Comparing Taming of the Shrew and Feminafesto

Charles Wulke

9/29/09

I seem to find that Katherine, Shakespeare’s female lead in his comedy, Taming of the Shrew, seems to fit the stereotypical housewife especially through her monologue near the end of the play. In this monologue, she seems to be addressing the facts that seem to prevail in that patriarchal society; she knew that she would have to be submissive to her husband, and understood her role in the relationship. I find that she is a rather smart lady though. In comparison to the culture that Barker or Waldman lives in (a culture that men’s source of living in many instances are office jobs, jobs that can be done just as easily by a woman) the life that Katherine lives is one where the harsh reality is that a lot of the work that the men do to maintain their families is hard work. She advises the women reminding them that

“And for thy maintenance commits his body

To painful labor both by sea and land,

To watch the night in storms, the day in cold,

Whilst thou liest warm at home, secure and safe,”

and therefore, it is through common sense and a realization of how good she has things, she is able to accept the position as the house keeper. This traditional thinking seems to fit in with ideas that Barker talked about in Chapter 7 especially pertaining to the fact that she fits the stereotypical role as a domestic housewife, the type that was maintained the prominent understanding between heterosexual couples until the feminist movement and the rise for equality throughout the workplace.

In history, sex has followed a binary system. Using Saussure’s principles, men would be part of a binary with women creating structure in society. DeBeavoir then took the binary principles farther and applied it to a “master/slave” relationship with the men being the privileged sex. In Feminafesto, Anne Waldman seems to attack this binary system. She very clearly follows a feminist mind set and seems avidly against the patriarchal society. She feels that people should not be judged based on gender but based on energy, the force and that is inside you. She seems to fall under the difference feminism, a category of feminism that Barker brings up in Chapter 9. She acknowledges that there are differences between men and women, however, she feels that these differences should be overcome by and lead to transgender writing. Interestingly she begins to criticize many classical books that have withstood time, because of the characters that the women are portrayed as. I feel though that many of these images go equally for the men too because there seem to be a finite number of characters that portray the men as well. Just examining the Bible, there are many men who are portrayed as weak, murderers, easily tempted, adulterers, heroes, villains etc. Character molds are part of human nature, trying to find an area in which people can fit, and eventually people get grouped into these molds. Despite some of my slight disagreement with some of her arguments, I do find that it is time for the “second sex” to join the primary sex and both lead a life with equality.