Reflect on the wife's ideas and attitudes concerning women. Analyze how one of the wife's ideas or attitudes is similar to or different from contemporary feminist ideas and attitudes.
Alison
10/22/2014 12:43:49 pm
The wife suggests that women should have the "freedom to do exactly as [they] please, with no one to reprove our faults and lies" (lines 112-113). This seems like contemporary feminist ideas because the wife fights for her rights. However, she does not fight for all women's liberty and equality. She thinks men should bow to her because she gives what they desire—sexual pleasure. She only fights for her own rights. That’s a huge difference from the feminists’ idea.
nikha
10/25/2014 12:05:41 am
To some extent, I agree with Allison. According to line 113, women in the tale aspire freedom. They firmly believe that they deserve freedom since they provide the men with pleasures.
Alicia H.
10/25/2014 07:09:39 pm
I also agree with Alison idea. I feel like what the wife's description of what women truly desire is a bit too over the boundaries. In the story, women want men to obey, but contemporary feminists long for equality.
Nikha
10/25/2014 12:03:27 am
To me, contemporary feminists are aiming for equality, but the women in the tale are less militant. When narrating the tale, the wife yearns for freedom of women given by men. In other words, women are still under the "wings" of men who have the power to grant. Recall the queen who "begs" her husband for permission to decide the fate of the knight. Having the king's authorization, she thanks the king submissively. Doesn't it sound a bit tyrannic?
Andy Zhou
10/25/2014 12:33:20 pm
I agree with you. In the tale, the women are less demanding, and they only say what they want. Contemporary feminists are fighting for equality instead of just saying what they want.
Martina
10/25/2014 07:35:22 pm
I agree with Andy and Nikha. In the context, women are fighting for their "wants" however, contemporary feminists differ from women in the context because they fight for the idea of "equality" but not so much for their "wants and needs".
Yes, I definitely think the Wife of Bath is a forward-thinking lady who advocates for feminist beliefs. She strives to defend against the injustice of raped women by sarcastically scorning friars who abuse their authority and take advantage of the weaker ones in society. The Wife scorns not only to censure the rapists, but also to condemn the deplorable patriarchal system for not taking action against the culprits.
Shirley
10/25/2014 10:51:12 pm
I agree with this idea, because women are constantly trying to achieve equality. Since they all never experienced it before, so they all really want to fight for things they feel unfair and have disadvantages.
martina
10/25/2014 06:36:56 pm
When the wife says that "freedom to do exactly as please" (line 112) it suggests that women should have more power than men. This idea differs from contemporary ideas because feminists nowadays believe that men and women should have equal rights and one should not be over another.
Cindy Tsai
10/25/2014 10:53:13 pm
Modern feminists fight for equality. They fight to have the same rights as men and do the same jobs as men. However, in the wife of Bath's tale, through the final answer that the knight receives from the old woman, the wife suggests that what women want is simply to be respect by their husbands. The wife suggests that women wants "freedom to do exactly as [they] please, with no one to reprove [their] faults and lies"(line 112) and "self-same sovereignty Over her husband" (line 215). They wants to be respected by their husbands, and their husband will grant them the right to do whatever they want. Medieval women are not fighting for equality between men and women. They are fighting for better rights, but still admit the fact that they are subject to their husbands.
Stephen
10/26/2014 04:43:50 am
I agree with your idea. Women back in the medieval era wanted respect from their husbands. Not only the women back then want respect from men , but also modern women also want respect from men. Likewise, modern feminists fight to gain gender equality, which is same as gaining respect from men.
Jiny Kim
10/25/2014 11:16:09 pm
Though the wife does advocate for freedom, she goes beyond that as to say that women desire "self-same sovereignty over [their] husband[s]" (line 215), which seems too extreme. Modern feminists advocate for gender role equality, but what the wife suggests that women desire is more of a dominance than equality.
Andre Tan Mulligan
10/26/2014 12:00:35 am
Contrary to most feminist ideas and attitudes, the Wife of Bath's tale says that women are easily influenced by compliments. Feminist ideas and attitudes compose of women empowerment and equality for women. The Wife of Bath's tale admits to the reality that feminists are fighting in which women are easily influenced and not equal to men.
nikha
10/26/2014 12:38:30 am
Andre's point is quite awesome. The wife in the tale suggests that flattery is very effective towards women. However, in the modern society, though women do enjoy flattery, feminists argue that not only women, men too, love flattery. Feminists today tend to equalize every "term".
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Discussion Board
Assignment: Students are expected to participate in the class’ online discussion forum hosted at shrubber.weebly.com. Questions related to assigned readings will be posted by the teacher each week. Students are expected to post a minimum of one original response per week. When more than one question is posted by the instructor in a given week, students may choose to which of the questions they respond. Students are also expected to comment on at least one other student’s response to the question. Although these are the minimum requirements for the homework grade, students are encouraged to engage in further discussion with their classmates using the forum. These additional responses are OPTIONAL. However, commenting will benefit your participation grade if you did not participate during our whole-class discussion on the day when you post your comment. You DO NOT have an opportunity to make up credit lost for lateness, lack or preparation or violation of classroom/school rules.
Student posts should NOT exceed 100 words. All responses will be graded on content, organization and grammar.