‘Behind a great man there´s a great woman’

Women nowadays have gained a different perspective. But it has come with several outcomes that are embedding the true meaning of this revolution. Alain Badiou already mentioned the fact that truths are always hidden in the linear state of time, precising an event that will spark the truth. Take for instance the French Revolution, like he does, as a necessary event for equality to come forth as a natural truth hidden in time. As such, women must come forth in all intellectual, ideological and political discourses to remind of a truth that even nowadays seems like a reluctant standpoint.

All women, at least in some point in their lives will have encountered an uncomfortable and demeaning situation. Just in one week, I was tossed around like an object and looked up as a ‘slutty’ caricature, plainly because of the way I looked or the actions I took. For instance, and this is something many will have noticed, I was waiting for some friends to arrive. Standing on the street, early at night, and was for some reason, profoundly affected by the way some men stared at me: with lust, embarrassment, and a glimpse that showed their own self-contained concepts of women. After denying the fact that I too had a voice in this world, I finally came to see, after 23 years of just not giving a shit, that this is not the right attitude. This revelation finally came when I realised that throughout my studies, all I admired were men: Beethoven, Bach, Keats and so on… The canonic value that is given to these men, by the power invested by male theorists themselves, can only be broken with education: an education that has been denied to women for over centuries. Dahlhaus, Scruton, even Badiou are the main pillars in which I must focus my work on, an institutionalized perspective.

If you are a man reading this work, do not worry, feminism has a point for you too. How many times have we forced that little kid to play football, and later forced by his own gender to attain the proper ‘male’ macho behaviour. Feminism wants to make you whatever you want to be, not to demean you as a way of revenge like some women have unfortunately done in ways I understand but are not strategically empowering, but to grant you the will to become a freethinker. How many times have I been ridiculed when I played football, or made a comment that was not ‘lady-like’ and had to shut up so that one day I could marry a man. How many times have I heard friends whose sole goal was to get married and live a life that is not based on their own convictions? Feminism must act as a liberator, for everyone.

Ignoring the historical context from which we come from is an error; instead, we must re-evaluate this, shed new light. A contradiction comes up. How are we going to gain our own voice if all the values, all culture has seen women as the crazy, gentle, subservient character that only falls in love, goes crazy or succumbs to death? Take La Traviata for instance, or even Shakespeare´s Ophelia, or the slave Myrrha in Byron´s Sardanapalus, (some ignore that Byron´s daughter Ada Lovelace was a mathematical genius who as early as the 1800’s wrote the first computer programme). A special admiration goes for Chopin and Amantine Dupin, best known as George Sand. Chopin for rejecting Beethoven´s dissonances and standing as an example of male sensitivity. Truth is, George Sand is known for being Chopin´s lover, when in fact she refused to talk about her love affairs whilst in Spain and conducted her research the way she desired.
Our very own ideals have been forged by culturally restricted concepts, even violent ones. For example Vincent D’Indy described music theory as having two themes: the main one being the “dominant masculine element” and the second theme, gentle and delicate that, “has to submit, whether by violence or by persuasion, to the conquest of the being of force and power.”

This is a reality in our history. Just like the suffragette movement was, just like the history of women in the workplace, just like fashion and beauty establish the norm: it is real. The only problem is that people, just like me, have decided to ignore this. Not anymore. Feminism can help equate the balance, for women and men, regardless of you sexual orientation: it can liberate us. Violent outbursts have already happen and have happened for centuries now. It is not the answer. It is easy to say that respect and tolerance have to be our main sources of power, but I understand the difficulties of achieving this when you are regarded simply as a secondary human being, even damned by the Bible to serve men as a temptation.

We must reconsider our canons, of beauty, of value, of philosophy: of its own very semiotics. “Behind a great man is a woman”, we hope to have our own greatness without the need of not only a man, but a statue whose shadow swallows any deed we accomplish, and like all the other artists and writers labelled off agreements of 'value judgements' we succumb to these self-accepted terms and into oblivion: a place even great men fear. Grove´s music dictionary just recently added a small section about women composers. Compare this to the literature written about Wagner. Education is our key way out. And for the sake of not only women, but men, be sure to do something that reveals that you are just not some pretty concept put on earth to please, adjust your reality to make equality a part of your life.

Especially now that we live in a crumbling world, where blacks are still denied the vote, women must cover their whole body and western civilization starts to tear up democracy because uneducated politicians are putting even more layers of ostracising and obstructing concepts on gender and race. Enough with this, take a stand!

Leave a comment with your experiences/thoughts, the more we know the better we can fight inequality!