Best of the Week: What It Means To Be A Woman (In Jane Eyre's times)

Yesterday in English, we talked about what it meant to be a woman and a man in Jane Eyre.I thought that this conversation was very interesting because we have some girls who are very strong feminists in Academy and then we have some other girls who are not as big feminists. A lot of the characteristics we listed under "What It Means To Be A Woman" could be considered inferior and it seemed that the men had most of the dominating characteristics. Inferiority of women was the way of the time period. After Academy, I was talking to one of my friends in Academy about the discussion we had. I thought it was interesting to talk about how some of the characteristics of women changed over time and how some did not. I thought it was also interesting that there was an age of such inferiority for women but then only some few years later, there was a large feminist movement. The point is, women can conform to what society wants from them. In Jane Eyre we see that inside, Jane really has a fiery spirit, but sometimes she has to conform to society. When I thought about what this meant for girls today, I came across an interesting idea. Today, we don't feel society's pressure (as much) to be a feminist or to be inferior to a man. You can be whoever you want to be. Yes, I know that's a cliche, but it's true. I could choose to be the spitting image of a feminist. Or, I could be more of a subordinate woman. I love that I have the option to choose. If I love that I have the option to choose, does that mean I'm more of a feminist? Could someone be both feminist and subordinate, depending on the situation? My point is that I really liked that this one conversation in English class, the question of what it means to be a woman during Jane Eyre's times, continued on outside of the classroom!