1. Rousseau, The Confessions (excerpt):. Read the short excerpt from Rousseau’s autobiography, The Confessions. This is in volume E of the Norton Anthology. Unfortunately, because of technical issues, I was not able to scan and post this short reading. At this point in the semester, I am assuming that most of you have acquired the required texts. If you don’t have the anthology and can’t do this reading, you may want to do some google-ing and see what you can discover about Rousseau’s autobiography. Please respond to any two of the Rousseau discussion questions (I am sharing these in a separate post.). Your responses should be posted by Wednesday, March 3rd.
2. Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman: Read the short excerpt from this text that I have linked to under the “Readings” tab above. In advance of Wednesday’s class, please select one passage (not more than one or two sentences) from the excerpt that seems to you to be particularly meaningful or interesting and post it below (as a comment on this post). In a brief paragraph, please explain what you understand Wollstonecraft to be saying in your passage and why you find it particularly noteworthy. These posts should be shared before our class on Wednesday, March 3rd.
3. Foundational Documents of Democracy: One expression of the Romantic spirit of the late 18th century is a changing vision of the meaning and function of government. Please read the preamble to the U.S. Declaration of Independence (pp.18-19 in Vol. E of the Norton Anthology – the paragraph that begins “We hold these truths to be self-evident….”) and The Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (pp. 21-23). Please identify one concept from either document that seems to you to be particularly noteworthy – either historically or in our own era – and share it on the slack channel #foundational documents of democracy. Be sure to explain why this idea stands out for you. These observations should be shared by Friday, March 5th. Then please read your classmates’ responses and comment on at least two of them by Sunday, March 7th.
4. Group Projects Preference Form: Please see my previous post and if you haven’t already done so, complete your group projects preference form and return it to me ASAP!
5. Office Hours:. Please click HERE to access the sign-up sheet for my office hours. Use our regular Zoom link to find me!
2. Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman:
“–yet, perhaps, no more aphorism ever contained a more paradoxical assertion”
I believe this is noteworthy is because it explains that this quote isn’t necessarily logical but it may seem redundant and wrong at the same time. Having inspected the wrong things doesn’t necessarily make you right because of God’s creation being that whatever evil he makes doesn’t make it necessarily the right thing to do. Women can do more than agree to men according to Wollstonecraft , it shouldn’t be inferred having a weaker body should mean less intelligence.
Ok, this confused me! It’s hard to keep track of your use of right and wrong here. Wollstonecraft, unlike Pope, believes that if we are given the ability to see what is wrong with our world, it is right that we should work to change it.
One passage from the passage that seems interesting is A Vindication of the Rights of Woman is it talks about the gender of women and talks about the role of women. It is noteworthy because women can have more equality than men stated by Wollstonecraft. Women and men shouldn’t be compared at all to their roles and their gender.
Simran, I was asking you to identify a specific line from the text, not just a general idea you took from it. Please select a quotation from Mary Wollstonecraft’s own words!
2. Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman:
“–to render them pleasing” seemed noteworthy to me because female’s education is just directed to one point which is pleasing, their minds are purposely prepared to be trivial and inadequate. If young ladies were permitted similar benefits as young men, ladies would be outstanding spouses and moms as well as skilled specialists. Women are instructed to have abilities that make them pleasing , however not mentally capable enough, eventually they will get languorous of pleasing men and then those emotions will turn into feeling worthless. Ladies and men should be given equivalent freedoms in training, work, and legislative issues.
Minahil, How does Wollstonecraft critique the idea that women should be taught to be pleasing? Please use your own natural language in responding, rather than trying to adopt the language of the text.
2. Wollstonecraft, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman
In this article, I find out a really interesing line for me : “A perfect man and a perfect woman should no more be alike in mind than in face, and perfection admits of neither less nor more.” I think this was really meaningful for me, because I think when two people are really matched, they should not depends on their appearance they should focus more on the inside, and they hsould have same thought, as they improve at the same time, they will became more pretty people in each other’s mind.
Zijie, You were assigned a very short excerpt from A Vindication of the Rights of Woman. I asked you to choose a line from the excerpt. You have chosen an interesting quotation, but it doesn’t come from our assigned reading.
“The women who has only been taught to please will soon find that her charms are oblique sunbeams, and that they cannot have much effect on her husband’s heart when they are seen everyday, when the summer is passed and gone. This was meaningful to me because given the time period when it was written, it was common for women to live for her husband and make her identity solely on the basis of her marriage. It’s saying that women were growing weaker by living to please someone since they didn’t have an individuality.
What does Wollstonecraft say here about what will happen if a man has a wife who has been taught only to please?
I found the quote “or, is it not more rational – her love or pride has received” to be most memorable. Wollstonecraft does a great job counter arguing Rousseau’s point that all women needs to learn is to learn how to please her husband. Wollstonecraft states that if all women is taught is to please, when the time comes and marriage gets strenuous and this is inevitable; wouldn’t it make sense that the women will try to try to please other men? This made a lot of sense to me, if I was to go to school to learn painting, people are going to expect me to grow up to be a painter and not a car mechanic. I will have to agree with Wollstonecraft, women should be treated as an individual and not as a partner to men because only if we treat a women as individual can women be satisfy being by herself.
