Posted by MR Jones on April 22, 19100 at 07:56:27:
In Reply to: Anti-Feminism ? posted by Wondering Idiot on April 19, 19100 at 06:55:07:
: Do any of you think that Taming of the shrew" was anti-feminist. If so why ?
I'm sorry but I find your comment that the taming of the shrew is anti-feminist, not because the play is supportive of womens rights, but because shakespeare pre-dated feminism by several centuries. In the Elizabethan Era a woman was not even considered to be a human being, she was first her fathers property and then her husbandsd property. Thats just the way things were. No works produced during this era would have feminist themes simply because they had no audience. Women couldn't read,and men didn't want them to either read or think. The plays were in part designed to maintain the status quo which kept women in servitude.
Look at any female Shakespearian characters and you will see anti-feminist themes. Hamlets mother was a slut, Othelia was so fragile that her father's death drove her insane. Lady MacBeth was a manipulaitve old witch, who in order to have any power had to divorce herself from her feminine virtues. In order to scheme and plot she had to ignore all that was nurturing and "good" about herself. Juliet chose to go against her family and ended up dead.
The cloesest thing shakespeare had to a feminist character was Hamlet himself who is believed by many scholars to have been a woman because of his emotional analysis of the decision to avenge his fathers death. This would also explain why he was incapable of succeeding his father as king. But the theme of a king's daughter avenging her father's death was too progressive for the Elizabethan world.
Queen Elizabeth herself had to make several sacrifcies to maintain power in "Man's" world. She could not marry and retain her position, but she could not openly have boyfriends so her only option was to take on the role of the Virgin Queen. In this era there were three ways to look at a woman; Maddona (eternal virgin, pure and perfect), whore (self explanatory, any woman who didn't follow the pure path or marry), and the child (how husbands viewed their wives at any age).
just to put into perspective how bad things were prior to feminism lets look at the first law protecting women. It was drafted in the Massachuessets Bay colony. It was called the rule of thumb. It stated that a man cuold not beat a woman with a stick any bigger around than his thumb. Before this a man could beat his wife as badly as he wished.
Is the Taming of the Shrew Anti-Feminist? Maybe we should ask instead are there is any pre-victorian literature that is not anti-Women!
MR Jones