In case you begin to lose hope...

If you ever start to feel that there is no hope in the world for woman kind and that despite all the advancements that women have made, we still have not made it, we have women such as Moira Allen to look to. You can read more about her and other women like her on WOW! which stands for Women on Writing. It's a great website that reminds us that women are making great strides in leveling the playing field in areas such as writing. On this website women give advice on several different areas of writing, many in which they are experts. This advice is given to men and women alike and is not directed toward one gender specifically. With a name like Women on Writing though, it seems to me that not many men would be inclined to visit this website or follow these women's advice. The website is not decorated in pink or "girly" by any means but I still do not seem many men running to check it out. These women offer valuable advice to any writers though and it might do some men good to hear it.

Final Paper!

Women, Words, and Writings

Words and language surround us everyday. It is the basis of communication between humans. How would we interact with other people without talking? The written word therefore has played an important role in human history. Through literature people have recorded events, important and seemingly insignificant, throughout history. Considering all this, it seems illogical that half of the human population would be excluded from such an important part of life for centuries. Up until the 20^th century, women authors were not recognized or acknowledged and were often even discouraged. Many women were forced to use pseudonyms in order to be published and many hide their identity even today. Still now women writers often do not receive the same recognition men do. As in many career fields women often find it difficult to reach the top of the writing industry. Even after women began to earn a hold in the literature department, many subjects were off limits for women. Some of these subjects include sex and politics, areas of life that affect everyone, women just as much as men. Looking back on history, it almost seems as if half the story is missing.

The first women author known of in history is Enheduanna and wrote about 4300 years ago (Binkley). Although Enheduanna is well established in history, she is not often a poet commonly known to people. Most of the work of early women writers was often ignored or lost through the ages.

We know of only a few women who wrote in the ancient world, when education was limited to only a few people and most of them men. This list includes most of the women whose work survives or is well-known; there were also some lesser-known women writers who are mentioned by writers in their time but whose work doesn't survive. And there were probably other women writers whose work was simply ignored or forgotten, whose names we do not know (Lewis).

Moving forward in history to the medieval ages more women entered into the writing world but still remained largely under represented. Women often did not receive the opportunity of education and remained illiterate. The few that did receive education were limited to nobility and upper classes. A women’s education often focused on becoming a wife and mother (Pomona). There were a women though, who were able to make their mark in history such as Christine de Pizan and Marie De France. Despite the fact that we know these women’s names now, very little is known about either and neither achieved fame like that of Renaissance writers such as Shakespeare, Dante, or Machiavelli even though they wrote close to this time period. History books often teach the name of writers such as John Locke, Thomas Hobbes, Ben Franklin, and Thomas Jefferson but few women who wrote during the Enlightenment are that well known. Finally, in the 19^th century came the first wave of feminism and many women expressed feelings that emerged during this time through writing (Sattelmeyer). Many more names of women writers of this era are known today such as Louisa May Alcott, Jane Austen, Anne Bronte, and Emily Dickinson just to name a few. These women still struggled though and no one considered them heroines at the time. Today, women have a come a long way and in most countries receive an equal opportunity to education as men. Despite these great advances women still do not receive equal treatment in the work place. Not only in jobs involving writing and literature but all across the market. One specific example, seen in the Virginia Quarterly Review shows that byline ratio of men to women was 5:29 in the 2006 issue (Clark). Although great strides have been made with women’s involvement in literature, there is still much work to be done.

When women’s writings first began to be circulated in public many women received much criticism and could not publish their work under their own names. Women instead used pseudonyms or pen names in order to put their work out there.

The majority of women writing in the late 19th century had at least some of their work published under a male pen name. Writing was a male profession, and women could not contribute. The brave women who used their own names were called "petticoat authors," "scribbling dames," and "half-men." In order to get published and be taken seriously, many women wrote under male pen names (Niemi).

Mary Ann Evans, better known as George Eliot, was one such woman who had to hide her identity when writing. While at first her articles were all anonymous she provided her editor a name incase people asked questions and soon enough they did. When she revealed her identity to a few close friends the information leaked out and she received much criticism. Despite these bad reviews though, Evans had already established a large base of readers (Niemi). Sadly though, the name that went down in history was George Eliot and not her true name of Mary Ann Evans. Pseudonyms were much more common during the 19^th century than today, but despite many advances of equal rights and such women today will still take a pen name. One example of a well known author who did not publish her books under her real name is J.K. Rowling. Although essentially she kept her real name, her publisher discouraged her from using Joanne because younger boys might be discouraged from buying her books if they were written by a female. Women have written masterpieces as great as any man but may not have received recognition or are forced to hide the fact simply because they were born a woman.

Pseudonyms were also used by women for other reasons as well. Certain subjects have been considered off limits for women in the past and even today. Louisa May Alcott, the author of books such as Little Women, wrote under her own name and also under A.M. Barnard.

Barnard's stories were full of sinister characters and romance. Louisa called these her "blood and thunder tales." Why would an already respected author choose to use another name? Louisa was afraid of what her friends and family might think of her racy writing. It was OK for women to write moral stories like Little Women, but it wasn't OK to write about the darker side of life (Niemi).

It took a long time for it to become socially acceptable for women to write and even after centuries certain areas were still not acceptable for women to discuss openly in their writings. Sexuality is one of these areas that women have been greatly criticized for covering. More recently, the well known author Judy Blume, received much criticism for some of her books that addressed puberty, menstruation and sex. Three of her books, Blubber, Forever, and Then Again, Maybe I Won't have even been banned (Barry). These books although covering sexual ideas, were written for kids and did not contain racy or even shocking material. Abby Lee, another female author who wrote about sex in here writings also wrote under a pen name. Her blog, “Girl With a One Track Mind” went deep into many of her sexual experiences. When her true identity was revealed she was called several things including, “a sex addict who is morally no better than a prostitute.” Women have often had to limit themselves to certain subjects of writing, frequently including areas very pertinent to their own lives.

