Virginia Woolf. The name itself sparks profound images of feminism, sorrow, and genius within the mind. However, if you have ever read any of her work, you will very soon realize that she and her writing are so much more than that. Over three weeks ago, I Anneke C. Goodwin finished A Room of One's Own by Virginia Woolf. Now, I began reading this book not knowing what I was getting myself into. It looked exceptionally small which in my mind translated to easy (oh how wrong I was) so I picked it up expecting to finish in a week when my other package of books was to be arriving. Four weeks later, we were finished.
Now please, I beg of all you blog readers not to laugh at me. Four weeks is a painfully long time for a book of this size, however you all underestimate the power of a tiny font, and complex profound writing. Now I wouldn't call this blog post a review, most definitely not, I would call it more of a what-I've-learned-and-hope-to-share-with-you post. This book has truly changed my life, it has given me insight on so many things ranging from feminism to writing to what life was like for women back in the time of Virginia Woolf. It has never taken me four weeks to read a book (novel studies not included); however, I have never learnt so much from a book in my whole life. I hope you all enjoy this post, because I know that I will enjoy writing it.
A Room of One's Own. This book was written in 1928 by Adeline Virginia Woolf in the form of two essays which she gave to a group of women at Cambridge University on the topic of women and fiction. Now within this book, she taught me hundreds of things, far too many for me to encapsulate in a simple blog post. However, I will try to sum up the main and most important things she taught me, along with what I enjoyed the most in this book. The way I see it, I can categorize my learnings into five main subjects. The life of women back in the early 20th century, the self consciousness of men and the inferiority of women, toxic femininity, the gender theory, and finally, humour. I have my book beside me and a notebook of ideas so get ready to read a ton of quotes, and without further ado, the life of women in the early 20th century.
"A very queer, composite being thus emerges. Imaginatively she is of the highest importance; practically she is completely insignificant. She pervades poetry from cover to cover; she is all but absent from history. She dominates the lives of kings and conquerors in fiction; in fact was the slave of any boy whose parents forced a ring upon her finger. Some of the most inspired words, some of the most profound thoughts in literature fall from her lips; in real life she could hardly read, could scarcely spell, and was the property of her husband." Page 50. Wow. I understand that you are all completely in shock and awe so I will give you a moment to absorb the magnitude of what you have just read. Moment over. When I first read this, I knew immediately that I needed to write a blog post about this book. This quote alone taught me priceless information and insight about what it was like for women in history (or shall I say her-story). However, it didn't teach me what you are assuming it taught me - for I already knew that women belonged to their husbands and were illiterate. It taught me the complete and utter difference between women in fiction, and women in reality. I had no clue that the two ideas were such polar opposites back in the day, but looking back on it and doing some research, it is true.
For example, Anne of Green Gables, the book that currently has my heart. Aside from her brief times with her two foster families and Marilla's firm parental position, Anne was never beaten, abused, or treated like some young defenseless women would be in 1907. And Anne never even mentions any abuse at her foster homes; aside from hard work and rude foster parents, nothing more is stated. However Virginia makes a clear point in 1928 that many women were treated horribly, and fiction - one of our best ways of seeing what the past was like - skips over that chunk of history as if it never existed.
Then again, when I think about it, women being depicted differently in fiction than in reality is still a common theme even today. The over-dramatic, emotional stereotypical girly girl in all of your favorite sitcoms are my favorite example of this. Not just that, but any stereotyping qualifies for this. Women are not just a handful of categories that anyone can be easily sorted into, each woman is unique and individual with their own traits and interests, but this is a topic for another day.
The second quote on the subject of the life of women in the 20th century is the following : "There is truth in what you may say - I will not deny it. But at the same time may I remind you that there have been at least two colleges for women in existence in England since the year 1866; that after the year 1800 a married woman was allowed by law to possess her own property; and that in 1919 - which is a whole nine years ago - she was given a vote?" Page 121. Now, when I first read this, I was under the impression that Virginia was arguing the fact that women had little to no privileges based off of the examples she had given. So you may believe my shock when I read the next two lines: "May I also remind you that most of the professions have been open to you for close on ten years now? When you reflect upon these immense privileges and the length of time during which they have been enjoyed, and the fact that there must be at this moment some two thousand women capable of earning over five hundred a year in one way or another, you will agree the excuse of lack of opportunity, training, encouragement, leisure and money no longer holds good." Page 122.
I was completely, and utterly shocked. Those examples that she had given were in my modern feminist mind complete and utter bogus. I was filled with indignation at the thought of women having such impediments and setbacks in their lives just because they were women. I was raving because the years that she stated, 1800, 1919, seem far too late in this world's long past for such minor steps in women's history to be made. However, Virginia Woolf, a feminist and modernist in her own, claimed them to be "privileges" when men got them as granted. Now this is not a debate, I am merely just attempting to convey what she taught me without even directly teaching it to me, in fact by teaching me the complete opposite. This quote from this book gave me a direct and cold glimpse into the lives of women from the 20th century, and made me feel immense gratefulness that I do not have to live in such a demeaning world towards women.
