Pardon Me
(I am awash with girliness.)
Today in English, when we discussed The Awakening. Ours is a class of tweleve brilliant passionate women, plus a brilliant passionate female teacher, and one, brilliant boy. This boy said that he thought Awakening was too "soap-opera-y," this did not bode well for him, as the instant the words fled his mouth, all thirteen women spitting retorts. Gatsby, a wonderful book is everybit as dramatic as Awakening, but as it's from the male perpective, it eases out of the "soap opera" brand. Men apparently, when they express love, are valiant, women are, god forbid, DRAMATIC. Florid even.
It's the same with romance novels, berated as "anti-feminist" but what are they but the essence of feminine powerful writing. Yes, they can be silly, yes the are about sex. But the women who write them are intelligent hard-working women. Yes, women, the write half the popular genre market, and yet, unlike mystery books, (also popular fiction) they cannot escape the degrading inflection. ROMance novels. Eloisa James, a very sucessful author, went to Oxford. Women in my mothers writing chapter include CIA, NASA, and Yale professors. What do we, women, have against them? Are we too disgusted by sexual freedom if it means loving men?
The moral of the story, don't limit yourself to a gender ideal, though be aware of them. Sexism is more prevelant than we think, for both men and women.
Today in English, when we discussed The Awakening. Ours is a class of tweleve brilliant passionate women, plus a brilliant passionate female teacher, and one, brilliant boy. This boy said that he thought Awakening was too "soap-opera-y," this did not bode well for him, as the instant the words fled his mouth, all thirteen women spitting retorts. Gatsby, a wonderful book is everybit as dramatic as Awakening, but as it's from the male perpective, it eases out of the "soap opera" brand. Men apparently, when they express love, are valiant, women are, god forbid, DRAMATIC. Florid even.
It's the same with romance novels, berated as "anti-feminist" but what are they but the essence of feminine powerful writing. Yes, they can be silly, yes the are about sex. But the women who write them are intelligent hard-working women. Yes, women, the write half the popular genre market, and yet, unlike mystery books, (also popular fiction) they cannot escape the degrading inflection. ROMance novels. Eloisa James, a very sucessful author, went to Oxford. Women in my mothers writing chapter include CIA, NASA, and Yale professors. What do we, women, have against them? Are we too disgusted by sexual freedom if it means loving men?
The moral of the story, don't limit yourself to a gender ideal, though be aware of them. Sexism is more prevelant than we think, for both men and women.