Prose Poetry

In the work Half Humankind, Katherine Usher Henderson and Barbara McManus explore writings that deal with much anti-woman rhetoric and stereotypes of the day. In Jane Anger's Her Protection of Women, women are exalted as being "made of better stuff" than men: ". .we allure their hearts to us [. ] we woo them with our virtues, as they wed us with vanities. ." (http://www.pinn.net/~sunshine/book-sum/anger1.html). This stereotype certainly persists today; our culture largely ranks women as "classy" and guys as, well.

"guys"-base, even a little "dirty," under the excuse of "that's how guys are." It's a hard stereotype to overcome in many instances-like the "guy" who studies ballet! In the same essay, we find the stereotype of women's self-sacrifice for men's sake: "Our good toward them is the destruction of our selves" (http://www.pinn.net/~sunshine/book-sum/anger1.html). In some parts of our culture, women are still expected to "lose" themselves and become secondary to their men-and consider it a noble sacrifice.

This expectation, however, tends to be held more by older women; younger ones sometimes tend to go to the other extreme! In The Woman's Sharp Revenge, Mary Tattlewell and Joan Hit-him-home talk about the observation that women are presumed to care about sex only for procreation purposes, not for the sake of pleasure (http://www.pinn.net/~sunshine/march99/tattle2.html).

In most of our culture, that stereotype is not considered true today-although in many conservative religious circles, "virtuous" women are still expected to care more about their man's sexual desires than their own. So in some circles, that stereotype is alive and well despite cultural norms. The Worming of a Mad Dog by Constantia Munda ridicules the stereotype of women as preferring the "softer" things, music and poetry, while men "prefer" the harder things-warfare, rough-and-tumble competition, etc. (http://www.u.arizona.edu/~kari/quercm.htm).

To some extent, this idea persists even today: soft lights, pastel colors, etc. are considered "feminine" while the bolder, louder side of life seems to be considered more "masculine." More and more, however, people are starting to live by what Munda asserts-that a desire for soft beds, warm houses, good food, music and poetry are human desires, not just "female" ones! In.