Human civilization had been forged in the image of the male, white, well-off, educated human. The humanist insistence on an autonomous, willful human subject capable of acting independently in the world was based on a very particular type of human. The broader question at the heart of the Earnest Englishwoman's outrage, of course, isn't merely about gender - "women" could have just as easily been any other marginalized group, from non-white Europeans to non-Westerners to even children, or a delegitimized majority-politically-treated-as-minority more appropriate to our time, such as the "99 percent." The question, really, is what entitles one to humanness. Whether women are the equals of men has been endlessly debated whether they have souls has been a moot point but can it be too much to ask representatives, and ask - Is there not one among you then who will introduce such a motion? There would then be at least an equal interdict on wanton barbarity to cat, dog, or woman.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |