There is one poem by Sor Juana, that I fell in love with upon first read. It is the one titled “You Foolish Men” and is the one that discusses the influences of men on women. I love it because of the clear parallels that can be made between the society in which she lived and our own society. I just thought it was interesting how Sor Juana is railing against men for forcing their ideal of a woman onto them and then blaming and accusing them of being loose, even though that is what they drove the women to behave as. It seems as though during Sor Juana’s time, a lady who was kind and friendly was viewed as loose. I think the mindset is similar to how girls are portrayed in today’s teen dramas; there’s always a girl who is ostracized by the other gils because she is seen as being too friendly or too nice to the school’s idol. Then to teach her a lesson, the other girls and boys start spreading rumors like, “look at her chatting up Clay, what a slut,” even though it’s just in her nature to be sociable.
However, Sor Juana then makes a valid point about what girls do to avoid this misinterpretation. She observes that women then choose to be aloof as to avoid being labeled as “loose” or “slut”. However, because they are being distant the men then complain about how cruel the woman is. They can’t seem to realize that it is their own fault for creating such unrealistic images of women that the actual ones can only try and fail to achieve. I’m not sure why people keep saying, “men love a chase.” because it’s just not true. Any straight man out there would be happy, if not ecstatic, for a girl to be forward, walk up to him, and say, “I like you.”
Perhaps society has changed in some respects after all. In this time, it isn’t just the men who are causing this behavioral change in women, the women are just as guilty now. I’t become a lot more acceptable for girls to make the first move now, but outside of cities the social norms are still a little dated. You’ll notice that barely any girls will make the first move, if at all. And even though I did say that cities are better in this respect it still isn’t saying much. A lot of girls, in cities, still hold the belief that it is the men who should be making the first move.
Woah, I guess guess girls also have this foolish contradiction as well. They have this belief that the men need to initiate romantic relationships based on long since dead codes of conduct, and when the boys don’t, the girls get frustrated and hurt. The women aren’t just victims of social contradictions anymore. I don’t know if women were like this back in Sor Juana’s time, but if they weren’t, wouldn’t that mean society’s actually taken a step back? Considering that women are expecting to be treated certain ways for being female and yet calling for equality, I would say that somewhere along the line someone made a misstep.