"I'm Sarah Somebody from Idaho and I want to be a Mother in Zion."
"I'm Polly Petunia from Arizona and I also want to be a Mother in Zion."
"I think I just threw up a bit in my mouth," I said quietly to my roommate.
"I'm Ashley Allgood from Georgia and I want to be a Mother in Zion when I grow up."
"You've got to be kidding me," my roommate said. "I want to be a Linguist and perhaps work for the United Nations or State Department."
"If one more girl says they want to be a Mother in Zion I'm leaving. Why are they going to college if they just want to be Mothers in Zion?" I replied.
"I'm Molly MacDougal from Nebraska and I want to be a Mother in Zion."
"I am SO out of here," I said as I gather my things to walk home.
"Okay, let's assume for the sake of sanity that everyone in the room wants to be a Mother in Zion. What else do you want to be when you grow up?" the teacher inquired.
The introductions wound around to the back row where I was sitting. Most of the women said that wanted to be elementary teachers or nurses.
"My name is Emily Tree and I want to be a Professor of Architectural History and Preservation when I grow up."
There are several different viewpoints one can take when writing in the Humanities discipline. You can look at something from the Marxist, Feminist, and some others that I can't remember off the top of my head at the moment. I have a tendency to look at art history from the Feminist perspective--how did this impact or explain the daily life of a woman in that specific time frame, culture, and possible sub-culture?
I've not been writing my thesis on a painting by Édouard Manet for about 6 years. I have been researching things but not taking notes as I should be doing or actively asking myself and the painting questions. This is the painting.
I find this painting quite interesting in the context of 19th Century French politics. Some look at this painting and have said it objectifies women. I think it's a subtle protest against a political and social system that didn't allow women to have certain rights and privileges. Granted, French women seemed to have more freedoms than women in other Western countries during this time frame. In general, though, the majority of women were not allowed to own their own property, open a sole personal bank account, receive an education, or vote. In essence, they had no voice.
I look at this painting and see what a woman could rightfully and lawfully call her own--her body. Since she was not allowed to have a personal bank account or own property the very clothing on her back did not belong to her but to whatever man purchased it for her. She wasn't allowed to have a higher education and thus could not pursue professional work outside of those of wife and mother. Were she to be so unlucky as to not get married, companion, governess, laundress, cook, kitchen maid, et cetera were the respectable positions she could aspire to.
We have come a long way since 1862/3 when this painting was created but I think we as women have lost the real heart of why Feminism began in the 19th century. Women wanted a chance to be educated. Women wanted to be allowed to vote for political and civic matters that impacted their lives. Women did not want to be men or have the exact same things men had; they wanted the ability to choose among options.
Virginia Woolfe actually stated exactly how I feel when I think of Feminism and I tend to look at societies and cultures through her lens.
"Men and women are different. What needs to be made equal is the value placed on these differences."Women today seem to have forgotten that they are different and unique and not the same as men. They cry foul and burn bras and picket and then get angry when no man will hold the door open for them. We are different yet complementary halves of the human whole. We can not exist without each other and yet there are those who want to smother the very things that make them female and demand what men have.
"Everything we see in the world is the creative work of women."*
When I think of what started the Feminist movement in the 19th and early 20th centuries it has nothing to do with women wanting to be men. It has everything to do with being allowed to stand on her own two feet wearing clothes she purchased for herself from her own bank account with money she earned after establishing herself in a profession for which she was allowed to train. She wanted the opportunity to satisfy her curiosity; to not be seen merely as another object but as a vital and essential member of society.
The above painting was shocking to the Paris Salon in 1863. They found it distasteful. I have often wondered why. Were they embarrassed that this naked woman was defiantly staring out of the painting at the viewer? Were they made uncomfortable by her direct and knowing gaze? Were they reminded of what a woman's place in society was and what it wasn't? Were they afraid of her?
In closing, one of my personal heroes, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk said,
"Human kind is made up of two sexes, women and men. Is it possible that a mass is improved by the improvement of only one part and the other part is ignored? Is it possible that if half of a mass is tied to earth with chains that the other half can soar into skies?"
*Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, Ataturk: First President and Founder of the Turkish Republic
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