Naomi on Ocampo y Roy-Ferquiere
After reading Victoria Ocampo’s piece I was left wondering what exactly it is feminists would say there were/are fighting for today. Ocampo says that men need to understand that we do not want to take their place but rather want to take our own completely. She goes on to say that men need to stop “invading the territory of women.” I’m not sure exactly what this women’s space is, or where it is. What is “our territory”? It was interesting also to think of this place in relation to her discussion on mothering/creating a new generation. Is woman’s place in the home, creating “little men” that will be more peaceful, more respectful, stronger believers in the equal rights of men and women (and all people)?
Roy-Fequiere mentions a similar theme with respect to the writing of Mercedes Solá. Solá seems to think that it is women’s job to create a new world through their work as mothers. I’m wondering then, since both of these women come from highly privileged places, what would happen to the children that they were raising. Since women with a solid education and independent income would have more intellectual pursuits, wouldn’t these same women be away from home, leaving their children to be raised by lower-class nannies and such and thus not raising the future generation themselves but rather leaving this important job to other women who certainly would not have the “moral training” of the upper class women. While Roy-Ferquiere compares Solá’s feminism with that of Luisa Capetillo I don’t see that she clearly explains the latter’s ideals. Since it is so clear that Solá played into the patriarchal system, even taking “great pains to show men what advantages they will derive from feminism,” I think it is important to have equal information regarding Capetillo. I have read some excerpts of her writing and believe that she was quite a deviant in her time in her dress, lack of conventional marriage and mix of self-education and working-class status. What were her takes on motherhood I wonder?