Literature Entry Week 7
No Angel In My House!!
So this week’s lecture was quite controversial wasn’t it! I recall sitting there and feeling like I was being put into a box of how women were and how women are. It made me think a lot.
Virginia Woolf in her “Professions for Women” spoke out against this Angel in the house. She was, as Michael said in the lecture, trying to create a space for women in a male dominated world - a space for the soul and for creative expression. The Angel in the house, which came about a century earlier than Woolf’s “Professions”, restricted women immensely! It placed women in this box of how they should be and what they should do and how they should act and what they should think. Quite ironic really. I personally loved the passion of Woolf in fighting this stereotype. I absolutely HATE when people judge others based on stereotypes. Like today, for example, people are so quick to judge people they see wearing black and ‘emo’ or ‘Goth’, or someone who is gay as a ‘dyke’ or a ‘faggot’, or a girl who isn’t ashamed to flaunt her body as a ‘skank’. Stereotyping leaves no room for individuality. It categorises people into a particular way of being - a way to dress, the type of music to listen to, a way of speaking, a way of walking, you name it! Just like the Angel in the house, we have prescribed ways that people should act.
Personally, I think this is absurd. Why can’t people just be who they are because that is who they are? Why do they have to be trying to uphold a certain image? Why, because I like to wear black, do I have to be emo? Why, because I like to read, am I a nerd?
One wonders, one hundred years down the track, have we really advanced that far? In her speech, Woolf writes that the Angel of the house tells her to “Never let anybody guess that you have a mind of your own” (Norton 2153). Well, sadly, I think this angel is still in society. Many people are too afraid to step out and be individuals, so they rather conform to the ignorance of some of society. Is it that being true and honest, to yourself and those around is just too difficult?
I know that turned into a bit of a rant, but I got really worked up about that topic this week. I liked it though. I love feeling so passionate about a topic that I start to rant haha. Feel free to comment with your thoughts.
(By the way, this was a rant by a woman, but I'm pretty sure there are men out there who agree, or who als have an opinion - therefore, DON'T PUT ME IN A BOX AS SOME FEMINIST BECAUSE THIS WAS ABOUT PEOPLE, THOUGHT OF BY A PERSON, GENDER IS IRRELEVANT HERE!)
So let us ask ourselves just how far have we come?
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