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Well-Behaved Women Seldom Make History

 


The title of this blog is a really popular sentence that's commonly used all over the world. It's often used to refer to the idealistic feminist, the 'badly-behaved' (according to society, anyway) women who stand up against the patriarchy by breaking the invisible (and sometimes visible) rules set for them. 

That's not a bad implication of the statement, no. But the original meaning of it is kind of ironic, because most people don't know the woman who actually said this: Laurel Thatcher Ulrich.

In her book of the same name, she talks about simple women, who make changes in every corner of the world, but are not recognized for it. Mothers, nurses and teachers cause huge impacts on our lives, yet their stories are often forgotten, or not considered at all. 

It's so weird how even now there are certain conditions for everything, including being the proper feminist icon. You have to have a certain skin tone (ever hear of white feminism?) wear certain clothes, talk a certain way- basically, your life is controlled, again. Isn't that literally the opposite of what feminism is? Aren't we supposed to make it so anyone can live however they want (as long as they're not harming others, of course)? And why are minority communities excluded?

It seems like there's always a divide. Good girls VS bad girls. There's nothing wrong with being loud and comfortable with breaking the misogynist rules, but there's nothing wrong with being more quiet and soically considered to be 'well-behaved', either. 

Here's a cool comic strip that taught me this: 

An important article you might consider checking out, written by 2014's Nobel Peace Price Laureate Malala Yousafzai : https://podium.bulletin.com/please-stop-telling-us-how-to-dress

Source: https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2007/09/ulrich-explains-that-well-behaved-women-should-make-history/

https://medium.com/@gabrielasaadeg/well-behaved-women-seldom-make-history-dc92886d3a5d#:~:text=Most%20people%20interpret%20this%20quote,or%20credit%20for%20their%20accomplishments.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/473815.Well_Behaved_Women_Seldom_Make_History

https://www.harpersbazaar.com/culture/politics/a22717725/what-is-toxic-white-feminism/

There are a lot of links in today's blog post haha. Hope you don't mind them. They're all really educational.

Note: Not sponsored and just my opinions. If I said something offensive, please let me know.

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