Modern girls look on the lives of women in the past and think "I would never put up with that." Sure you would. It was normal life. You would have the same focus and concerns as the women around you.* We put up with a lot because we don't really think of it s putting up with anything....* The world where you go back there and refuse to put up with it and set a good example is more fantastical than the time travel itself. Yes, modern fantasy novelists like to set up stories like that, of girls trying to break out(!) of old ways and become a wizard, or a warrior, or a bard or some other previously forbidden role. (Tolkien and Lewis were early examples and did it well.) But that is largely a modern value.
Only somewhat. I have commented before on how many medieval history thesis papers I have read that begin like this: 'As a feminist, I am interested in how women of an intensely patriarchal period could live lives of their own construction. I find that my subject today was hugely successful at doing this, and that in fact her strongest allies were often male relatives and friends.'
It really was a lot more common than you might think; what is surprising to the authors of these papers is that it is often groups of women who were most invested in enforcing limits on women, and men who loved a particular women who were their chief allies in defying societal limits on females. That's actually in keeping with my understanding of human nature, though, in which men are much more likely to try to win a particular woman's heart by giving her things she desires than they are to bond up for the purpose of suppressing women as a class; or wherein fathers of particularly beloved daughters are likely to give them their way if seems really important to making them happy.
That said, I was amused by this send-up of Red Sonja-type portrayals of women in medieval-themed video games. I saw it on FB, but I believe this may be the original artist.
That's a pretty fair critique, all the way around. I note that the admin of the FB group where I saw it nearly immediately deleted it and followed it up with a strongly-worded criticism about how offensive all forms of sexism are.
All I can tell you is that I found it possible to reject many gender-based societal restrictions, by giving up what was offered to me in exchange for compliance. You can only push back so far, of course, and there were avenues available to me in the 1960s and 1970s that would have been enormously more difficult in previous centuries. On the other hand, my mother, growing up in the 20s and 30s, did something similar, which paved the way for me. She picked a man who could deal with her approach, and that carried over into how he raised his daughter. Knowing that he assumed certain things about avenues that were open to me made it easier to ignore the contrary assumptions held by people for whose opinions I cared less.
ReplyDeleteIn a book on the conversion of Norway which has never been translated from Norwegian, Bishop Fridtjof Birkeli noted that in the Middle Ages, the Church very often advocated for women's property rights. Not out of any feminist spirit, but simply because they'd noticed that women were more likely than men to make testamentary gifts of property to the Church.
ReplyDeleteI recently taught a lesson on science and the Enlightenment. I opted to skip most of the examples of women in science from the textbook, because they were "victims." Women who were not hired, or did not get a "man's education." Instead I found women who DID make vital contributions, WERE educated, and got hired as faculty in their own right. I get tired of the constant diet of "women were all victims until the 19th Amendment." The students read the book, but I discussed the other women in class.
ReplyDeleteYes, women had fewer opportunities, especially when the laws were enforced as written. On the other hand, women also made places for themselves, kicked against the heavy hands of other women trying to keep everything "proper," and found satisfaction in work and "women's things." Teaching both sides is what I try to do. I'm not sure if I always manage it, but I make the effort.
LittleRed1