Feministic Observations

There are a couple of reasons why I intend to write about feminism and explore my own feelings and thoughts about the subject.

For some reasons, not that clear to me any more I read many books about Bloomsbury group and books created by its representatives. Virginia Woolf is my main object of attention. I say that the reason of my interest is not even clear to me. It has lost allure in my eyes some time ago but I still read Virginia Woolf’s letters, stories, novels and diaries. There was a time and this was some years ago when I was fascinated by the people belonging to Bloomsbury literary circle. It all stared with the film about Dora Carrington and her love for Lytton Strachey.  It was 1995. I still think that the film was very good and Jonathan Pryce who played Lytton Strachey even got a British Best Actor Award for the role. Then I read a book about Carrington and Virginia Woolf’s name came to my attention. I recalled reading To the Light House in my early Polish times and after seeing the film I decided to read more. At that time I was not particularly interested in her feministic bias. I was too busy working away in the men’s world with no thought that I may have been professionally different to my male colleagues or disadvantaged by being a woman.

Lytton Strachey and Virginia Woolf. Maybe this was the time when they were engaged, as surprisingly they were for a while.

                                                             

I was brought up in communist Poland and one positive aspect of the political system was that it considered everybody equal. Women were riding tractors, worked as bricklayers and moved up in business hierarchies with the same speed as men did. When I moved into the Western world, I was married to a Swedish person and this nationality also considered women equal to men. I did not have any idea that I may be disadvantaged being a woman or considered being a lesser person. Some sexist comments, I heard in my corporate environment, I considered to be jokes in bad taste and did not get disturbed by them. I was a bit surprised when joining a golf club I was called an associate and my husband was called a member of the club. Somebody said, this is just a tradition, so I let it go without feeling put down. On reflection, this naïve approach of mine might have helped me in my career. I felt more confident than I would have if a thought of not being equal came to my mind.

                                                            

                                         

Then in my corporate world, quotas became a subject of discussions. I felt offended by the idea. I wanted to be assessed on merit, not be patronized by being considered somebody who needs help. You need to help weaker, disadvantaged people and I did not consider women in general as such. Now, I look at it a bit differently. I think quotas are a good idea until such a time when the mindset of societies at large           changes. Women need to catch up at least in some countries and they do need help of quotas.

When, after some years I came back to Poland I realized that women stopped to be equal. They are patronized and considered a second class citizens particularly by the church. Of course, they have their role to play, but it does not involve contribution in the business world. In spite of that there are many successful women in Poland, I am pleased to notice.

With my history and experience, I do not have any doubts that we are all equal even if we have our stronger and weaker points. This however is not related to a gender. There are clever and silly men, there are women geniuses and very silly ones as well.

Reading newly bought Virginia Woolf’s short stories it came to be how recent it was when women were subjected to will of their parents who had “their best interest at heart” when they pushed them out of their homes sending them to a home of a stranger. I know that in some cultures many marriages are still arranged and I even know some very happy ones. But if I could not decide about my life, I would see it as a tragic situation.

                                              

Few days ago, I read a post of Personal Reflections about the Australian Archibald competition winner. An interesting painting even if a bit morbid. The mother of Charles Milsom, the awarded painter, made a remark that it reminds her of Halloween. It was my first impression as well, but the painting is good, especially the straight lines of the face are striking as is the sitter, famous  Sydney barrister Charles Waterstreet. 

All three of them

The post has a link to video with montage of all winners of the Archibald competition.  I watched the video with full attention as the changes of paintings are very fast, maybe even too fast. After a while I started to feel surprise followed by irritation. Majority of the winners depicted men. I mean a serious majority. I asked myself why? Wrote my comment and that triggered off an interesting discussion in which I played a role of a feminist. I never considered myself as such, but I better start thinking of myself as one.  It might explain this rather long post on the subject of equality.