"I've got a joke for you."

"Women's rights."

How many times have you heard a man say that one?

Jane Addams, famous suffragette
from the Progressive Era
Owner of the Hull House

Feminism, as defined by the Oxford Dictionary, is "the advocacy of women's rights on the grounds of political, social, and economic equality to men." We've discussed a few authors in class that could be considered feminist, including Virginia Woolf, Alfonsina Storni, Anita Desai, Nawal El Sadaawi, and even Rabindranath Tagore (even though he was a dude!).

In "A Room of One's Own," by Virginia Woolf, she enters a library with the intent of reading about women. What she finds is an overwhelming amount of books, about women, all written by men. She says it's as if men are automatically qualified to write about women simply because they are men. She also gives an example of "Judith" Shakespeare, William Shakespeare's "sister." Woolf goes on to explain that, had Shakespeare been a woman, he would not have been as successful, and more than likely would have killed himself. The message of her short story was that all a woman needed to be a successful writer was a quiet room of her own, and money.

Alfonsina Storni was a feminist poet. Her poems have an almost accusatory tone, and seem to tell a story of a woman over-powering a man. Take her poem "Little Bitty Man" for example:

Little bitty man, little bitty man
let your canary loose that wants to fly away.
I'm that canary, little bitty man,
let me go free.

I was in your cage, little bitty man,
little bitty man who gives me a cage.
I say little bitty because you don't understand me
and never will

Nor do I understand you, but meanwhile
open up the cage, for I want to be free.
Little bitty man, I love you half an hour.
Ask no more of me.

Anita Desai's short story "Rooftop Dwellers," is the story of a woman in India who chooses to leave her cushy life with her parents for a life of independence in the big city. The main character, Moyna, had a job and a home and supported herself. She was a very strong and independent woman whose goal seemed to be to prove people wrong, people who thought women couldn't make it on their own. In the end, the journal she works for is going under and she has trouble deciding whether to go home or not. Though Desai leaves the ending a little open, I personally got the impression that Moyna chose to continue her independent life. This gave me a sense of empowerment.

Nawal El Sadaawi (left) wrote a short story that sounds curiously similar to her life. It involves a woman who is sent to jail for speaking ill against her people's leader. In the jail she is torture by being raped. At one point during her torture, one of the men said, "This is the way we torture you women - by depriving you of the most valuable thing you posess." To which she replied, "You fool! The most valuable thing I possess is not between my legs." This is an extremely powerful moment in the story for the woman.

In Rabindranath Tagore's "Punishment," a man kills his wife out of sudden rage. His brother, in an attempt to save him, tells his wife to take the punishment, for it was no secret that the two women constantly fought. The wife was dumbfounded, she could not believe that someone who loved her so would ask her to do such a thing. When the man realized what he had done and tried to tell the truth, she continued to take the blame, as if to tell him 'this is what you wanted, isn't it?' At the end of the story as she sits in jail she is told that he wants to see her, to which she replies "To hell with him." More feminine empowerment!

In all honesty though, I'm not that big of a feminist. Crazy, right? I am a girl, after all. I should be a feminist. I mean it's grand that we can vote and all, I am all for that! And who doesn't want equality of the sexes, that's important. But I'm not the type to go picket somewhere or write some strongly worded essays or short stories just to try and change some man's mind. I am more the type of person to go out and actually do what they say/think I can't do. Actions speak louder than words after all.  :P