Tuesday, September 12, 2006


I always come back from my Women in Western Civilization class inspired. What I found most interesting today is the difference between how we worship women, both in history and today, is so separate from what powers we dare to give them. To use an older example; the Statue of Liberty is, as the name suggests, a celebration of freedom and she is in fact a women. However, if she were a living person it would take her 34 years (from 1886 to 1920) for her to be able to vote in the very country she was meant to symbolize freedom for. Well actually, she was born in France so would have to wait nearly 50 years (or more than half her life, France gave women the vote in 1945).
Today maybe the examples are a little bit less statuary (excuse the pun) but lets say; when did you last see a movie with a plot including a beautiful woman? (Counting porn is voluntary), and how many films have you seen directed by a woman? In a typical museum, how many of the art works includes a naked woman? And how many art works is by a woman? When did you last have the ability to vote for a female politician? How many great women did you study in your history class beyond Queen Elizabeth and Jeanne D'arc compared to the Hitlers, Ceasars, Stalins, and Francos?
Well, I just find it interesting, correct me if I am wrong..

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hurra, hurra för kvinna, även i dessa dagar behöver vi komma ihåg de orättvisor som finns. Fortsätt Stine utan att bli militant.Bravo. Kul att läsa din blogg.

Vespasian said...

Your not wrong but who should we have been studying?

The 'great man of history' model for studying history is going by the wayside as historians focus more on social history. In that we can study women in more depth. But many of the defining moments of our history were perpetrated by men simply because of their repression of women.

As for voting for women, I voted for a woman in the last election.