Honestly
I think the voice used in this story, when coupled with the rest of the
provided materials for this week gives we as students a rather loaded
and one sided idea. That to quote Irina Dunn (which was later
popularized by Gloria Steinem) “A woman needs a man like a fish needs a
bicycle.” That men some how are all entirely to blame for all of womens
woes, depicted as these horrible monsters that are out to get us and
that a woman can only be free if she is free of men, that somehow MEN
are the enemy.
In
“Story of an Hour” the sociopath of a character in Mrs. Mallard has an
epiphany that now that she is not inconvenienced to be tied down to her
husband a whole world of opportunity lays before her. Her understanding
is that he has died in a horrible railway accident and after a quick
burst of tears for the sake of company takes time by herself to gloat
and revel in the fact that her Husband is dead.
She
admits to only “sometimes” loving him, and although he had only ever
shown her love, devotion and kindness she is filled with a fierce
happiness over his most certain demise? Yet we are asked to sympathize
and share her sociopathic joy? I’m sorry, I know this story was written
during another era where not all marriages where a love match, and
perhaps on its own I would not have had such a distasteful reaction to
this story, but I believe I still would find it wholly shallow, cold and
filled with conformity.
Men
should not be shamed for simply being men, and Mrs. Mallard got what
she deserved, a heart attack to a sensitive and weak dispositioned
selfish creature. If you don’t love someone why be with them? If you
can’t at least have some sympathy for the dead temper your own selfish
joys.
This
story was not ironic, it was cruel, self centered and bitter. I am now
more than ever disgusted by the popular feminist manifesto which gives
women the prevailing sense of of “Us versus them.” This is what
oppresses women, characters like Mrs. Mallard oppress us, she was not
oppressed by her husband, she was not a victim of his, she was more than
likely making him a victim herself. Imagine that? Living and being
married to someone whom only tolerates you and will be happy when you're
gone? What kind of message is this to send to women and men alike?
The
Questions are worded to make us give only one possible answer, that
Mrs. Mallard felt oppressed by the entire notion of being a wife, that
now she was free to see anyone she chose, to create a new circle of
acquaintance, to reinvent herself to the outer world. I say apox on this
notion and all those whom would tell me that anyone I loved could be
capable of holding me down.
This
is not what a loving relationship teaches us. A true marriage is one
which is supportive, and educational, that encourages us on to new and
better things, and does not wish to bind, restrict, or sabotage who we
are as people. Marriage is created by two whole individuals fusing
themselves together into a pact of greater than the sum of their
individual parts, not two half people to make a whole.
I
say instead it was Mrs. Mallard who is to blame for oppressing herself,
her reaction tells me that while she fancies herself the caged bird
singing I despise her for not picking the lock to her cage and freeing
herself. She is weak and cowardly, sociopathic and ruled by her Id.
Blame shifting her oppression onto the fault of her husband, reveling in
his death as some sort of get out of jail free card is cowardly and
abhorrent to me on a very intrinsic level.
The only way I can express my disdain for this story any further is to quote and post Pink Floyd
Wish you were here - Covered by Rasputina
Let
me hit you with an idea, the word “Faggot” originally just meant a
bundle of sticks, then due to the horrendous societal norm in England
and America to describe those boys who were molested or targets of
sexual abuse. Eventually this term was changed to describe homosexual
men at first in a negative connotation and this continues to change with
the ages.
While
the word “Feminism” used to mean a woman fighting for equal rights for
women, it has been tainted by agendas that do not define me or women in
general. Feminism today where it is now practiced and taught and
popularly perceived by the masses includes a certain social dogma which
is no longer grounded on the original tenants of the movement.
There
is nothing wrong with being a wife and a mother, and yet in The Pill
Author even goes so far as to deny that we can be equal as men but only
until we get Government provided birth control and Government provided
day care, essentially telling us as women that we can not be the equal
of a man until we do away with being a mother.
No, infact I say HELL NO.
The
strongest women I know are mothers, I have the freedom not only to
choose to work and vote, but I also still have the right to be a loving
and tender wife, who takes pride and enjoys cooking and a clean home, I
have the freedom to be a strong and caring mother. I have the right to
be as feminine as I choose, I do not need to BE a man in order to be the
equal of a man.
You
know where I believe the entire feminist negativity came about? The
hypocrisy, irresponsibility and abandonment of the throw away
generation. Thats right, free love, disposable plastics and the pill,
the feminists of the 60’s made this bed and now we all have to lay in
it.
They
fought for and now teach all of the wrong lessons, bra burning is
incredibly shallow, the Caitlin Moran NPR discussion where she equates
pubic waxing to pornography, how those hold over sexually repressed
ideas about sex, motherhood, marriage and love from the 1950’s were
twisted into a hate and bitter bile that now makes a mockery of female
empowerment.
It’s
my firm belief that both Susan B Anthony the single woman and her
dearest friend Elizabeth Cady Stanton a loving wife and the mother of
seven children as well as the Womans Revolution would find the state of
feminism today to be a detriment to the womans movement and our own
empowerment. They fought for equality but also for the right for women
to be a woman and still be free even in the face of their former male
supporters turning on them during the passing of the fourteenth and
fifteenth amendment.
The
“feminist” agenda is not to just burn bras anymore, but to prostitute
ourselves just to show how strong we are? Where sisterhood no longer
exists beyond a maxi pad commercial, where instead of teaching our young
girls how to just be themselves we are instead teaching them their best
is not good enough. That a woman can not be free until she is free from
children, pregnancy, her period, and her husband; where every man is
out to rape and hurt her, to keep her down and in the kitchen chained to
the stove and making him a sandwich.
The
first societies of man worshipped the trinity, Mother, Father and
child, the divine feminine, the warrioress, celebrated the miracle of
life and our ability of both man and woman to create new life. Women
lived longest and were given the knowledge of the tribe, the histories
to teach the younger ones, they were a terrible force to behold on the
battlefield leading armies to protect their homeland even against the
strength of the might of the roman army. Men where the divinely
appointed mate, partner and consort of woman not the enemy described to
us by Gertrude Stein and the rest.
It is not ok for a woman to hit a man, just as it is not ok for a man to hit a woman.
A man has just as much right to be a stay at home Dad, to bake cookies and take care of the kids, just as a woman.
We
are equals, and no society is not perfect, we still have a long way to
go, but we need to remember the beauty of all portions of womanhood and
masculinity alike and not perpetuate the cold war paranoia of a supposed
war between the sexes. 
This is a statue of Queen Boudicca of the Iceni standing proudly near Westminster Pier in London who lead her people bravely against the invading Roman army at the height of its power.
"I am not fighting for my kingdom and wealth now. I am fighting as an ordinary person for my lost freedom, my bruised body, and my outraged daughters." ~Queen Boudicca
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