That woman has been considered the secondary sex since the beginning of time is a mystery. Throughout the history of humanity, the construction of societies has been patriarchal, and current consensus sees matriarchal societies as exceedingly rare, if ever existing at all. In woman-led societies, the queen ruled together with men in her leadership ranks. The prevalent 19th century view of the primitive matriarchy is now regarded as a Victorian fantasy. Today most archaeologists consider it unsound to interpret prehistoric images of corpulent women as fertility goddesses. They could just as likely be the local equivalents of Barbie dolls.
So it is that her mind and body have been seen as a little more than skin-deep since the beginning of time. Women’s contributions to civilization are innumerable, only to be handed over to men in order to be taken seriously. The first computer programmer was Ada Lovelace, who assisted Charles Babbage in building the first analytical engine. The first compiler was written by Grace Hopper in 1952, only to have most computer science jobs filled by men for the next half of a century. Half a millennium before, Leonardo Da Vinci would draw the female uterus to the likeness of a cow’s. Another millennium and a half before that, Plato would ridicule Greek women’s gardens of Adonis festivities. Yet it was their garden play that set in motion the invention of farming eight millenia prior. Inherently, the first woman, made from the rib of man, was the weaker vessel and yielded to the wiles of the archtempter. In the old Sacred Book of China, the Shiking said, “When a daughter is born, she sleeps on the ground, she is clothed with a wrapper, she plays with a tile; she is incapable of evil or of good.” When she is inquisitive and academic, she is compared to man, such as when Voltaire paid tribute to Emilie Du Châtelet’s scientific contributions to his 1738 Eléments de la Philosophie de Newton as “a great man whose only fault was being a woman.” When she is ruthless and powerful, she is compared to man, such as what Pablo Escobar had to say about Griselda Blanco, “The only man I was ever afraid of was a woman named Griselda Blanco.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson reasserted that with the exception of Sappho, a Greek poet since antiquity, no mastery in art or science had been produced by women. Perhaps as a justification for such inadequacy, he observed women’s engagement in art or trade as a resource rather than a primary object. As the life of the affections is primary to them, they would set their fortune on the die to give entirely to their affections. While men exhibit their usefulness and advantages to the object of their affection, women make light of these, asking only love, for they wish it to be an exchange of nobleness.
Emerson credited woman as the light bringer of civilization, and with the advancements of society the position and influence of woman bring her strength or her faults into light. As the Edda said, “Weirdes all, Frigga knoweth, though she telleth them never,” all wisdom Woman knows, but she takes them for granted, and does not explain them as discoveries, such as the understanding of man. Man is the will, and Woman the sentiment. In this ship of humanity, Will is the rudder, and Sentiment the sail: when Woman affects to steer, the rudder is only a masked sail. It’s the equivalent of the modern day’s expression, “The man is the head, but the woman is the neck, and she can turn the head any way she wants,” what Maria Portokalos said to Toula in My Big Fat Greek Wedding.
To every “cheap wit” spent on demeaning women, Emerson charged them as morbid, and likened men exploiting such ploy as dogs and gorillas wearing the shape of man. He further remarked that “of course it would be easy for women to retaliate in kind. That they have not, is an eulogy on their taste and self-respect.” Was it Coco Chanel who wisecracked, “As long as you know men are like children, you know everything.” Without a doubt longer words would have been heard publicly to express such indignation if more avenues had been opened to them.
These glowing words for woman Emerson wrote as testament for his progressive stand on American women’s right to vote, which would not come to reality for another three scores plus more. Later on, he would reflect, “The instinct of classifying marks the wise and healthy mind.” To generalize is to attempt to understand. Yet classification without adequate knowledge can lead us down the path of prejudice, discrimination, and other horrendous consequences that have shown themselves throughout the history of humanity. Let us never forget to set the individual’s characteristics apart from the generalization of a group.
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