Blog Post 2

Megan Gill

Mrs. Wilhelmus

AP language

1 July 2013

Men versus Women

Everyone is entitled to their own opinions of women and men. This does not mean that they are always correct and it does not mean that they are always incorrect. I was not extremely effected by Aristotle's view on women. He lived in a different time when most everyone thought in this way. It will never really effect me if someone were to say that a whole gender is less than another gender. This does not mean that I do not care that he thought this way. I will never like that anyone thinks less of women than men because we are just as smart and powerful. It is only one man's opinion and I will not let that bring me down or make me feel like I am worth less than a man. I know I am strong and I know that I am smart and that is all that truly matters. No woman should think less of themselves because a man told them they were.

Aristotle was seen as being a strong figure during this time. He was smart and used his brain to the best of its ability. It is a shame that he thought so lowly of one specific gender. How could someone that was so very smart be so naïve and think so little. If he would have believed differently maybe after that it could have been different for the women of that time. Aristotle could have influenced the world at that time. He was a strong educator that could have persuaded the people he was teaching to think differently. Instead he chose to think little of women and influence the world negatively. It must have been hard for the women of that time.

The only philosopher to think that men and women were more equal was Plato. Therefor, I feel that he provided the best answers to questions about gender. In my mind women can work just as well, if not better, than men. In our world today, women are hired just as often as men and hold the same jobs. Women think well and perform even better. This is why car insurance is less for women than it is for men. We are careful and tend to take our jobs more seriously than the opposite sex. I am not saying that women are better, because we are not. Men and women were made equal in the eyes of God, and that is exactly how Plato thought. Men and women, in my eyes, are equal. If a woman wants to do something then she should try to the best of her ability to do so. No woman should hold back because they are in fact a female.

It does not bother me that most of the authorities in this book were men. Again, this was in another time period. Women were not seen as authoritative individuals. If Aristotle would have thought differently maybe he could have encouraged more females to become philosophers and they could have taught other women this. But he did not think this way and nothing was changed for the better, if anything, it changed for the worst because Aristotle was seen as such a strong figure. Women were forced to stay out of the light, they were not equals back then. As time went on more and more women were introduced into the world as authorities and now, today, we are seen more as equal. I am just thankful that I did not have to live during such a hard time for women.

The battle of the sexes has been going on for hundreds of years and I do not think that it will ever quite go away completely. Men will always have their jokes about women needing to make them a sandwich or stay in the kitchen. More and more women are being seen as strong and powerful individuals. Maybe in the future the majority of the people on the planet will begin to believe that we are all equal and that women can do just as well as men at anything they do. We will just have to wait and see.