Midieval/early modern feminst thought
I am really into this medieval/early modern feminist thought time period. The writing of María de Zayas and Juana Inés de la Cruz was really interesting to me. My understanding of this point in time was that women were not allowed to write such pieces, if any for that matter. However, this shows I’m wrong. Even though these pieces were written so long ago, there are points that correlate with contemporary society.
Parallel to what both Sarah and Jessica have mentioned, in modern society women are placed into a lose/lose situation where having sex makes you slutty, and not having it makes you prudish. I had been thinking of the audience of this poem, and I can’t quite narrow it down, I don’t think that it is other nuns, or virtuous women, I guess that it is women or men that are involved in deceitful acts. It could also be men as the first line suggests, “Silly, you men-so very adept at wrongly faulting womankind.” What do you all think? Another part that effects us today, is the part she talks about prostitution and who in the Christian context is sinning, the prostitute or the man?
In this particular text, “In a Lighter Vein,” it was definitely a change of pace. I had to read it a few times to get the full effect of the metaphors, and language that was used, but enjoyed my time doing it. Throughout this piece it seems to show many of the ideals of that era, such as virtuousness, submissiveness, mainly obedient. Just seeing separate words of her text alone shows the oppression that women are under. It also tries to show what men are at fault of.
I also found many similar topics in the Disenchantment piece. Mention of the “burden of all blame” is the “feminine sex.” (114) Crime, folly, loose women, fault, prostitution; “As for women of free habits, what do you expect of them except exactly what you’re seeking, which is for you to have a good time and for her to take away your money?” (114), take advantage, complain, warning. All of these words/concepts also seem to be comparable to “In a Lighter Vein.”
Although this author was a nun, there seems to be part of this poem where she is very resentful towards men. My stereotype is that all nuns are to be free from negative thoughts, but it is clear that this is a generalization of my own. But, with the negative undertone of the text, it is clear that the author wants a reaction because of all the negative terminology. For example, I wrote down all of the pessimistic words in the poem and there was a list near thirty. Included were: ungrateful, cruel, torment, anger, resistance, cries, wimper, naughty, plea, coaxed, fear: all of these words make me cringe my teeth; they all seem so violent, especially coming from a nun. I wonder what was going on in her subconscious thought? Maybe something bad.
Sorry for the randomness of my thoughts, but this is just how they all came out. Overall, it is interesting to think about the era and the process these writers went through.