Why do we care about gender again?

What I found most interesting about these poems was that, aside from the pronoun usage, there was nothing inherently female about them. While I did assume without much initial question that these were written by a female, I could not help but give my assumptions a second thought. During class, we criticized the dismissal of female writers by their male counterparts. I found that criticism should be directed towards ourselves as well. By assuming that these poets are female, we suggest that the emotions and insecurities they feel about their writing is exclusively feminine. This idea of the “emotional female” presents itself frequently and, unfortunately leads to hindered talent. I am also aware that we all have preconceived notions about the gender of writers that have been built within our society, but I am very excited to challenge myself to perhaps start thinking differently.

                I think that it would be interesting to have had a male during this time write about the anxiety he feels when discussing a work that he created. I believe that when a poem can be of some great meaning to both sexes, it will insure the continued significance. If these works that we discussed in class were actually overtly feminist and only served today to be praised or satirized, it would still be too narrow to maintain relevance with today’s modern readers. This is important because any suppression that women writers feel from men comes from the lack of security felt within the males themselves. A cyclical repetition is found when female writers are criticized for publishing works that are too “emotional”. The criticism comes from the fact that women are prevented from their writing being taken seriously, but also the fact that being emotional is associated with women at all is a criticism within itself. This stereotype may only  be present from men because they can perhaps write of love, trials and insecurities, as long as it isn’t their own. The male writers discounted the females, because they may have been afraid themselves to write about their feelings, but females weren’t. Poets like Cavendish and Bradstreet are important because these fears make the writers more human, and allow them to connect more to their writing. By noting the differences between men and women, a disservice is done to literature. It allows us not to think or to question, and maybe one day we will not need or want to. Judging writers as merely being a product of our surrounding, and not from our genetic disposition might be a middle ground for not discounting gender entirely. Viewing it as an interesting fact rather than the sole reason for that writer to be writing would disallow stereotypes and incorrect assumptions.

I am very excited to take this class, and interested to see how my own brain processes gender issues found within the writings. I am also excited to ramble and complain more about how I think the world should be, this is all just my opinion so I’m really sorry if I got carried away.