August 29th 2014

In A Vindication of the Rights of Women (1792) Mary Wollstonecraft states her belief that women of the era allowed themselves to be weakened by innocence, judging naivety and incapability to be synonymous traits. She adds that society, having corrupted young girls with stereotypes and lectures, prepared women to be mindless servants of men for the entirety of their adult lives. 

  I believe it to be true that an innocent woman will face more difficulty in endeavors of profession, education, and life in general. The world is not a place where naivety thrives. Those who are innocent are seen as unprepared, weak and helpless, as Mary Wollstonecraft viewed them, and are nearly always prodded and ridiculed for their perceived softness. Particularly in the media, innocence is portrayed as ludicrous, sad, and pathetically amusing.

    However, I look at women around me today, and I wonder what Mary Wollstonecraft would think upon observing them. With the loss of that “weakness,” that innocence, came also the rampant decay of modern morality. The young women today have been raised in a society that puts tremendous emphasis on the rights owed to women and on the stupidity and animalistic qualities of men. In addition to the movement to hold power over men, women have taken extremist views with the way they treat one another. The majority of women today are often brash, unkind and crude, resorting to share in the qualities of men that they most claim to despise. 

   I strongly agree with Mary Wollstonecraft’s statement that a woman should be respected for her intellect, but I believe that a greater attribute even than her mind is a woman’s character. And it is in this that I think women have done themselves more harm than good over the past few generations. 

   I do not wish to be a woman who is incapable of standing up for herself, but simply to reserve the right not to do so, if that is my desire. My belief in equality is grounded upon my belief in the freedom to choose and to face the consequences of those choices when they come. I accept my responsibility as a  citizen of the world and call upon others to do so as well. If it is my choice to serve others, be they men or women, I do not view that choice as weakness, but rather strength. A women who possesses the ability to put aside herself and give to others, is not timid, weak or put-upon. She is courageous.  

-L