Great Women Poets

*Here is a great site with various women poets who have made an impact on literature. If anyone is interested in learning more about any of these writers please comment and we can recommend books for you. 


http://judithpordon.tripod.com/poetry/women_poets.html

Fellow Feminist

*Here are some blogs that we found interesting and relatable  to our site. 


http://www.betsysbeautyblog.com/?p=142

http://finallyfeminism101.wordpress.com/

http://thefbomb.org/

http://www.thefword.org.uk/blog/

http://www.feministe.us/blog/

The Subaltern (Woman) Studies

*This paper was written for my Literary Theory class; it is about three different works that have similar context; the treatment of subaltern women.

Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak is an Indian literary critic, and also refers to herself as a “practical Marxist-feminist-deconstructionist.”  She was born in India, which is where she first observed the oppression people face, specifically women.  Spivak uses her observations as subject matter: “In her work, she combines passionate denunciations of the harm done to women, non-Europeans, and the poor by the privileged West with a persistent questioning of the grounds on which radical critique takes it stand” (Spivak 2193).  Spivak poses a crucial question which she addresses in her works: “On the other side of the international division of labor from socialized capital, inside and outside the circuit of the epistemic violence of imperialist law and education supplementing an earlier economic text, can the subaltern speak?” (2199).
The subaltern is a person or a group of people that have been excluded from society.  They do not have a voice, and are lost in the world due to assimilation and colonialism.  In Deconstructing Historiography, Spivak expresses her opposition to colonialism, and describes it as “a change from semi-feudalism into capitalist subjection” (Spivak 197).  When India was colonized, the British treated Indians like inferiors.  The cultures and religions did not matter, and, according to Spivak, “the most functional change is from religious to militant” (197).  In Can the Subaltern Speak, Spivak mentions how Britain thought they were “saving” Indians, and while some lives were saved, Hindu practices were outlawed.  “While this intervention saved some lives and may have given the women a modicum of free choice, it also served to secure British power in India and to underscore the asserted difference between British ‘civilization’ and Indian ‘barbarism’” (2193).  Under British rule, women, and the subaltern may have been given freedom, but is it really freedom when assimilating is what it takes to be given a voice?  “The most significant outcome of this revision or shift in perspective is that the agency of change is located in the insurgent or the ‘subaltern’ (197).  When Spivak talks about “change” here, she is referring to British colonization, and how in order for the subaltern to be saved, it needs to change, as in, assimilate.  Culture and religious practices are sacred.  No one, especially people who do not understand the significance of certain rules, should have the authority to revoke the right people have of practicing their culture or religion; it is immoral, and in no way justified.
“If, in the contest of colonial production, the subaltern has no history and cannot speak, the subaltern as female is even more deeply in shadow” (Spivak 2203).  According to Spivak, subaltern women are subjected to oppression more than subaltern men.  They do not have proper representation, and therefore, are not able to voice their opinions or share their stories.  No one is aware of the daily struggles they face; subaltern women are ghosts in society.  “I think it is important to acknowledge our complicity in the muting, in order precisely to be more effective in the long run” (2207).
It is not only colonialism that silences the subaltern, but also those of us who are watching the oppression taking place around the world, and not doing anything about it.  Taslima Nasrin, a feminist writer who was exiled from Bangladesh in 1994, defended the subaltern group in her writing, especially women.  She was exiled because of her extreme ideas and blaspheming the Quran.  Saiyeda Khatun talks about Nasrin in her article”A Site of Subaltern Articulation: The Ecstatic Female Body in the Contemporary Bangladeshi Novels of Taslima Nasrin.”  This article is basically based on how Nasrin empowers Subaltern women, focusing on Bangladeshi women.  “A poor woman is subject to extreme subalternization since her lack of education severely limits her access to power; male violence is also relatively more common among the poor. A middle class woman, on the other hand, might enjoy above-subsistence life style and in some cases might be highly educated (but not necessarily) and decently employed. However, in a patriarchal society, she is vulnerable to subalternity in terms of property, marriage, and divorce laws of which an expanded account will be given later. A Bangladeshi woman cannot prove any entitlement to her income since, as we shall see, there are no legal guidelines protecting her. If divorced or widowed without a son to support her financially, she may become a poor woman herself, especially if she is not educated. Socially the upper class woman may be above the norm to a certain degree” (Khatun 1).  Despite the social class a woman is in, the treatment she is subject to is what dictates whether or no she is a subaltern.  In Can the Subaltern Speak? however, Ranajit Guha (from Spivak’s notes), seems to refute this: “[t]he social groups and elements included in [the terms ‘people’ and ‘subaltern classes’] representing the demographic difference between the total Indian population and all those whom we have described as the ‘elite’” (2201).  In Spivak’s notes, it seems that Guha is saying that people who are elite are not subaltern, whereas Khatun argues that the term “subaltern” is subjective.
