reconstruction of history
In Virginia Woolf’s essay “A Room of One’s Own”, she invents Judith, Shakespeare’s hypothetical sister of equal genius, to stress the ways in which women were mistreated and undervalued and to highlight the intense discrepancies between the lives of men and women. Whereas Shakespeare received a high-quality education and the opportunity to make a successful career for himself as a writer, his sister was screwed out of an education, betrothed, and beaten. Judith felt compelled to run away to follow her dream only to be laughed at, ridiculed, and impregnated by a man who regarded her as a charity case. Woolf takes the bold position that “any woman born with a great gift in the sixteenth century would certainly gone crazed, shot herself, or ended her days in some lonely cottage outside the village, half witch, half wizard, feared and mocked at.” A similar point is made in “Iron Jawed Angels” when the psychologist declares after speaking with Alice Paul that “courage is often mistaken for insanity in women.” Judy Chicago’s feminist piece, The Dinner Party (1979), seeks to raise awareness of the actions of the women’s movement by recognizing the work of various celebrated females. This sculpture of a dinner table has thirty-nine placemats dedicated to famous women in history. The Manifesta timeline offers unknown facts and small but important details through a very full and comprehensive account of women and their actions over the ages.
All of these works emphasize the struggles, misconceptions, and earned achievements of females but I fail to understand why I didn’t learn about any of these things in school until now.
Women are not talked about enough in schools in their deserving context. Too little is known of their troubles and tribulations by children. But I agree with Annie that an education in which women are emphasized in the same framework as men is wrong. It gives the illusion that women haven’t suffered or fought through submissiveness, stereotypes, and premeditated roles to attain a higher level of equality. It is important to have a more thorough education of the women’s movement that emphasizes the high points and the successes but it is just as necessary alongside that to present the low points to allow for a fuller appreciation of the fight, past and present.
I realize that American Girl dolls aren’t perfect and don’t represent all races but at least they are a positive attempt on the part of today’s society to offer young girls an encouraging perspective on the talents, courage, and independence of women in history.