blog 11

 Virginia Woolf:

1. It is useful to point out that this essay was originally delivered to women students at two Oxford colleges. Ask your students to identify what evidence there is to suggest Woolf was aware of the nature of her audience.

Virginia Woolf knew that her targeted audience was women and the difficult things they went through. She talks a lot about how different women and men were and how women now should be grateful for what they are able to do versus how hard they had to work for little things back then.

2. What do the chapter headings from Trevelyan’s History of England (para. 6) reveal about historians’ concerns?

The chapter headings from Trevelyan's History of England reveals that people were concerned about how he never said how he was guilty for saying that famine was an effective way for reducing population. 

3. What would Woolf propose as the most important changes in society that would alter the situation most talented women find themselves in? Why does talent make a woman’s situation especially difficult?

Woolf talks about how women need their own time to do their own thing, and discover new talents. Talent makes a woman's situation more difficult because they really don't have an extra time to do other things or figure out other talents. 

M. Mead:

1. What are the temperamental traits of women? Of men?

The temperamental traits of both men and women are aggressive, unforgiving, and sexually driven. 

2. What price does a society pay for restricting the opportunities of one sex or the other?

The price a society pays for restricting the opportunities of one sex is creating hectic situations, and making one sex feel more less than the other. 

3. Given that our culture has standardized temperamental expectations for each sex, what price does the opposite sex pay for that standardization?

The price each sex pays for those standards, is labels. Most women are expected to act proper and show their emotions, and men are expected to show no emotions and work. And if you don't do either of these or act like the other sex, you are made fun of or labeled as something that's not nice. 

4. Why should our modern industrialized society be concerned about the ways of “primitive” cultures?

The primitive cultures that are studied today had different standards for men and women. In today's time men are expected to drink beer, work, be all about sports, and women are expected to cook, clean, and make babies.