Blog Post #1

In my music history class, we were listening to a famous composer from the Middle Ages, Hildegard von Bingen and the professor asked us to write a response on if Hildegard's infamy was based solely on her music or if it was based on factors outside of her compositions such as being a women. I wonder if we ask this question today about current women writers (in all genres). I am always listening to people talk about how women artists (in particular) are famous purely because of their looks or a female politician is inspiring or insightful because she is a woman politician. Is that one of the reasons women are so afraid to write, to speak and to compose? Are we afraid that our work will be disregarded because we are women and something revolutionary or wonderful for us is looked over because we are women? I think this is why so many women took pseudonyms when women writing first started to emerge. George Elliot criticized women who wrote anything that was outside of the male genre. Anything frilly or love obsessed. I feel that in undermining any kind of women writing is to undermine all women writing. Just in the same way that to write as a women, you are representing all women (even though you are only one). We are not frail. It is important to critique but to ask not to write entirely is too much. Elliot undermines women writing that diverges from the logical which is to say, man's territory at that point. Elliot is afraid women's writing will be disregarded if we venture outside of that “male model.” But I think that we must first step outside of those boundaries in order to be truly respected. Our work will seem less important if we continue to write what is already written and as women even more-so ignored. Women who write within that mold won't last long historically. Especially, because if a women writes into that mold she is making it far easier for the overwhelming majority of men who critique literature to turn her work down. (Myers) Virginia Woolf spoke about how if Charlotte Bronte were to have her own room her writing could even have surpassed that of Jane Austen because she might have written with less anger in her heart and more soul; more honesty. That honesty, even if it is frilly, will be remembered. Even if it is only remembered now because it was written by a women and especially from a women's perspective. At least it will be remembered and maybe eventually, that piece can be analyzed deeper and remembered for its ingenuity.

Myers, D.G. "Women Writers." Commentary. N.p., 04/04/2012. Web. 2 Oct 2012. <http://www.commentarymagazine.com/topic/women-writers/>.