We are now into our second category, the self consciousness of men and the inferiority of women. "No age can ever be as stridently sex-conscience as our own; those innumerable books by men about women in the British Museum are a proof of it. The Suffrage campaign was no doubt to blame. It must have roused in men an extraordinary desire for self-assertion; it must have made them lay an emphasis upon their own sex and its characteristics which they would not have troubled to think about had they not been challenged. And when one is challenged, even by a few women in black bonnets, one retaliates, if one has never been challenged before, rather excessively." Page 107. This quote truly put me into an entire new perspective of thinking. It gave me an entire new view on why men made women inferior to them, something that, surprisingly enough, we are never taught about. However Virginia brings this idea to the spotlight and almost, if you can catch that hint in her tone, sympathizes with men.
If I had all the time in the world and my hands weren't spazzing, I would quote another part from this book where Virginia discusses how it is not really men's fault that they can be so arrogant and that they used to treat women so poorly, and that it is simply how they were raised and brought up. Now I more then truly admire this because when I read that paragraph, I felt that Virginia truly encapsulated what it means to be a feminist. In the words of Emma Watson,"I have realized that fighting for women’s rights has too often become synonymous with man-hating. If there is one thing I know for certain, it is that this has to stop." Being a feminist isn't about hating men, its about supporting equality, and Virginia Woolf does so in this famous feminist polemic by giving men a fair chance, and explaining their side of the story. Overall, this quote gave me insight into one of the reasons why men feel that women are inferior to them, and while it is debatable, Virginia is in no way justifying the way women were and still are treated, she was simply however examining both sides of the story.
The next and final example within this category is the following, "For one can hardly fail to be impressed in Rome by the sense of unmitigated masculinity; and whatever the value of unmitigated masculinity upon the state, one may question the effect of it upon art and poetry." Page 111. This is Virginia Woolf, talking about toxic masculinity, in 1928. And no matter how ahead of the times she was, the evidence and facts she gives in the book are not ahead of its times. However modern the term may be, it has been around for centuries, it is just that back then the majority of men suffered from toxic masculinity, opposed to today when there is much more healthy masculinity, making it not as large subject in 1928 as it was their usual state of life. Another reason that I found this quote exceptionally interesting is because I believe Virginia Woolf was - correct me if I am wrong - the first person ever to compare toxic masculinity to its effects on art and poetry, which I find so intelligent and interesting. Like I said, if I had more time I would write for days about all of the examples she gave of this, but I am trying to be as succinct as possible.
We now transition into one of the briefer categories from this book, toxic femininity. "And again I am reminded by dipping into newspapers and novels and biographies that when a woman speaks to women she should have something very unpleasant up her sleeve. Women are hard on women. Women dislike women." Page 120. Again, this is Virginia Woolf talking about toxic femininity, in 1928. In this completely shocking quote, Virginia is referring to an earlier part in the book where she talks about how in fiction, women are only ever talked about in their relation to men, which is such a small part of their lives. They are never mentioned in their relation to their friends, families, or themselves which is obviously repulsive. However Virginia mentions how she believes it has created a stigma around womanly friendships (cue the birth of toxic femininity). The fact that toxic femininity has been around for centuries, just like toxic masculinity, is completely insane! For those of you who remember, my very first blog post was about toxic femininity in the younger generations, (in other words, the future feminists), making this a very emotional, and personal quote for me. I believe strongly in the unity of women, not the separation, especially over trivial silly things, making the fact that it has been around for ages particularly educational, and emotional for me as a young feminist.
The fourth category I am about to submerge you all into is one I am hesitant to say I was dreading. For some reason it just seems like such a large and profound subject that my indolent persona does not want to conquer however I must, leading us to our fourth category, something I like to call the gender theory. Now to sum up a topic which was introduced by Virginia in only so many words, the gender theory is that to be a great writer (at least in her time, something I will talk more about in a second) you need to be androgynous, and use not only your main sex side of your brain, but both your woman and man side of your brain.
Now, again to explain the reasoning for this in only so many words, Virginia believed this because during her time, she believed that great women writers were hindered because of their anger and frustration at being inferior to men, and how they were indignant at the fact they were given less opportunities in life than men. Virginia also believed that great men writers were hindered because of their sense of self-consciousness and need to assert their dominance which we talked about earlier. To support these two strong beliefs, Virginia talked about many books from her time and earlier which proved her points given the examples she gave. Virginia then goes on to argue how to be a great writer, you must be androgynous and not take gender into account. You must just be you, and not think about the restrictions of your gender or, I would argue, your ethnicity etc. I understand that this is confusing, and I have most definitely not given justice to this amazing eye-opening theory, so here are two quotes from the book to give a little more depth and explanation.
