Last class, we were assigned to read Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz’s “Poem 145,” and “Poem 164.” After digesting her words, my eyes wandered to the next page which was the beginning of her poem “Philosophical Satire.” At first I was hesitant, but I thought, “What the hell? Who doesn’t love a good satire,right?” Right.

Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz boldly writes of the wrongdoings of men towards women which include, but are not limited to, accusations, judgements, controlling behavior, and contradicting expectations. And from these negative actions, come negative reactions which are then deemed unreasonable. Though written in the 17th century, I believe this conflict is still prevalent today. She writes:

You’re always so stubbornly mulish
that, using your unbalanced scale,
you blame one woman for being cruel,
the other one, for being easy.

For how can she be temperate
when you are wooing after her,
if her being mean offends you
and her being easy maddens?

This situation happens often in today’s society- the judgement not always coming from just men. If a woman decides she doesn’t want to have sex with someone, she is dubbed a prude. On the other hand, if she decides she wants to be sexually liberal, she is dubbed a slut or any of the other synonyms listed in Urban Dictionary. Unfortunately, not every woman is as fabulous as our girl Sor Juana and some give into this archaic belief of male dominance, allowing it to dictate their behavior. But what makes some of us give into this conception and others to evade it? I believe that at least a small portion of it is due to education or lack there of.

There is that horribly cliche phrase “Knowledge is power,” which was laminated and carefully tacked into the walls of just about all of my elementary school classrooms, exuding optimism and the stink of primary colors. However ugly this phrase may be displayed, I must agree with it.I believe that Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz was able to rise above the male-dominant society’s demands due to the fact that she educated herself. Not many women were educated at the time, therefore, most of them went through life abiding all of the “rules”, trying to meet impractical expectations, and letting judgements control them. Nowadays in most developed countries, all women have the right to education, and accordingly, there are less “barefoot and pregnant” wives than there were in the 17th century. But why are there still women today in the United States who believe that they are subordinate to men, that men have the power to determine a woman’s identity or role in society?