Adrienne Rich's theories on the power men exert over women are a strong case against the patriarchal order that still exists today, but even as I was reading through it, I felt that women were not entirely innocent. This could certainly go back to the ISA's in which women have been taught by culture to accept their own subjugation, but I find it interesting how many women perpetrate these issues and both allow themselves to succumb to them and force them upon other women.
Allow me to elaborate. During a Political Science class at the college I previously attended, we spent a day discussing….well, I don’t remember what we were actually talking about, but the professor showed us a video on the Sande women in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea (possibly a few other places, I can’t remember). The Sande women are an association of women who have the responsibility of initiating girls into adulthood, thus their purpose is to teach the young women notions of morality, proper sexual behavior, and fertility. And the video we watched was all about the clitoridectomies that these women perform on girls once they have hit puberty. Not exactly the video I wanted to see at 8am, but back to the point. Rich talks about how men “deny women [their own] sexuality – [by means of clitoridectomy and infibulations…]” and yet in this culture, it is very directly the women who perform this surgery on one another and require it (1594). Check out why.
And it doesn’t always have to be as dramatic as that. Rich also talks about how men “use [women] as objects in male transactions – [use if women…as entertainers to facilitate male deals – e.g, wife-hostess, cocktail waitress required to dress for male sexual titillation, call girls, “bunnies”…] and ect, but women force other women into these roles as well as men (1595). We talked in class the other day briefly about the roles girls are often supposed to play at work, such as the “flirt,” the “coffee-whore,” the “physical attraction.” I mentioned I had been told directly by my boss that I had been hired to look nice and flirt with any customer (regardless of how creepy), and if I wanted to keep my job, I would do just that. This boss happened to be a woman. Now I would expect a little more sympathy from another woman on this subject rather than having one actively enforcing what men, according to Rich, already do to women.
We can also reach back to de Pizan here. She states “it was because your mother, as a woman, held the view that you should spend your time spinning like the other girls, that you did not receive a more advanced or detailed initiation into the sciences” (215). Once again, the woman is hindering another woman, in this case, even a mother. And the mother in de Pizan isn’t the only mother figure to do this, and it certainly isn’t an issue restricted to de Pizan’s time.
So the question here is: why? Why are women hindering each other as opposed to trying to help each other in shrugging off the sexual and physical oppression placed on them by a patriarchal society? As Rich says, women have been taught that we “are the emotional and sexual property of men, and…autonomy and equality of women threatens family, religion, and state,” so is this why women are willing to act within this model in terms of pulling other women down (1591)? It would seem that if all women feel this burden together we’d be more inclined to help one another, but not so. Perhaps it’s a case of “misery loves company” then? If one woman feels trapped within a male regime, she wants the woman next to her trapped as well? Have the ISA’s completely taken over, and thus women have been so indoctrinated that they don’t even see their own subordination and don’t realize when they are actively forcing other women into subordination as well? Why are women perpetuating the oppression of their fellow women?
Aubrey,
ReplyDeleteNice post. I think this is a balanced look at patriarchy. This post also is an interesting response to the "Dear Women" video, which is not very well thought out. At any rate, you have to admit that women have had to resort to awful survival techniques in history to survive or thrive. On the other hand, when, as in your example, women initiate something horrible, we're less likely to talk about it. Yeah.
From a feminist standpoint, you could probably argue that they've been culturally brainwashed or something. The values we're talking about here are somewhat culturally determined; people are going to mark as cultural-currency whatever gives them leverage or value. If anything, the fact that what, in the cases you mentioned, women value is detrimental to their health or dignity just goes to show how suppressed they really are.
ReplyDeleteI think Bridger is probably right. When you're trained from childhood up that sewing is the proper occupation for your gender, you pass that on. If you don't like it, you often still pass it on, for one of two reasons: A. You think you just don't understand what's right, or that your instincts to rebel are somehow sinful or otherwise unnatural/wrong. B. Everyone else made you do it, so you're going to darn well make other people do it (consider how much you might complain about a project in a class, and then at the end of the class, say that the teacher should keep it because it's "good for the other students" [if you've got something of a conscience about the matter] or because you want to watch them squirm [if gratuitous suffering is more your thing]).
ReplyDeleteCaitlin and Bridger, while your position is logical, I disagree. To argue what you are arguing (that it is the man's fault or patriarchy's fault) one must assume that this practice is a necessarily a bad thing. Men may have their painful rituals and rites of passage too, thus the culture and ingrained strands of thought can oppress us all equally. It isn't necessarily because it is a patriarchal culture. Sometimes we just come to think something is better (even if it is more painful).
ReplyDeleteI don't think you have to assume that it is necessarily a bad thing, nor that it is "the men's fault". Rather, it is the way the culture is, and the women buy into the culture.
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