Indictment of misogyny on Mary Wollstonecraft and Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain

Wollstonecraft’s supreme honour of being the mother of western feminism has been questioned by an indictment of misogyny by Susan Gubar; a similar charge of misogyny could potentially be made against the proto-feminist standing of Rokeya if her polemical works are eyed through Gubar’s lens. Taylor,...

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Main Author:	Hasan, Md. Mahmudul
Format:	Article
Language:	English
Published:	BRAC University 2004
Subjects:	HQ1101 Women. Feminism PI Oriental languages and literatures PR English literature
Online Access:	http://irep.iium.edu.my/29813/ http://irep.iium.edu.my/29813/ http://irep.iium.edu.my/29813/1/INDICTMENT_OF_MISOGYNY_ON_MARY_WOLLSTONECRAFT_AND_ROKEYA_SAKHAWAT_HUSSAIN.pdf

id	iium-29813
recordtype	eprints
spelling	iium-298132014-01-22T08:09:32Z http://irep.iium.edu.my/29813/ Indictment of misogyny on Mary Wollstonecraft and Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain Hasan, Md. Mahmudul HQ1101 Women. Feminism PI Oriental languages and literatures PR English literature Wollstonecraft’s supreme honour of being the mother of western feminism has been questioned by an indictment of misogyny by Susan Gubar; a similar charge of misogyny could potentially be made against the proto-feminist standing of Rokeya if her polemical works are eyed through Gubar’s lens. Taylor, in her article Misogyny and Feminism: The Case of Mary Wollstonecraft, comes to Wollstonecraft’s rescue while the author of this article intends to apply an antidote before such an indictment is registered against Rokeya. The misreading of Wollstonecraft’s The Rights of Woman is prompted by her criticisms of women for their excessive attention to vocations that render them more subservient to men’s desires and an easy prey to their inhibiting measures. What differentiates Wollstonecraft as well as Rokeya from Gubar’s paradigmatic feminists is their atypical approach to righting the wrongs done to women. Their feminist campaign does not end with making some disparaging remarks against men; rather, they want to sanitise women from the frivolities that they have internalised and that have appeared as their characteristic traits. They pit their atypical approach against a long masculinist tradition of mesmerising women by applauding their weaknesses. They take an unconventional tactic and criticise the feminine attributes that men find pleasing in women. Both Wollstonecraft and Rokeya argue that the apparent frivolities that seem inherent components of women’s selves are actually social constructions. Although it may seem that Wollstonecraft and Rokeya castigate women, the underhand criticism is actually aimed against men who systematically deny women their right to engage in worthier activities. Both Wollstonecraft and Rokeya call upon women to assume full responsibility as human beings and to end their abject dependence on men, which they think is the way to bring about a revolution in the masculine perception of women. The similarity in tone and in the coinage of their diction points towards the universal sisterhood that modern postcolonial feminists champion. Both Wollstonecraft and Rokeya perceive a systematic masculinist manoeuvring in keeping women fascinated with frivolous activities. Their agendas include disaffecting women from such vocations. Beer’s concept of the presentism of past may counteract misreading of early feminist texts as they evolved in the cases of Wollstonecraft and Rokeya. BRAC University 2004 Article PeerReviewed application/pdf en http://irep.iium.edu.my/29813/1/INDICTMENT_OF_MISOGYNY_ON_MARY_WOLLSTONECRAFT_AND_ROKEYA_SAKHAWAT_HUSSAIN.pdf Hasan, Md. Mahmudul (2004) Indictment of misogyny on Mary Wollstonecraft and Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain. BRAC University Journal, 1 (2). pp. 1-12. ISSN 1811-3079 http://www.bracuniversity.net/journal/ins.php
repository_type	Digital Repository
institution_category	Local University
institution	International Islamic University Malaysia
building	IIUM Repository
collection	Online Access
language	English
topic	HQ1101 Women. Feminism PI Oriental languages and literatures PR English literature
spellingShingle	HQ1101 Women. Feminism PI Oriental languages and literatures PR English literature Hasan, Md. Mahmudul Indictment of misogyny on Mary Wollstonecraft and Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain
description	Wollstonecraft’s supreme honour of being the mother of western feminism has been questioned by an indictment of misogyny by Susan Gubar; a similar charge of misogyny could potentially be made against the proto-feminist standing of Rokeya if her polemical works are eyed through Gubar’s lens. Taylor, in her article Misogyny and Feminism: The Case of Mary Wollstonecraft, comes to Wollstonecraft’s rescue while the author of this article intends to apply an antidote before such an indictment is registered against Rokeya. The misreading of Wollstonecraft’s The Rights of Woman is prompted by her criticisms of women for their excessive attention to vocations that render them more subservient to men’s desires and an easy prey to their inhibiting measures. What differentiates Wollstonecraft as well as Rokeya from Gubar’s paradigmatic feminists is their atypical approach to righting the wrongs done to women. Their feminist campaign does not end with making some disparaging remarks against men; rather, they want to sanitise women from the frivolities that they have internalised and that have appeared as their characteristic traits. They pit their atypical approach against a long masculinist tradition of mesmerising women by applauding their weaknesses. They take an unconventional tactic and criticise the feminine attributes that men find pleasing in women. Both Wollstonecraft and Rokeya argue that the apparent frivolities that seem inherent components of women’s selves are actually social constructions. Although it may seem that Wollstonecraft and Rokeya castigate women, the underhand criticism is actually aimed against men who systematically deny women their right to engage in worthier activities. Both Wollstonecraft and Rokeya call upon women to assume full responsibility as human beings and to end their abject dependence on men, which they think is the way to bring about a revolution in the masculine perception of women. The similarity in tone and in the coinage of their diction points towards the universal sisterhood that modern postcolonial feminists champion. Both Wollstonecraft and Rokeya perceive a systematic masculinist manoeuvring in keeping women fascinated with frivolous activities. Their agendas include disaffecting women from such vocations. Beer’s concept of the presentism of past may counteract misreading of early feminist texts as they evolved in the cases of Wollstonecraft and Rokeya.
format	Article
author	Hasan, Md. Mahmudul
author_facet	Hasan, Md. Mahmudul
author_sort	Hasan, Md. Mahmudul
title	Indictment of misogyny on Mary Wollstonecraft and Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain
title_short	Indictment of misogyny on Mary Wollstonecraft and Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain
title_full	Indictment of misogyny on Mary Wollstonecraft and Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain
title_fullStr	Indictment of misogyny on Mary Wollstonecraft and Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain
title_full_unstemmed	Indictment of misogyny on Mary Wollstonecraft and Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain
title_sort	indictment of misogyny on mary wollstonecraft and rokeya sakhawat hossain
publisher	BRAC University
publishDate	2004
url	http://irep.iium.edu.my/29813/ http://irep.iium.edu.my/29813/ http://irep.iium.edu.my/29813/1/INDICTMENT_OF_MISOGYNY_ON_MARY_WOLLSTONECRAFT_AND_ROKEYA_SAKHAWAT_HUSSAIN.pdf
first_indexed	2023-09-18T20:43:48Z
last_indexed	2023-09-18T20:43:48Z
_version_	1777409540358144000

Indictment of misogyny on Mary Wollstonecraft and Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain

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