July blogathon # 19: "I want my life to be extraordinary"

[anghara]

Just yesterday, flapping around the Web as you do, I tripped across this article

It'a about "anomie", and they define the term like this:

Anomie, which literally means “without law” in German and French, was defined by Durkheim to be a state of “normlessness.” ....in times of social change and upheaval, clear societal standards and expectations

Comments

[anghara]

Indeed, but the couple of salient points here are that (a) yes, my point WAS that Austen published as "A Lady", as opposed to taking refuge in male-dom, as it were, and was nonetheless accepted and read - and (b) sure, there were others out there and they were more or less successful on a sliding scale but as you yourself point out above these are women writers who are NO LONGER READ TODAY. Austen is. So "There was ONE Jane Austen" stands, as far as it goes.

I'm not saying there weren't successful women out there in the days of yore. Just that their successes, for the most part, were ephemeral and often attached to a male point of reference - and within their own lifteimes, often, they were gone and forgotten because (well, you know, OBVIOUSLY) being LADIES their dabbles in the arts and sciences in any kind of commercial or career-minded way was, well, cute, there there. That's a nice hobby, sweet girl. When are you going to marry and have your children, like everyone else...? (And if you didn't marry and have children like everyone else, well, could it be because you were taking that hobby a TAD seriously and men don't like intense young women like that and don't you KNOW you're going to end up a 27-year-old spinster any day now...?)...