Post #2

Aaron Boyd

11 August 2013

AP English 11

Mrs. Wilhelmus

            Back in the day, Aristotle had a very common view on women. He had a view that supported minimal rights for women, and a disrespectful outlook on their purpose in life. Thought as inferior to men, women were unfairly judged and mistreated just for being the opposite sex. Sadly Aristotle and many others were in support of this way of thinking.

            In this day and age, in MOST parts of the world, women are now equal to men. Women can have jobs, and basically do everything a man can without being discriminated against. I believe this way of thinking changed for the better. In my opinion, it doesn’t make sense for a married man’s other half, to be mistreated for having subtle differences or to be thought of as a lesser being. Without women, there would be no man and vice versa. This is why equal gender rights are important.

            Plato, the mentor of Aristotle supported more equality for women. He believed women could effectively the same things men could if given equal education. Plato had an odd way of thinking in that day in age. This wasn’t a very common thought back then because men did most of everything, just as culture suggested. Men fought wars and put food on the table. Sadly, women usually stayed at home and either cleaned or cooked food. It’s just how life was. Sure there were women who disagreed with that way of thinking. An example of one of those women was Olympe de Gouges who was a French feminist and political activist. Olympe was so stern in her beliefs she was executed during France’s “Reign of Terror”.

            It’s sad to say but in my opinion, it makes sense that the vast majority of philosophers in the story were men. As I already stated, it was a common practice for men to do all of the hard work and thinking. As much as I disagree with it, it’s just how it was and there is clearly no changing it. If you really think about it, if women had the potential and rights do to what they wanted without controversy, we would probably be twice as advanced as we are today. There would be more thinking, more doing, and less discrimination and less pointless killings of women who had the same if not more potential to be engineers, inventors, and scientists. Thankfully, times have changed and most women around the world are equal to men.