Visions of Women
Today's society has a very harsh view of women: How fat are
we? How skinny? How tall, how short, how curvy, how straight? What shoes should
we wear with what outfit? Should we be in the workforce and the kitchen
simultaneously? How much makeup should we wear? There are so many normative
questions and stereotypes attached to every woman in society and we see these
requirements constantly on TV commercials, magazines, and with celebrities.
There is no escaping it. Women are held to stereotypes with little to no
leniency. Reading Apuleius's Cupid and Psyche this week showed me that these
stereotypes were even attributed to women in the 2nd century. Realizing this
also gives me little hope for change in current times for how women are held
simply as visionaries.
For starters, Venus was the embodiment of a stereotypical
woman on her period. She had so much rage and anger and hostility, the
stereotype of a woman's wrath being over dramatic and slightly silly was
blatantly evident in this Classic Greek story. Venus was also held to a
standard of beauty; no one would worship her if she were ugly. This adds on to
my fact that women are typically expected to be seen and not so much heard. I
do give kudos to Venus for making herself heard, that woman was a force to be reckoned
with and no one was going to stop her.
Moving on to Psyche. Even though Psyche was unorthodoxly a
main character in the story, she still was not the brightest bulb in the pack.
She actually was pretty dumb. She did not need to look at her husband's face;
he told her so many times not to. And the ramifications of doing so were
horrible! She was so inept to risk that! Then the second huge mistake Psyche
made of looking in the jar of beauty which she also was told not to do, so
dumb. Psyche did not seem to be smart or have a mind of her own, but she
definitely had the looks. This goes along with the ideal of women being trophy
wives yet again; no brains required. Psyche was so submissive the entire time
with everyone, always doing what she was told unless huge consequences loomed
over her. One other thing, Psyche couldn't go to heaven without Cupid's hand in
marriage. This implies that women cannot be spiritually whole without a man.
Psyche never once stood up for herself. The vision of women portrayed here is
very offensive.
Finally, the manipulative and horribly vengeful acts of
Psyche’s two sisters are a bad light for women, too. The actions of revenge to
the death to their little sister were atrocious! That shows that women will do
anything to get themselves up in the world, no matter who they have to step on.
This whole story was just overall bad publicity for women.
The roots of women being simply a thing to see in society
and not heard are very deeply anchored in history. Granted, things have improved
for females as time has gone on, there are still so many negative stereotypes
against us, it is appalling! I'm not usually a feminist by any means in my
mind, it just is shocking sometimes to see how differently men are viewed from
women today. I couldn't help but pick up on this reoccurring trend throughout
this story!
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| (So original, I know. "Girl Power! Sisters Before Misters!" [Pitch Perfect quote] Source: Wikipedia) |
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