 As Khatun mentions, a middle-class woman can potentially be subject to subalternity, and this is depicted in Spivak’s narration about Bhubaneswari Bhaduri in Can the Subaltern Speak?  Technically Bhaduri was not a “true subaltern woman” as Spivak puts it, because she was a middle-class woman with access to the Independence movement.  This however, did not give her the right to have a voice that could actually be heard.  Therefore, “Bhubaneswari attempted to ‘speak’ by turning her body into a text of woman/writing” and she hanged herself to make a statement (Spivak 2206). The status of women in India was not very high in the late 1900’s.  Education was not prominent amongst women because most girls were trained to be domesticated at a young age in preparation for marriage.  Bhubaneswar’s suicide came as a shock to the family, and the reasoning behind her action was unknown until a little less than 10 years later: “… it was discovered, in a letter she had left for her elder sister, that she was a member of one of the many groups involved in the armed struggle for Indian independence.  She had been entrusted with a political assassination.  Unable to confront the task and yet aware of the practical need for trust, she killed herself” (2205).  Of course the first idea that came to her family’s mind was an illegitimate pregnancy, but in fact, Bhubaneswar was involved in a struggle that most Indians were too afraid to join.  She was not given the opportunity to speak, and never had the chance to share her story.
“The ‘subaltern’ always stands in an ambiguous relation to power- subordinate to it but never fully consenting to its rule, never adopting the dominant point of view or vocabulary as expressive of its own identity.  ‘One must nevertheless insist that the colonized subaltern subject is irretrievably heterogenous’” (Spivak 2194).  Assimilation is required for survival, especially after colonization.  It is not always voluntary, but it is necessary to get somewhere in life.  Despite all efforts to colonize a place, and eradicate the culture, some things remain the same, such as dowry.  In “A Site of Subaltern Articulation: The Ecstatic Female Body in the Contemporary Bangladeshi Novels of Taslima Nasrin,” Khatun explains a cultural practice that degrades women: “The system of dowry encompassing all classes very effectively sums up the different degrees of subalternity devaluing all women. The Dowry Prohibition Act of 1980 outlaws dowry. But the custom has survived with extraordinary might and resilience. Although nobody calls it dowry, a bride's status in the in-law family is directly related to what she brings from the natal family in terms of money and goods. The value of dowry may vary across classes ranging from a watch and a bicycle to a television and refrigerator, to a car. Despite the dowry Prohibition Act, dowry has been the cause of gender violence” (Khatun 1).  Dowry is strictly cultural, and is still sometimes practiced today.  It disgraces women, and puts them in a position of inferiority to men.  Spivak’s saying that “White men are saving brown women from brown men,” actually applies to the practice of dowry (2195).   Colonization can remove some of the culture of an area, but some aspects will always remain.
“On the other side of the international division of labor from socialized capital, inside and outside the circuit of epistemic violence or imperialist law and education supplementing an earlier economic text, can the subaltern speak?” (Spivak 2199).  Spivak in Can the Subaltern Speak and Deconstructing Historiography talks about how people oppressed by colonialism are not allowed a voice because they do not have importance to be heard.  Women act out in acts of violence to make a point, and no one understands or does anything to change the way the subaltern is being treated today.  Khatun in “A Site of Subaltern Articulation: The Ecstatic Female Body in the Contemporary Bangladeshi Novels of Taslima Nasrin” talks about Taslima Nasrin, a feminist writer, and how she is against Bangladeshi women being mistreated.  According to Khatun’s article, women are objectified by society and men, and because of their “culture” it is considered acceptable.  Women, the oppressed, the uneducated, the poor, and the subaltern group as a whole are treated unfairly, and need to be heard.  They have stories that should not be considered trivial just because of their gender or socioeconomic status.  These people need to be heard, but are they heard, can the subaltern speak?  The answer is no, the subaltern cannot speak.

The Fallen Woman

*This piece of writing was done for my Women's Literature class. The essay goes into detail about how women were considered to be "fallen" in the 19th century if they had sexual relations before marriage. 

In the 19th century women were considered to be the “angel of the house.” They were expected to do all of the domestic duties. The patriarchal society had certain expectations for women, and if they did not conform to these ideas, they were looked down on. A woman who was a prostitute or an unmarried mother was seen as sexually immoral which led her to the title of the “fallen woman.” Although, the religious taught all women to save themselves for marriage Christian slaves were constantly being forced into unwanted sex. In Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s “The Runaway Slave at Pilgrim’s Point” a Christian Slave woman is sexually abused and impregnated by her master. Sedgwick’s Hope Leslie is a novel filled with strong and independent women including a woman named Rosa who was Sir. Phillips unmarried lover. Both these women may be judged as “fallen” but they are sympathetic in a vast number of ways.

In “The Runaway Slave at Pilgrim’s Point” the main character faces the extreme hardships of a woman slave. As the poem begins she speaks to God about the differences between blacks and whites. “I am black, I am black, And yet God made me, they say: But if He did so, smiling back He must have cast his work away Under the feet of his white creatures, With a look of scorn, that the dusky features Might be trodden again to clay” (Browning 22). It is hard for her, like many slaves, to understand why God has let the whites be dominant over the blacks. They have no choice but to be degraded at all times.    

She soon finds love in another slave, which is not acceptable. After a time of secrecy their love is discovered by white men. The slaves’ lover is then killed as a punishment. As she grieves the loss of her lover, the white men take no pity on her. “Wrong, followed by a deeper wrong! Mere grief’s too good for such as I: So the white men brought the shame ere long To strangle the sob of my agony. They would not leave me for my dull Wet eyes!-it was too merciful To let me weep pure tears and die” (Browning 99). It is then when she is unwillingly impregnated. 

At that time, it was not seen as doing something wrong when a white man impregnated a black woman against her will. Most white masters of the women slaves would continuously molest them even though a woman was taught to wait to do sexual things until marriage. Christian slaves were tormented and confused by what was right and wrong. The women were still seen as “fallen” no matter what the circumstance were. The wives of the white masters were in denial as their men were constantly impregnating the woman slaves.

The slave woman in the poem had no other choice but to have the white man’s baby. After the baby was born, she not only had to deal with the guilt inside of her but she was reminded every day of what would be considered “her mistake.” “My own, own child! I could not bear To look in his face, it was so white; I covered him up with a kerchief there, I covered his face in close and tight: And he moaned and struggled, as well might be, For the white child wanted his liberty-Ha, ha! He wanted the master-right” (Browning 120). She felt that she had no other choice but to kill the baby. The woman was left alone to reconcile her sins. 

As a Christian woman in a patriarchal society she was responsible for the forced intercourse that had taken place and the killing of her child. Her soul was aching for truth and forgiveness. “I fall, I swoon! I look at the sky. The clouds are breaking on my brain; I am floated along, as if I should die Of liberty’s exquisite pain. In the name of the white child waiting for me In the death-dark where we may kiss and agree, White men, I leave you all curse-free In my broken heart’s disdain” (Browning 246).

There is so much sympathy for this poor slave woman. Although she had done nothing wrong, she was a disgrace to society, a “fallen woman.” Throughout these times, women were charged with sexual facilities especially slaves who rarely had a choice in what was done to them.  

