Feminism Essay
Both Virginia Woolf, in a speech addressing a graduating all women class, and Naomi Wolf, in her
text The Beauty Myth, contemplate feminism from an economic viewpoint. While Woolf believes
women need money and a room of their own to have economic independence, Wolf gives credence to
the fact that the beauty industry is hindering the independence of women. Through male pomposity,
the conventional lives of women, obsession with physical appearance, and the reality that beauty is
diverse, both Woolf and Wolf explain the significance of our world's economy.
Women have always been economically dependent on men. Any land or money that was in a woman
's possession was given to her father or husband. Women have stayed at home working as...show
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In her speech, Woolf was asked to talk about women and fiction. She resolved that without money
nor education, women would not be able to create fiction. Which is why, in the Elizabethan era,
women did not generate any sort of poetry. Woolf pondered over this for a while, and hypothesized
that
Shakespeare had an ingenious sister, Judith. Judith had the imagination and ability to produce
creative works just like her brother. However, Judith never had any education so she wasn't able
to thrive. In short, the story goes like this: Judith's father arranges a marriage for her, Judith runs
away from home and goes to the city, she tries to live out her dream and act, she gets laughed at,
she has an affair, and then Judith kills herself at the crossroads. The fact that Judith kills herself at
the crossroads has great symbolism. The crossroads represents choice. The choice is that one can
go along with her potential and be who she wants to be, or she can go along with the flow.
Even though this choice is existent, it is extremely improbable. As Woolf states, "it is
unthinkable that any woman in Shakespeare's day had had
Shakespeare's genius. For genius like Shakespeare's is not born among labouring, uneducated,
servile people," (Woolf 353). Women have never had the opportunity to produce poetry
because they have never been given the freedom they need to do so. Because women have always
been poor and reliant
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