Men, Women, and Yellow Wall-paper

We've had some interesting discussions on gender/sex roles in class lately. When we were asked to come up with adjectives to describe masculine/feminine. One would think that the "stubborn", "barbaric", "proud" men and the "emotional times ten", "controlling", "expensive" women hated each other. I think it shows how much of an issue sexism continues to be even today by our debates about the capability and appropriateness of women to be in the military. I personally believe that if a woman wants to be on the front lines and can pass the physical tests that the men can, no one should be able to tell her no. Not when she will do her country more good than a man who doesn't want to be there. And don't tell me that she won't be able to fight as fiercely-- I would remind you of the Mother Bear Instinct we women have. When we fight about something we care for, hell or high water aren't going to get in the way.

Also, we read Charlotte Perkins Gilman's short story "The Yellow Wall-paper" (TYWP) along with watching a portion of the movie. It is a creepy little story, that's for certain. I can't imagine getting stuck in bed for three days, let alone three weeks. I would go crazy without something constructive to do, which is obviously the realization that Gilman wants me to come to.

I think the two subjects (women in the military and "The Yellow Wall-paper) have a similar theme. Women are seen by men as being less capable than themselves, and so they feed it to us until even other women start believing it. In TYWP, the unnamed narrator often says that she feels ungrateful, because she knows how hard her husband and nurse are working to help her. I think that we as women today are sometimes supposed to have the same level of gratitude towards the people who want to keep us down. We're being 'protected' from the reality of war, not being told that we can't do it. It's for our own good. In my mind, it's thinking like that that will make it difficult for us to gain the full equality with man that we completely deserve.

Anyway, that's how I see it.