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A review by aria_tsv
Women & Power: A Manifesto by Mary Beard
5.0
I have three points to make that are not necessarily connected, but are all a response to or a comment on topics addressed in this manifesto.
1. This book put me in mind of a riddle I think almost everyone has had to answer as a child:
A doctor and a boy were fishing. The boy was the doctor's son, but the doctor was not the boy's father. Who was the doctor?
The answer? His mother.
It relies on the fact that (as Mary Beard points out in her essay) "our mental, cultural template for a powerful person remains resolutely male." Doctor, professor, president - all these words conjure up the image of a successful man. This concept is so deeply rooted in our minds and our culture that in some languages (as is the case with the Slavic group) such words belong to the male gender/ carry a male connotation.
2. The idea (expressed by a Roman anthologist) that women who speak their mind and are ready to verbally defend themselves possess "a male nature" and are somehow androgynous, that they are therefore not women at all, strikes me as incredibly modern (in the sense that we have all heard it expressed today). It is no wonder then that the difference between the words "sex" and "gender" has turned into a heated political debate, which was curiously spawned by the use of the word "gender" in a document meant to protect women from abuse.
3. I cannot even begin to express how enlightened I felt (and still feel) after reading that one particular passage on the pitch of male and female voice respectively and how they have come to be regarded and described. Beard has put into words something that women have had to deal with for centuries/ millennia, namely the concept that because the voice behind the idea is female, it can be easily overlooked. It made me wonder if that was why women so often shout when trying to verbally defend themselves.
In two short to-the-point essays Mary Beard manages not only to show readers the roots of female subjugation, but also to make us aware of the ever-present misogyny, woven into 21st century language and culture.
For Further Reading: A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf, The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir
1. This book put me in mind of a riddle I think almost everyone has had to answer as a child:
A doctor and a boy were fishing. The boy was the doctor's son, but the doctor was not the boy's father. Who was the doctor?
The answer? His mother.
It relies on the fact that (as Mary Beard points out in her essay) "our mental, cultural template for a powerful person remains resolutely male." Doctor, professor, president - all these words conjure up the image of a successful man. This concept is so deeply rooted in our minds and our culture that in some languages (as is the case with the Slavic group) such words belong to the male gender/ carry a male connotation.
2. The idea (expressed by a Roman anthologist) that women who speak their mind and are ready to verbally defend themselves possess "a male nature" and are somehow androgynous, that they are therefore not women at all, strikes me as incredibly modern (in the sense that we have all heard it expressed today). It is no wonder then that the difference between the words "sex" and "gender" has turned into a heated political debate, which was curiously spawned by the use of the word "gender" in a document meant to protect women from abuse.
3. I cannot even begin to express how enlightened I felt (and still feel) after reading that one particular passage on the pitch of male and female voice respectively and how they have come to be regarded and described. Beard has put into words something that women have had to deal with for centuries/ millennia, namely the concept that because the voice behind the idea is female, it can be easily overlooked. It made me wonder if that was why women so often shout when trying to verbally defend themselves.
In two short to-the-point essays Mary Beard manages not only to show readers the roots of female subjugation, but also to make us aware of the ever-present misogyny, woven into 21st century language and culture.
For Further Reading: A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf, The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir