Where are you Ms. Shakespeare?

Let me just say that I really struggle with Feminism and Feminists. Do I think it is important for women to have an equal place as men in this world? Yes. Do I think that men and women in the past have both been responsible for the favoring of one sex over the other? Yes. Do I think this was wrong and a perversion on the relationship God intended for men and women to have with one another? Of course. However, what really gets me fired up is when feminists make generalizations which they believe can be applied to all women of the world. It drives me crazy. After reading an excerpt from Virginia Wolf's Shakespeare's Sister, I was left with a feeling that this woman made an absolutely ridiculous argument which ended in a girl who does not even exist in the first place killing herself because she cannot write a play. Um, what? Who is Virginia Wolf to think that she could decide what would come of Shakespeare's sister? And quite frankly, it is an insult to me that Virginia Wolf would think that a girl would kill herself because she sewed and cooked instead of writing seductive and vulgar theatrical plays. What is Shakespeare's sister actually liked to cook? Is that such a novel idea!?! I find it very interesting that Ms. Wolf just assumes Shakespeare's sister would have a desire to be like her brother. To me, this setup does not show any kind of independence for the woman, but rather demonstrates more social constraints as Wolf thinks the only way for Shakespeare's sister to gain significance is to do the things her brother did. Hmm...a little contradicting? I think so.

Recently in my Women's Literature class we learned about how women who were oppressed found ways to express their art through what society forced them to do each day (cooking, sewing, garden work, etc.). I like thinking about the fact that women who could not voice themselves through writing were clever enough to find other ways of expressing their thoughts and individual art. These women, unlike Wolf's ridiculous portrayal of Shakespeare's sister, cleverly and intelligently took what they had and turned it into a form of expression that was remembered in a recipe, a quilt, or a blooming garden for generations to come. 

And where is Shakespeare's sister's impact? Nowhere. Because she thought she had to be like her brother.