Good. We will discuss this passage in class. Note here that Wollstonecraft uses the word “rational.” Any thoughts about that?
“How many women thus waste life away the prey of discontent, who might have practiced as physicians, regulated a farm, managed a shop, and stood erect”. I find these lines very meaningful as it shows how many women had to give up opportunities of standing on their own feet instead of relying on men. At the time society was shaped in a way that it seemed natural for a woman to depend on a man for support as they were seen inferior just because of their gender. Women at the time were seen as objects to please men so the idea of women succeeding and not needed male’s for support would sting the male generation at the time and they would create such reforms to create barriers or hurdles in their path. At the end of the women are as capable as men in any industry or any part of the world and shall be treated equally.
Right, this is an important part of Wollstonecraft’s argument – not just that women will be more fulfilled if they are emancipated, but that they will also be able to contribute more to society.
“…female education ought to be directed to one point: –to render them pleasing,” Wollstonecraft said female education just to satisfy the vanity of men but not for women themselves. So she realized “it is vain to expect from women till they are, in some degree, independent of men.” Women should get rid of their dependence on men. They contribute as much to society as men.
Yes, but as we saw in the piece we read, it’s not just a question of women claiming their own independence. She needs to get men to buy into this idea.
“He then proceeds to prove that woman ought to be weak and passive, because she has less bodily strength than man…” I found this part of the Chapter V excerpt particularly interesting as it demonstrated one of the many beliefs that men had (and some still do) about women throughout history. Women have been seen as the weak side of nature, which is why women had to fight for their rights to even be considered to have a say that can be as equal as the men’s, in the government, and in their country. Women have the ability to bring life into this world, and yet there are beliefs that men are stronger and all we do is hide behind them when they are sometimes the ones relying on us; in reality, it can be argued that behind a good man, there is a better woman.
Yes, this is a line from Rousseau that she is quoting. He said that the fact that women were usually smaller than men physically was a clear indication that women were supposed to be less powerful and less important than men!
A quote that stuck with me from the excerpt, “Vindication of the Rights of Woman” is when Wollstonecraft says, “How many women thus waste life away the prey of discontent, who might have practised as physicians, regulated a farm, managed a shop, and stood erect, supported their own industry, instead of hanging their heads…” This quote stuck with me because we learn in the introduction that Mary Wollstonecraft had attempted suicide twice before in her life and then her daughter also took her life when she was 22. This quote was quite inspiring for me because it shows how Wollstonecraft fought through the struggles of suicide to witness miracles like giving birth and fulfill a career as a writer, something that was rare for women of her time. However, it was unfortunate that Fanny Imlay didn’t live long enough to walk the same path as her mother. I chose this quote because I know that Mary Wollstonecraft would have been so proud to see her words coming to life more and more, day by day. There are so many successful business women, doctors, lawyers, etc that have all been successful because of the hardworking women they are. Women are valued for so much more other than their looks and bodies today, which is a great shift in society.
Yes, Wollstonecraft herself struggled to figure out a way to work and be independent, as did her sister. As you know, her daughter Mary ended up writing Frankenstein!
“Still the regal homage which they receive is so intoxicating, that till the manners of the times are changed, and formed on more reasonable principles, it may be impossible to convince them that the illegitimate power, which they obtain, by degrading themselves, is a curse, and that they must return to nature and equality, if they wish to secure the placid satisfaction that unsophisticated affections impart.”
I think this passage was interesting and truthful, because it touches on the status and gender roles of women at that time, and mentioned how the “illegitimate power” that they are given was useless rapport, earned by assuming an inferior status in relation to males. I liked how Wollstonecraft described the status of women who fulfilled their gender expectations at that time as having “illegitimate power,” because it gives me the impression of the futile praise they received by conforming to a unproductive social norm; being a silent, unconfrontational member of society.
Yes, she is suggesting that not all women will be willing to sign on to her cause – that they don’t understand that the power they think they have (over their husbands or their households) is illusory.
In Mary Wollstonecraft’s “Vindication of the Rights of Woman” one line that stuck out to me was “He then proceeds to prove that woman ought to be weak and passive, because she has less bodily strength than man; and hence infers, that she was formed to please and to be subject to him;”. I think Wollstonecraft definitely makes a really good point at Rousseau and other male thinkers. These men seemed more interested in freeing other actual men than helping their female counterparts. I also feel like nowadays many men including myself wouldn’t want a wife like the one Wollstonecraft is describing. I’d prefer a wife who speaks her mind, likes to have fun and can be much more independent rather than the bland wife these men preferred during this time. It seems to be that men wanted to be a dominant member of the relationship more often than not in order to pursue other women which would start jealousy in the relationship and it causes marriage not really having any love.