I Am Woman Hear Me Roar... Because I'm Mad

It was incredible to see how sexist these "great" men were. OK, yes, they were great, but how could they have such innovative and highly regarded thoughts and ideas, but still not include women as their equals. I know we discussed this issue a little bit and concluded that we have to remember that these people were "men of their time," but I can't. It is still eye-opening that they did not even consider white women worthy of conversation.



For example, we talked about John Locke's famous saying: "All men are created equal," and the fact that at that time white people did not consider slaves or servants as men. But, where do women fit into this equation? They don't. The point was made that as we evolved, so too did the phrase to include everyone. But I disagree. Today, the statement has transformed to actually include all men, but women are still missing. As a woman today (and everyday) I still see it as an old saying that now includes all men, but has yet to include women, because equality has still yet to be reached. Of course, this speaks to sexism and the status of women versus men. Clearly progress has been made sense Locke's time. Still, I am not a man and the word men does not apply to me.

Hume was arguably more blatantly sexist in his discussion of women. The funny thing is he was actually making an attempt to bring women into the men's society by educating them in history. I was with him on the first page of David Norton's "The Cambridge Companion to Hume," when discussing history and the importance of learning it. I even thought it was great that he was willing to educate middle-class female. Then the comment: "Only a woman who was acquainted with the history of her own country, and with those of Greece and Rome, could engage in conversation which 'can afford any entertainment to men of sense and reflection'" (282). Really? On one hand I want to cheer that some one thinks that women even have a chance to be on the same status as men. Still, I had to underline the sentences that made me think "wow, is he serious??"


Dr. Souder mentioned that one day people will probably look back at us and criticize our beliefs in equality; I wonder what they will say. Will it be something like our conversations today? Should we be doing something so completely and obviously different that just hasn't occurred to us yet?