Did Women Have a Renaissance???

And the answer is - of course they didn't. Why would they? The question itself implies that women once excelled at something artistically magnificent (no - having babies, cooking, and cleaning does not count). This is a sad fact. I don't believe for one second that women didn't (or have any desire to) paint , sculpt, or write beautiful poetry or prose. They probably did. And if they didn't - then they probably wanted to (this makes me think of Virginia Woolf's bit on Judith Shakespeare).

Nevertheless, Joan Kelly-Gadol's essay was informative (although not entirely entertaining). In her essay, she quotes a passage from The Book of the Courtier that states that a lady who lives in the court "will be able to entertain graciously every kind of man," and that she should "give up certain unbecoming physical activities such as riding and handling weapons." The essay goes on to say that she should be "as docile in adulthood as her early teachers trained her to be." Geez. No wonder women didn't have a Renaissance. They simply weren't allowed to. They were much too busy entertaining men and being pleasant and beautiful. They weren't allowed to nurture whatever real artistic talents they might possess.

It is sad to think that women have never had and may never have a Renaissance. If someone wants to study great works of literature by women, it is likely that they would have to take a feminist lit class. So why don't they just call the rest of our early lit classes misogynist literature? I'm not by any means implying that I don't enjoy reading the male authors - I just think it would be nice to read more women authors. This way we would be able to have some sort of concept of what it was really like to be woman during those unforgiving times.