Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Womanizer!

Charlotte Guilman was a theorist ahead of her time. She advocated for equality and freedom for women. Although her ideas were at times radical and seemed that she was a little conforminst to the idea that men needed to run the world in order for society to survive. Even when she understood that men were in that dominant place because women allowed them to be there, but women at one time or another lost control of this and became submisive not by choice but because society needed it. Do you agree with this notion that Women should be submissive and men rule even in today's society? how could you defend or attack your point using Guilman's works?

13 comments:

  1. Women role today in society is more thatn just been a house wife. I think that women should not be summisive becuause in today's society they contribute as the men do to maintain a house. Also, in today's society women have more previliges than before because now they are able to work, get an education and be more productive than before.

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  2. I think that in today's society women are not as submissive to men as we were before and I think that it is because we are getting educated and we know that we all should be equal. I also believe that as Guilman may thought this is part of evolution, things will not always be the same we have to change and we are seeing that change in today's society, more women are entering the workforce, more women are getting an education, and I think that this is all part of the evolution.

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  3. The notion that women are still submissive to the rule of men in today's world is equivocal and there is enough proof that this is not what is occurring. There might be some women that are probably still submissive to men, especially in rural parts of the country where many believe that women belong at home and men at work. Unfortunately, these are customs that many families still have, but overall, I believe that women are playing a very important role in today's society and in particular, in our government. One good example is Hillary Clinton; initially, many people thought that she could be our next president, and even though Barack Obama won the Democratic candidacy and then the presidency, Mrs. Clinton is still a strong figure in our political map. And just like her, there are many other influential women that can argue that the role of women in today's society is not characterized by being submissive. I am one of those persons that believe that women are very capable of running governments, just like Angela Merkel in Germany and Michelle Bachelet in Chile. These two have demonstrated that women can also be presidents of important nations.

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  4. I don't think that women SHOULD be submissive and/or men should rule, but the sad fact is that many women are submissive, and men still have a lot more power than women do. Even though Gilman believed that this was once adaptive, she thought that it was no longer useful, and even harmful, in the society of her times. I think that women's inferiority to men these days hurts everyone including men who have the "power." After all, don't most men have a mother, sister, wife or daughter at some point in their lives? Although Gilman's ideas on gender can be a bit too conservative for me, she does bring up very good points. I don't like her idea that it was once adaptive for women to be second class citizens, but I do agree that it is harmful to society in the present day.

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  5. Charlotte Gilman was a humanist, and believed that the our social environment oppressed women through the patriarchy. Gilman embraced the theory of Darwinism and used his theory of evolution to demonstrate that just like humans evolved physically, humans would also go through a process of human evolution. It is safe to determine that Gilman was an optimist and she believed that in the future women would adapt to their new environment, the economy, and that they need to inorder to survive.

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  6. Gilman,a critical evolutionist, with various elements being chosen through the mechanism of survival of the fittest. I agree with the idea that women should become submissive for society since she believed that men and women have their own duties to perform. The division of labor needs to take place in order for society to survive and have positive impact for the greater good.

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  7. The fact that women are still submissive to the rule of men in today's world is a result of the role that women have played throughout history. It may be true that women have come a long way through history but let's be realistic for a moment women have won presidencies in different countries but they are tremendously outnumbered by men. Men still rule as of today, there might be a day when women rule in equal number to men, it is very sad but that day is still very far from today.

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  8. I don't agree with Gilman that it was good for society for women to be submissive in the past because I wonder what happened to those women who did not have a man or lost their husband. I don’t think it was ever good for the race preservation to have women completely out of the workforce. Luckily, nowadays women have greater opportunities to survive and succeed financially without a man, but many of them are still modifying their bodies with plastic surgery in order to attract men and may someday get that ring (weeding proposal). We rarely hear of men dong this.

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  9. I think that in the past according to Gilman women needed to be submissive and dependant on men in order to survive. In those times one had to go out and work while the other worked at home. That is just how families functioned. I think that in today's society women are still submissive to men even though we don't want to admit it. It still is going on in the work place where clearly more men hold higher ranking positions than women and in home life.
    Also I don't know if it is a generation thing but many widows today are left poor once their husbands have past one.
    Don't get me wrong I don't think that women should in any way be submissive to men and I hope that there comes a day when everyone is equal, but in reality doesn't someone have to be the leader and another be submissive to that leader in order for things to work?

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  10. I struggle with this debate whenever it comes around. In my opinion women do not HAVE to be dominant. I think if a women wants to take the dominant role either in the workplace or in the home it should be because she wants to, not because she is trying to prove something. I see it the same way when it is women that feel they are stigmatized if they don't take the dominant role. If they don't mind staying home and doing the traditional "submissive" work then they are viewed as weak. If women enjoy being the homemaker there should be no problem with that either, I don't think it is necessarily a devaluation of teir character or dominance in the home.

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  11. I think that society has changed dramatically from those times when wmen were to be submissive because society needed them to be somewhat subordinant to men, but i think that everything happens for a reason and that if we are stable nowadays its because society has made the necessary changes. However, i don't really think that everything is equal in today's era, and i don't think that perfect balance between men and women in regards to political, economical and sociological matters should be thought upon as correct, and as in regards to Gilman, self preservation and race preservation should be in balance, as i believe it is today.

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  12. Women today are not submissive to men because society has changed. The role of the woman now is to get a job and help the husband or boyfriend with the household. The women during Gilman time was different because the women was not allowed to work in the workforce. Women today are getting their education and work in the workforce now. One day you will see a woman as the president of the United States.

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  13. I dont agree with your comment ajmclamore. At some extend women have accomplished a lot when it comes to the workforce but women are still submissive in society, we can see evidence in the workplace where women conform with less pay than men. Maybe you see it from a different perspective since you have a chance for education and a voice among others, but women living submissive to this patriarchal society outnumber the ones who are not.

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