Social Classes and Feminism in Society
Social classes in the 1800s were very different from how they are now. Back then, there were classes such as, the poor, the working class, the middle class, the upper class, and then royalty. There were not really any ways to gain a higher social status, unless one was married into a higher class. For women, marrying a man in a higher social class is expected, but a woman marrying a man from a lower class was frowned upon, and in some cases and countries, it was illegal. I personally think that the idea of not being allowed to love someone in a lower class is ridiculous and morally wrong. People should have been allowed to love whoever they wanted to, and not who their parents happened to pick out for them.
One of the main reasons that social classes existed was because people that had more money saw themselves as better than others. The classes were formed based on the people’s inequality. Inequalities such as the following: money, authority, power, working and living conditions, education, religion, clothing, and culture. They flaunted their money and power and authority and everything like it was a huge deal, and something to be deeply desired, and then because everyone wanted to be better than the people around them, they all tried to get more, and eventually the social classes were formed. The classes greatly affected the working people, families, and politics in many different and similar ways.
The people in the working classes tended to stay out of all of the political matters. They felt that it was not necessary to get involved in matters that did not concern them and their families. However, they became hostile towards people in the middle and upper classes, and to the aristocrats. They saw the people in these groups as selfish, ungrateful, spoiled, and lazy, whereas the people in the working class saw themselves as extremely hard working, honest and loyal.
In the 1800s, women were expected to marry a man that had a lot of money. In other words, they were supposed to marry a man in a higher class. Also, the man that the woman was to marry was handpicked out for her by her parents, and most of the time the woman did not grow to love the man. She married him out of duty to her family. Time and again, the men did not treat the women as women. Men would tend to see women as trophies, targets or prizes to be acquired, especially if many men were after her. They would court her. To court someone is to try to win the favor, preference, or goodwill of another person, or their family. They would try to get her father to choose him to marry her. Once they had her, they would often treat her poorly, abuse her, or ignore her.
In 1836 a man named Robert Browning wrote the poem Porphyria’s Lover. The poem is about a woman in an upper level social class that fell in love with a man from the working class. They love each other, but because of how their society is they cannot be together. They have to sneak around and hide from everyone to see each other. In the middle of the night during an intense storm, Porphyria comes to her lover’s home. She is covered in a long, dark, black cloak and dark shawl, her long, honey, blonde hair is pinned up, and she is wearing dark, soiled gloves so that no one who knows her will recognize her should she had been seen. She takes off her wet clothes, lays them on the floor, and lets her long, beautiful hair down, and walks over to her lover. She calls his name a few times, but he remains motionless to the soft, sound of her voice. To gain his attention she bares her shoulder, pulling her dress down a little further, and leans her head against him. They stay like that for a moment, just basking in each other’s presence. Thinking to himself about how easy it would be for them to be together if the classes did not exist, he takes all of her long, blonde, beautiful hair in his hand. He takes her hair and wraps is around her pale, delicate throat three times, pulls it tight, and strangles her. He lets loose her hair, and when he kisses her cheek, her face flushes red again. He leans his lover against his shoulder again and props up her head like she was before, and he stays like that. He is now going to be with his lover forever, and has beaten the social class laws and regulations. It is agreeable to say that this poem is very sad. Although Porphyria’s lover ends up killing her, it shows just how much he loves her, and how much he is willing to do to be able to be with her forever. He was willing to take her life so that they could love each other.
Because of the social classes, and the way that the world viewed women, traditional gender roles came into play, and later in society they began to be challenged. Women were always viewed to be the weaker sex. They were always seen as the ones that were supposed to take care of the house and watch the children and do all of the cooking so that the man of the house could come home and relax. The men were viewed as the stronger sex. They were seen as the ones that were supposed to be in charge of the home, go out and work, and bring in an income to support the family. Women finally discovered that they were being treated poorly and unfairly. This discovery brought on feminism. “Feminism is the radical notion that women are people.” (Cheris Kramarae and Paula Treichler) Women began to try to make themselves equal to men. In the 1920s girls began to wear shorter shirts that went to just below their knees, they cut their hair short like men, and started smoking. They wanted to prove to the world that women can do almost anything and everything that a man can do. These women eventually earned the nickname “flapper girls” or “flappers”. The flappers brought new understanding to feminism. Women began to expand their educations so that they could bring in a fair income as well. They looked for jobs outside of their homes, and hired other women to watch their kids. From the 1920s up until the present, women in society, and even men in society have challenged their traditional gender roles.
I think that the gender roles being challenged helped the United States grow into the nation that it is today. Without feminism, women would be hiding away in their homes doing what they were told. Women have had to prove themselves to the world, and have had to work twice as hard to be accepted into the world. “Because I am a woman, I must make unusual efforts to succeed. If I fail, no one will say, "She doesn't have what it takes." They will say, "Women don't have what it takes." Clare Boothe Luce makes an incredible point with this quote. A lot of the time if a female makes a mistake, society does not point it out as being that persons mistake, or that person not having the ability to accomplish the task, society points it out as it being women’s mistake, or women not having the ability to accomplish the given task. Society tends to bunch up the group as a whole, and does not portray women as individual people. We as women are singled out, not as equal people, but as something to achieve and look at. We were ridiculed if we were ambitious, and were punished if we spoke our minds.
In today’s society, however, women are some of our nation’s most important people. They are firefighters, cops, marines, doctors, and surgeons. Women lead in the military, and are sometimes a stay at home mama. They are some of the strongest people in the world just because they had the courage, determination and will to stand up for equality and justice.
“Women have been taught that, for us, the earth is flat, and that if we venture out, we will fall off the edge.” (Andrea Dworkin) women have achieved such incredible things throughout history. We have learned that we can do just about anything and everything we set our minds to, and that we can be anything and everything that we want to be. All it takes is a little courage and the strength to know what is right and what is wrong. To be able to make a stand and show the world what you are made of. The traditional gender roles and social classes do not show the world what women are capable of, but history does, and what we truly are capable of, is absolutely amazing.
Works Cited
Luce, Clare Boothe, Andrea Dworkin, Cheris Kramarae, and Paula Triecher. "Feminism Quotes, Sayings about Women's Rights, Sexism, Gender Liberation." The Quote Garden - Quotes, Sayings, Quotations, Verses. Web. 18 May 2011. <http://www.quotegarden.com/feminism.html>.
Bowning, Robert. "Porphyria's Lover." (1836).
