The Feminist View

The three articles "The Vindication of the Rights of Women", "The Great Lawsuit", and "If Men Could Menstruate" all had one very obvious thing in common: feminism.

Each article discussed the various ways in which women are either treated differently than men, or even just viewed differently.

The first article, "The Vindication of the Rights of Women", was pretty difficult for me to comprehend. The dialogue of the late 1700's is just a wee bit different than that of today. There was plenty of vocab for me to add to my note cards (yay?), but that made this one pretty tricky. The gist of what I got out of it was that girls should be able to go to school with boys because that would help them think for themselves. During the late 1700's, women were not considered very highly on the social spectrum. Because of this, they took care of the house, and they didn't have much of a reason to think for themselves. I did like this article, as I've never read anything like it. The fact that girls and boys would go to school together seemed so outlandish; I remember having to sit "boy-girl-boy-girl" in first grade as a sort of punishment. Going to school with boys is all we've known for years.

The next, "The Great Lawsuit", was also a blast from the past, as it was first published in 1843. This one was pretty difficult to read too, but again, I think that's because of the 19th century lingo. "The Great Lawsuit" talked of the hidden power of women. One part even talks about how women greatly influence men, but they aren't really willing to admit nor acknowledge it. Women were still looked at as slaves, but they had more power than most men cared to admit.

The last, and my personal favorite, "If Men Could Menstruate" made me LLOL (literally laugh out loud) multiple times. It's funny how men would easily put a spin on something of this nature. I especially liked the part about how men would say "he's a three-pad man" as if that's a really impressive thing to be. Girls are not that way at all. I'll admit that the subject does come up when chatting with good girl friends, but it's never a braggadocios affair. Men would easily make it that way. They would make menstruation holy, too, saying that Jesus bled for our sins. Women are considered impure, because unlike Jesus, they don't bleed. This article seemed so accurate, and it was hilariously written. I can picture guys complaining profusely about cramps and telling women that they just don't understand.