Women make up half the world’s population and for years history has been written without their input. We are truly missing half of our history. Women have made great strides throughout the world’s past and have come a long way from not even receiving an education. Women today are taught to read and write and receive many more opportunities to excel in literature than they did in the past. Although many women still use a pseudonym to disguise their identity it is much less common than it was in the past. Women often would not be published if they used their female name, and despite the fact that this is not the case now, many women still use a pen name to not lose a large male audience. Also women often take pseudonyms to write about subjects they might otherwise be criticized for writing about. Despite restraints and setbacks women have put their voice out there through writing. History has overwhelmingly been dominated by men but men have also had the power to write history. Slowly but surely women are gaining the power of words and through that the power to write history.

What a Bitch

After reading the article from "Bitch Magazine" I was left thinking more about the label "bitch" then anything else. So naturally the first thing I did was Google the word. Not surprisingly the first thing that came up was "Bitch Magazine" but also there was the Wikipedia entry for bitch. Although Wikipedia is not even close to a reliable source it still shows what people define the word as. Also going to dictionary.com and looking up the word closely matched Wikipedia's entry.
Both entries began with the actual definition of the word: a female dog. But both also had the definition as a "malicious, spiteful, domineering, intrusive, or unpleasant person, especially a woman." It seems to me that domineering does not necessarily have to be malicious and if a man is domineering is it spiteful? Along these lines, Wikipedia went on to say that if a man is called a bitch it's in a making them subordinate. So calling a woman a bitch makes her domineering and unpleasant but calling a man a bitch makes him subordinate and weak? These two definitions seem awfully contradicting.
Bitch can be heard and seen everywhere. Songs and tv shows often don't even beep it out anymore; it is slowly becoming more and more okay and accepted to use. I still cringe when I say it and writing in this blog over and over was a real...tough and unpleasant thing. The word bitch is so integrated into our language is it possible to remove it or at least take it back to it's original and true meaning?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitch

http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/bitch

"Oh, if you knew my dreams! My vaulting ambition…"

-Zora Neal Thurston


First and foremost, the article for this week's blog comes from "Bitch Magazine: Feminist Response to Pop Culture". Although this is not the focus of my blog, it is important to me to address this name. When I began reading some of the entries I agreed, with much of what several of the authors were saying, but the fact that it is called "Bitch Magazine" is somewhat disappointing. Why would a group of woman advocating for female equality and such use a derogatory term, especially one that is way overused and often in an incorrect manner? It seems somewhat pointless and just more "in your face" than necessary to use this as a name.
That being said, this article I read "The Ambition Condition" had a lot of insight into the world women writers are live in, a world despite how much we hate to admit it, is dominated by men. The fact is that women who seek success and ambition are often portrayed as spiteful and domineering. Many examples are given of movies such as the "Devil Wears Prada". Women writers who seek success through their writing, often don't admit it and make it seem as if it's something they just do on the "for fun". To put it bluntly this sucks. Why is a women who wants success in the business world categorized as a "bitch" or forced to choose between a family and a career?

The Ambition Condition

Women with Guns

I had never really given much thought to the idea of a gun being a masculine or feminine thing but then again I had also never given much thought to the ideas of guns. It really is though one more area where feminism is affecting women's lives. I imagine that even a few years back a women owning a gun would have been considered radical.
I have never owned or even held a gun and although I imagine it would be a weird feeling and I would feel pretty nervous. I feel like a guy who has never held a gun or been around guns would feel the same way. I'm not sure if this is really an issue of being a women or a man, but more of what you have grown up around.
The idea of women owning guns is empowering but maybe empowering in an unnecessary way. It seems that this only encourages the "man-hater" idea that many men have about feminists. Why do women feel it so necessary to make it socially acceptable for them to own guns? I guess this would lead to a bigger issue about people owning guns in general, despite gender.

Author discusses impact of women and guns

On a bit of a Side Track....

My favorite part of literature is that it really affects all parts of our lives. Maybe because I love language and hate math, but I am a strong believer of the fact that you really could not get through live without words and you might be without numbers.
Getting back to the point though, this woman author addresses women's issues in her book This is How We Do It: The Working Mothers' Manifesto. The author, Carol Evans, is the founder of Working Mother Media. Just the title can bring hope and optimism to our day but one idea she mentioned is, with the recent election is that of Sarah Palin. Despite the controversy she brought to the election it definitely caught people's attention which is still powerful and. It also says a lot that women both on the left and right came together to protect her right to run.
More importantly though Carol Evans is a women writing about politics, even though this is not at all the main focus of the article. Politics has often been an area of writing that women tend to stay away from more recently though women have began to enter this area more and more.

Author sees brighter future for working women

What if Shakespeare had a Sister?

The University of Nebraska-Lincoln set a great example by having an event celebrating women writers. Yet it is still sad to think that it is necessary to have a "Women's History Month" and "Women's Week". I mean after all we don't have a "Men's History Month"'; our history is in general dedicated to men and this makes that just that much more obvious.
Despite my pessimism though this event is really a good thing. The fact that it was called "Shakespeare Sister" is especially interesting and amusing. With Shakespeare being one of the best writers and most influential people in history it really is curious to think what would happen if he had a sister. Obviously it is completely hypothetical to consider, and more in theory. If Shakespear thought like a girl, how would his poems, plays, and stories be different?

Shakespeare's Sister celebrates women writers