Billie J. Cullison
Mrs. Wilhelmus
AP English Language
30 July 2013

Aristotle, Philosophy, and the Ladies

Aristotle's views on women, as less than men, but higher than slaves, could have been worse. He could have viewed women as slaves, like some people did and still do. Although, there is something in his oversight of women that I still see today in many people's views. Some women that I have met even have this sense of internalized misogyny. They look at themselves in such a terrible light. They believe that if they do not fit in a mold, like the perfect wife in a nuclear family or the slim, beautiful, young girl. They believe that they are only of value if men like them or deem them of value. They look at themselves in direct correlation with how men look at them. So, I see Aristotle's views as reprehensible, but not uncommon.
On the other hand, there is Plato's view of women. His belief that the body had no effect on one's reasoning skills. He understood that because someone's physical attributes were different did not mean that they could not rule if given the same training as everyone else. I find his ideas admirable and interesting.
I am a raging feminist. I will admit that in basically an forum. My ideals for equally are not something I like to hide. The mere fact that most of the people in Sophie's World are men follows the general line of any history book. Men doing big important things for chapters on end and then a little paragraph stating something like 'women were also doing important things and were a part of these events, but since not a lot of people were paying attention to them we do not really know a lot about what they did.' I am almost sure that there were women thinking things along the same lines as the big philosophers, but were pushed aside because of their gender. It does bother me that women were not a bigger part of early philosophy, but it does make me happy that now women can be a part of things like philosophy.