Dear Fellow Classmates,
I would like to draw your attention today to a quote from Abelard's reply to Heloise's Letter 6, "Although women are the weaker sex, their virtue is more pleasing to God and more perfect" (pg 118).
In this quote, Abelard is responding to Heloise's blatant sexism towards her own gender, "the weaker sex" in the previous letter. The reason my attention was drawn to this quote was in part because I was surprised by Heloise's attitude towards women but I was even more surprised that Abelard felt the need to clarify and praise women...in a backhanded sort of way. I feel as though his justification of women being born into paradise and therefore it being their native land and native way to be almost insulting. I may be reading too far into it, but I feel like he is insinuating that men are innately going to be harder to control so they should have a different Rule than women. Though he does go into and cover a bunch of successful women in his letter I feel as though he still rejects the idea of equality. Other than their use of the term, "the weaker sex", there are tones and comparisons the two writers use that ultimately show the common idea of the day of women being inferior. I am wondering if you all agree on the attitude I am picking up? Or, perhaps you feel these letters expressed rather progressive ideas and thoughts on sexism?
I think that the use of the term "the weaker sex" refers to physical strength rather than sexist reasons. Men are believed to be more physically capable than women in some aspects, even in today's society. Equality of the sexes was rejected during this time for the most part, and I think both Abelard and Heloise are simply stating quotes that are a product of the time in which this was all taking place.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, though, "weaker" was a loaded term in this context. Women were considered physically weaker, of course, but they were also considered less intelligent, naturally more cowardly and less able to stay emotionally strong in the face of hardship. Tied into their sexualized reputation, men believed that women were more prone to cheating as well, because they were too "weak" to resist temptation. Think Hamlet's "Frailty, thy name is woman". So while Abelard probably didn't mean anything worse by it than anyone else might in his time, his opinion of women is still a far cry from anything we'd see as feminist.
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