this is a forced feminist movement, I would have to disagree and say that she is in fact forcing us (the world) to look at women and their rights in a different light.
And that would elucidate her point further: If we were to shun her thesis as garbage to the wayward side of the road, then we would be victims of her own description (making satires of her own satirical mazed situation), ultimately contributing to her own cause.
Chris: Wasn't this every other argument of the opressed, however, just substituting tit's for tat's and "if she is to write fiction" to "if he/she will contribute and participate to society?"
To clarify my emotions to her piece: I'm not challenging her legitimacy of her claim (for other women), not even her claim itself (for other women), but more the manner in which the claim is conducted: by a Ms. Woolfe, who profits (some, marginally) by the pen, understood that she was a powerful writer (otherwise she wouldn't have pubicly wrote) and still wrote Pity me, Pity me. It just seems that the situation would be worse off (therefore conducted more steadily) for someone who wasn't as well off as ?V. Woolfe.
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