This relates to what women have to deal with--hundreds of years after Hamlet was written! As young women, we have to deal with being called "pops" or "thots" even if we are seen around too many guys, never mind kissing them, and God forbid, actually having sex with them. Like Polonius said, we must look after our sexuality if we ever want to find a life partner that will value us as women of character, and not our "body count." The reputations and negative rumors spread about us only make us less desirable to the young men around us, also relating back to Polonius's statement. Women must preserve their bodies for the man they will be with for the rest of their lives. They must fit into the role of a quiet woman--complacent, obedient, pure, shy.
This also even relates to a book I read recently, and even discussed on an Independent Reading Day, Fear of Flying. Isadora, a woman in the 1960s, deals with the conflict of being in an unhappy marriage vs. her sexual desires with various men. Women becoming divorced, let alone being adulterous, is stigmatized in her time period and she must always conform to the ideals of her family and society.
Now, I am in no way advocating multiple sexual partners but we do need to be fair when it comes to labelling genders according to their behaviors, especially with something as overrated and private as sex and virginity.
I really enjoyed this blog post, that picture cracks me up. But I agree that women are pressured into this tiny, specific description of a perfect woman all based on sexuality and virginity; because apparently this is all a woman has to offer to the world. I guess the minds of men and some women has not changed since Hamlet was written.
ReplyDeleteI one hundred percent agree with you. Young ladies in this era are still being treated as just an object, even in the simplest ways. It reminds me a lot of the Texas case of whether women should be able to have the rights to plan parenthood. It is sad that today, a good 4000 close to 5000 years later women are still someone's property or scums. If it were not for females the world would have been over a long time ago. So our male counterparts should really be more appreciative and respectful to us females.
ReplyDeleteGIRL POWER
I totally agree!
DeleteGirl power! (flips hair)
I love the picture you used, so funny. I agree with you a hundred percent. Women are so pressured by society to be a quiet and perfect women. And when we don't fit that idea, we are seen as undesirable. Yet men are not labeled for these same actions, but praised!
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you! I honestly see no point in these labels. If men can do it and get praised for it, why can't a woman do the same? None of us are truly perfect so I do not see why women have to fit the description of something so impossible! Even to this day we have to degrade and change are selves to be something we are not.
ReplyDeleteTo give another perspective - maybe the answer isn't that women should "do what men do." That just perpetuates a cycle of ultimately destructive behavior. Maybe each individual needs to figure out how to decide for his/herself what seems safe, responsible, and fulfilling when it come to matters of the heart.
ReplyDeleteI do agree that both women and men should be treated equally the same in society. Women today are called whores even if they have only been with one man, but it is acceptable for men to sleep around with various women. As women, we have always had to follow strict guidelines if we do not want to be classified as easy or strange in others eyes. There should not be any labels towards anyone. Not only with sexuality, but with social status too. Men always say that they are the head of the house. Even though that may be true to them, I always say that if the man is the head, then the women is the neck and without the neck, the man is nothing. For my statement, women are equally important as men are and therefore we should not be degraded for the acts that we have done. We are all responsible for ourselves and make our own choices. No one should be judged with the choices that they choose to do.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Mrs. Whitley. Women in search for equality just decide to act as freely as the men of our time do. This is really not the answer. Women acting promiscuously are only giving themselves a false sense of equality but are putting themselves at risk. Men and women both, humans in general, need to learn how to stop treating life as a commodity and gain back the value we once had for it.
ReplyDeleteBtw Great post Laura, your picture was hilarious.
ReplyDelete