Monday, June 8, 2015

In "A Vindication of the Rights of Woman," how does Mary Wollstonecraft depict men?

Mary Woollstonecraft certainly has a lot to say about men
and their role in creating a situation and a society in which women are taught only to
please men. This "barren blooming" is attributed to
men:



One
cause of this barren blooming I attribute to a false system of education, gathered from
the books written on this subject by men who, considering females rather as women than
human creatures, have been more anxious to make them alluring mistresses than
affectionate wives and rational
mothers...



Note how the
author blames men for creating this image of women as needing to become "alluring
mistresses."


However, it is also important to note that
throughout the text, although Woollstonecraft clearly rails against a patriarchal
society that completely disempowers women and treats them as "subordinate beings," she
is careful not to openly attack men in her discourse. She merely argues her point that
women are rational beings too, and states that not all women of her time lack
well-developed minds, dignity and personal power. Thus, whilst clearly arguing that men
have been responsible for creating a situation of such inequality, the author does not
directly attack them.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Calculate tan(x-y), if sin x=1/2 and sin y=1/3. 0

We'll write the formula of the tangent of difference of 2 angles. tan (x-y) = (tan x - tan y)/(1 + tan x*tan y) ...