Rosa, a beautiful woman, who was Sir Philips’s secret lover is an example of a “fallen woman” in the novel Hope Leslie. Sir Philip is an ignorant man who uses Rosa for sexual endeavors. Although Rosa’s sexual behavior with Sir Philip is strictly out of love for him, she is continuously seen as “fallen.” They hide their relationship in fear of society’s judgment on the fact that they are not married. 

Sir Philip writes to a friend talking about a various amount of secrets he has been keeping including Rosa. “She loves me to distraction, and would sacrifice any to me but the ruling passion of her sex, her vanity; but in spite of my entreaties and commands, she persists in wearing a velvet Spanish hat, with a buckle and feathers, most audaciously cocked on one side” (Sedgwick 209). Sir Philip does not have much control over her. She is independent when it comes to her dress and views from society. Rosa can be seen as a rebel, yet society would still degrade her by saying she has “fallen.” 

Rosa has the fear of getting caught constantly in the back of her head. If society was to find out her secret, she would be secluded from everyone as a whole. She cries to Sir Philip that everyone will find out their secret, “where shall I go! if I go to the good, they will frown on me, and despise me; and I cannot go to the wicked,-they have no pity” (Sedgwick 213). 

During the 19th century, even though Rosa loved Sir Philip having sex before marriage was strictly forbidden because of the Puritan views. Usually no one would have sympathized for this “fallen woman,” but we see that Magawisca protects Rosa from everyone finding out the truth. During Magawisca’s trial she did not want to expose Rosa to be Sir Philip’s secret lover. “‘Speak not in parables, Magawisca,’ said Governot Winthrop, ‘but les us have thy meaning plainly.’ ‘Then,’ replied Magawisca, ‘let me first crave of thy mercy, that poor youth, (pointing to Rosa,) withdraw from this presence’” (Sedgwick 307). After Rosa was pointed out to the audience, “a murmur of ‘shame! Cruelty’ ran through the house” (Sedgwick 307). 

The community was not understanding of Rosa’s faults. They were spectacle about her sins and would judge her like any other “fallen woman” in the community. Rosa would never have the chance to change the views people had of her which is why it is not surprising when she commits suicide at the end of the book, blowing up both her and Sir Philip. It was hard for any “fallen woman” to live with herself in the 19th century since society was extremely degrading and judgmental towards these women. This was not fair for any woman because men were allowed to “do” whomever they wanted. Though it was frowned upon for men to sleep with someone other than your spouse it was still acceptable in the patriarchal society. 

Women can still be seen as “fallen” today, but on harsher terms such as whore. No matter how you put it woman are still being degraded today. Unlike in the 19th century sexual abuse is not taken lightly. Whether you are black or white, it doesn’t matter, a woman’s body is still precious and should not be taken advantage of. Both Browning and Sedgwick are strong writers who tried to fight these social issues against woman especially since women of the 19th century were barely considered a part of society. These writers wrote for the sake of every mistreated woman at that time and for the woman who are still abused today. 

The Marriage Vow

The altar, "tis of death! for their are laid The sacrifice of all youths sweetest hopes.
It is a dreadful thing fow womens lip
To swear the heart away; yet know that heart
Annuls thevow while speaking, and shrinks back
From the dark future that it dare not face.
The service read above the open grave
Is far less terrible than that which seals
The vow that binds the victim, not the will:
For in the grave is rest. -L.E.L.


Wedlock=Deadlock... in the 19th century and even today, the freedom of women is revoked after their marriage vows, and marriage is literally death to the independence of a woman.

Patrick Against Patriarchy

*This Youtube video was created for our Advanced Composition class. The purpose of this assignment was to make a remix. Since we are obviously feminists we thought that we should remix something humorous for our audience. This voice over of a Spongebob episode shows how patriarchy still exists today.   
Spongebob Episode

BOYS PMS TOO!!

*This Youtube video was created to show that men have emotions just like women do. We wanted to portray that women are accused of being "too sensitive" when they are just being human.
Tampon Commercial

Mad Men Going Mad

*This Youtube video was made to show that even though men were oppressors of women many were secretly in favor of feminism.  
voice over of mad men clip