Phyllis, I bought a copy of "Women of the Asylum: Voices Behind the Walls, 1840-1945," immediately upon its publication, while working at the Drama Book Shop in Manhattan. I will write screenplays of all of their stories, which deserve to be told. Barbara Puff
I feel bad for the women taught to be afraid of their own thoughts, their own brains. I consider the problem from a survival perspective. Males are the physical aggressors, and society fears a mass of unemployed, aimless males because of the possibility of violence. One way to dampen this possibility is to preserve well paid employment for males, and to tell them they will always be smarter than half the population. This also leads to females having to look to a male for economic security, leading to males not having to work as hard for a sexual partner. But some of us have evolved past pure survival and refuse to keep our brains in a nutshell to please some males and the female correctional officers who keep other females in check. Even as an adolescent I can remember it was strange to be told to change how I dressed, groomed, spoke and acted because boys wouldn't like me. Conversely, I was also told I was doing things to get attention from males, when I was really oblivious to the males. It's hard to think of the misery inflicted on these women.
You were my role model in my early days of official feminist awakening in the mid 70s during my undergrad years. I was unofficially a feminist from the time I was six years old.
Phyllis, I bought a copy of "Women of the Asylum: Voices Behind the Walls, 1840-1945," immediately upon its publication, while working at the Drama Book Shop in Manhattan. I will write screenplays of all of their stories, which deserve to be told. Barbara Puff
I feel bad for the women taught to be afraid of their own thoughts, their own brains. I consider the problem from a survival perspective. Males are the physical aggressors, and society fears a mass of unemployed, aimless males because of the possibility of violence. One way to dampen this possibility is to preserve well paid employment for males, and to tell them they will always be smarter than half the population. This also leads to females having to look to a male for economic security, leading to males not having to work as hard for a sexual partner. But some of us have evolved past pure survival and refuse to keep our brains in a nutshell to please some males and the female correctional officers who keep other females in check. Even as an adolescent I can remember it was strange to be told to change how I dressed, groomed, spoke and acted because boys wouldn't like me. Conversely, I was also told I was doing things to get attention from males, when I was really oblivious to the males. It's hard to think of the misery inflicted on these women.
You were my role model in my early days of official feminist awakening in the mid 70s during my undergrad years. I was unofficially a feminist from the time I was six years old.
Sheri Oz interesting that Phyllis Chesler was my role model as well, beginning in 1972.