"One has a profound, if irrational instinct in favour of the theory that the union of men and women makes for the greatest satisfaction, the most complete happiness. But the sight of the two people getting into the taxi and the satisfaction it gave me made me also ask whether there are two sexes in the mind corresponding to the two sexes in the body, and whether they also require to be united in order to get complete satisfaction and happiness?And I went on amateurishly to sketch a plan of the soul so that in each of us two powers preside, one male, one female; and in the man's brain the man predominates over the woman, and in the woman's brain the woman predominates over the man. The normal and comfortable state of being is that when the two live in harmony together, spiritually co-operating. If one is a man, still the woman part of his brain must have effect; and a woman also must have intercourse with the man in her. Coleridge perhaps meant this when he said that a great mind is androgynous. It is when this fusion takes place that the mind is fully fertilized and uses all its faculties. Perhaps a mind that is purely masculine cannot create, any more than a mind that is purely feminine." Page 106.
"Even so, the very first sentence that I would write here, I said crossing over to the writing-table and taking up the page pleaded Women and Fiction, is that it is fatal for anyone who writes to think of their sex. It is fatal to be a man or woman pure and simple; one must be woman-manly or man-womanly. It is fatal for a woman to lay the least stress on any grievance; to plead even with justice any cause; in any way to speak consciously as a woman. And fatal is no figure of speech; for anything written with that conscious bias is doomed to death. It ceases to be fertilized. Brilliant and effective, powerful and masterly, as it may appear for a day or two, it must wither at nightfall; it cannot grow in the minds of others. Some collaboration has to take place in the mind between the woman and the man before the art of creation can be accomplished. Some marriage of opposites has to be consummated. The whole of the mind must lie wide open if we are to get the sense that the writer is communicating his experience with perfect fullness.” Page 112.
I hope those quotes helped you and didn't confuse you (you all can only guess how many crying fits I had while reading this book due to her complex language and ideas). The reason that I mentioned this concept from this book is because it is such an interesting idea that Virginia gives good factual backup for. In my mind it makes complete sense, my only inquiry is the following: would Virginia's theory hold up fact wise in today's gender structure and world of writing? I would say most definitely not. Even though we do not live in a gender equal world, compared to 1928 I would say the majority of our society's writing does not face the same gender threats as back then. However, I do believe that even nowadays being androgynous in one's writing is important. To not take into account the things that set you back form society and make you different is always important, especially in the self-conscious world of writers and writing. I found this large portion of the book extremely fascinating and revolutionary as I hope you all are too.
We have now come to our final category, one very contrasting to the last in the sense that I was not dreading writing this one, but looking forward to it. Like I mentioned in the introduction, when one thinks of Virginia Woolf, one thinks melancholic, deep, modern works of art, written in such a mature and profound language. However, when reading this book, I took note of only a couple of examples where Virginia's sense of slight humour peeks through. Now I just want to say that this is not the type of laugh-out-loud humour, Virginia Woolf was definitely no Amy Schumer, Chris Rock or Jerry Seinfeld. However, it is the type that made me smile to my self and reflect on the effects and power of humour in one's writing, and life.
The first of two examples is the following: "And, determined to do my duty by her as a reader if she would do her duty by me as a writer, I turned the page and read...I am sorry to break off so abruptly. Are there no men present? Do you promise me that behind that red curtain over there the figure of Sir Charles Biron is not concealed? We are all women you assure me? Then I may tell you that the very next words I read were these – ‘Chloe liked Olivia …’ Do not start. Do not blush. Let us admit in the privacy of our own society that these things sometimes happen. Sometimes women do like women. ‘Chloe liked Olivia,’ I read." Page 89. Now of this quote and the upcoming, I by far found this one the most humorous. The way how she was obviously being sarcastic and acting worried about the idea of men being in the room was truly very funny. We all know that Virginia Woolf was one of the last people on the planet in 1928 to care about offending people by discussing sexuality, and just the way she said "Let us admit in the privacy of our own society that these things sometimes happen. Sometimes women do like women." I found completely, mind my language, bad ass and humorous.
The second and final example of humour in A Room Of One's Own is this: “Married against their will, kept in one room, and to one occupation, how could a dramatist give a full or interesting or truthful account of them? Love was the only possible interpreter. The poet was forced to be passionate or bitter, unless indeed he chose to 'hate women', which meant more often than not that he was unattractive to them.” Now, I am thoroughly sorry if you haven't found these past two quotes funny even in the slightest, however, you have to admit, even if you do not find this quote funny, it has lots of truth to it. Men who do not stand for equality or, In Virginia's words, "hate women" are not attractive in any sense. They are repugnant and awful and women may have put up with marrying them back in the day, but definitely not as much today. When I read this, I was reminded of the quote, "Men of quality stand for equality." which is so, so true. Men need to play as much a part in feminism as any one else, and the ones that don't are to be found, "unattractive."
So it seems we have come to the end. I want to say that what I have written here is just the mere skimming of the surface of what this book is. There is so much more that I have to say that was either not talked about in this post due to my own laziness, or simply because this blog post is excruciatingly long! Nonetheless, I hope that you have all enjoyed this. I hope that you learned something new, and that you now feel the urge to read this book. I hope that you are all also feeling empowered to be a feminist, and to use the influence that we each have as humans to bring equality to our society. As always, thank you all for reading and supporting, it means a lot.
Your authoress,
Anneke C. Goodwin.