Men Explain Things to Me – a collection of essays worth reading!
Rebecca Solnit’s scathing but insightful collection of essays left me with a lot to think about. Throughout the book, she provided several fascinating points about the oppression of women in our modern-day society.
She first discussed the origin of the word mansplaning – how men take advantage of women by their words, an established power move. Then, she moved on to more serious ideas – that there is a consistent problem of violence of men against women in society. She used an example of a sexual assault by the head of a powerful government organization to show that the entire power system of the world is skewed. In fact, the struggles of disadvantaged countries reflect those of women. Is this a coincidence? I think not.
She questions our society’s ideals, like those of traditional marriage. The model of marriage puts the man in power, making the husband controls wife. The wife is almost made into a possession, while the man is the owner. Marriage equality is is where two people who love each other have the same rights and power. Contemporary marriage should be a partnership more than a conquering. Another societal ideal is how society has made women disappear – through family trees, names, and even physical confinement. When we tell girls to stay in, we do not question the men who make them do so.
Solnit begins to bring up a solution. Virginia Woolf, one of the first feminists, talked about embracing the darkness, or the unknown. She urged us to push forward for women’s liberation, so far that it is dangerous… a kind of limitless freedom. After all, women do not have credibility when it comes to their own experiences. Men will put them down because they are female. We must make the credibility for ourselves.
Now, feminists are rewriting the story! Women are uniting using the hashtag #yesallwomen to speak out against male oppression. Young feminists, the heart of the movement, are dreaming bigger and bolder, becoming scientists and leaders. Ultimately, the idea that women deserve the same rights as men has been already put out there, and more ideas will continue to shape the women’s rights movement more than we can imagine.
