From The Crown To The Toe, Top Full Of Direst Cruelty

Sooooo let's talk about Lady Macbeth. First of all she says some of my favorite lines from this play (you know, in her whole sleep walking and mental breakdown escapade). But she's also supposed to be a very strong character. She has the guts to do what Macbeth wasn't totally 100% about doing. This makes her 'manly', her taking charge and actively doing something to change her life for the better. This is actually a theme that is still relevant today (ie: the movie Brave, where Merida is like yooooo I don't need no man and then proceeds to make sure something isn't forced onto her). And although I'm all for power to the ladies, I don't quite like this representation. I think it may have been trying to take a stab at gender roles at the time, but it just sort of shows that certain attributes are for men and others are for women. It also shows, with Lady Macbeth making fun of Macbeth for acting 'like a woman', that things typically associated with women are inferior to things associated with men. Which totally isn't true. Which brings me to the topic of GENDER! So, this blog entry is being turned into a feminist thing backed up by the weird puzzle that is Gender. First off, let's go into gender. It's most easily explained as what someone identifies as. It can be male, female, anything in between, and things outside of the binary. Seems simple enough, right? But then you have to factor in things like gender assignment (what you're said to be at birth), gender role (what society says you should be), and gender identity (what you say and know you are). With all that thrown in, gender can get pretty mind boggling, especially if you identify as something other than what's assigned to you. That can create gender dysphoria, which is something to be gotten to and explained another time (if interested, totally ask me about it because I'll talk for says about gender studies). How does any of this relate to Lady Macbeth? Well, she figured out that to move her and her man up in life, she had to get down and dirty. But she's got the mind set of that time, where anything that requires braincells and doing things is what men do; women just sit, and are gentle and kind and happy with what they have. Which is totally not true! Women are people and capable of being their own person. Nowadays, women's gender affiliations need not be questioned based on how they act. As shown with the earlier example I gave of Merida being in a somewhat similar (ish) situation. But she is considered cool and independent and there's no question about 'oh she's doing stuff whaaaaaaat no not okay she's a chick that's men's duty go get married hippy'. Nope she's totally herself (and in the process is RAD AS HECK). So what am I getting at? Good question. Basically people (anyone either in or out of the binary) are all people and should be treated that way. There should be no need to give genders to traits or actions or feelings. And so yeah. *Feminist/ gender studies rant over*

No New Tale To Tell

            In the Canterbury Tales, specifically the Wife of Bath’s tale, there’s no new tale to tell. In the story, a knight rapes a woman and has to find out what women TRULY want. But this is really not okay. It starts of by describing the setting, a fairyland where it’s commonplace for men to rape women and says that it’s okay because they only dishonor the women. EXCUSE ME I WOULD BEG TO DIFFER! Women who are raped can be impacted in many more ways than just being un-pure. It’s a traumatic experience, even if it’s the norm in their society. So, back to this despicable knight. The woman he raped was along in the corn when he spotted her. So he went and ignored her protests and objections and raped her. So King Arthur understood that this was way wrong and said he should die. And I agree with the King. He was absolutely right. This violation of the woman could have scarred her mentally, and she would have to live with that pain and humiliation that was forced on her for the rest of her life. So then later on, when the old woman tells him he has to marry her, he’s totally shocked and against the idea, but it’s forced on him. Hmmmm sound familiar? So there are a variety of messages in here but the one that I think is incredibly important is that rape is incredibly bad and should not be a thing that women have to deal with, but we do. When women out and about, they have to constantly worry about being raped. If there’s a man walking behind you just too close on the sidewalk, you start to get nervous and walk a little faster, trying to still your heart and hoping that you’re over reacting and that nothing will happen. And women have to deal with this, knowing that if they are raped, the can be blamed based on what they wear (some people will say that they were ‘asking for it’) or it could go so far as the women not being believed when they try to report it. And these are things that happen regularly. They’re not anything that women have not had to deal with before and it’s no new tale to tell.