Blog 11

Virginia Woolf

1. It is useful to point out that this essay was originally delivered to women students at two Oxford colleges. Ask your students to identify what evidence there is to suggest Woolf was aware of the nature of her audience.

Yes, Virginia Woolf was aware of the nature of her audience. She talked about how women were treated less than, and even in fiction, it was almost as they didn't exist. In Shakespeare's sister, she goes on to say how "her" can do so many things, but all people knew was it was "he" that did it and she was the property of the man. 

2. What do the chapter headings from Trevelyan’s History of England (para. 6) reveal about historians’ concerns?

It reveals the life of a woman and how they were treated by men on a daily basis.

3. What would Woolf propose as the most important changes in society that would alter the situation most talented women find themselves in? Why does talent make a woman’s situation especially difficult?

I think she would propose that women become their own independent people. This would allow them to have the freedom and not be the property of the men or family in their life. Having talent as a woman made everything difficult because in a way women had no role in life, in a way the talent became the property of the man if it was known. 

M. Mead:

1. What are the temperamental traits of women? Of men?

In different tribes, the temperamental traits vary, in the Mundugumor tribe both men and women are both know to be aggressive, ruthless, and sex-driven. The Arapesh men and women both are very similar as they are mild and responsive people. In the last tribe, the women are very dominant and independent emotionally, while the men were the complete opposite.

2. What price does society pay for restricting the opportunities of one sex or the other?

People would turn out to be like the sex that isn't restricted.

3. Given that our culture has standardized temperamental expectations for each sex, what price does the opposite sex pay for that standardization?


Women are supposed to be emotional and stay at home people, as the men work and are very put together on a daily basis. But when the roles are reversed, women are way doing too much, and men are teased for being so emotional. 

4. Why should our modern industrialized society be concerned about the ways of “primitive” cultures?

The way a person acts can be altered the way they're raised. This creates many culters and traits for everyone. If a specific culture wants you to do something, every one of that culture would because that's what they were raised to do. 

P