What is a Feminist?

I didn't really know what to expect when I started reading my first Jane Austen novel. In my mind, Jane Austen was  I had preconceptions of feminism at its finest, picturing women breaking barriers while the chauvinistic men attempting to suppress them stood in awe at their grandeur. I somehow envisioned a montage of Joan of Arc in armor battling misogynistic men in tunics, except in a Victorian England setting instead of Revolutionary France.

Another depiction I had in my head was Rosie the Riveter, who likely embodies feminism for modern women.  However, now that I'm several chapters into the book, I don't foresee any of the female characters gallantly portraying that scene. This isn't to say that Austen's characters don't break the shackles of feminism, because I can already see that occurring, but it happens in a much subtler way than I ever could have expected. In a way, this approach might be more effective, as any behavior that we in 2011 would consider bold, brazen, or ostentatious (satiric pun, intended) would have been too radical to have been taken seriously. It is a testament to Austen's skill as a writer that she's able to portray scenes that I would deign as pedestrian, as progressive. While Rosie was the preeminent feminist icon during World War 2, if any of Austen's characters embodied Rosie's attitude, they surely would have been ostracized, if not publicly condemned.

When I read about Elizabeth's adventure to see her sick sister, Jane, and the matronly women's disapproving responses for the state of her arrival, I realized that it probably was quite a social faux pas for the period. This is one of the many things that I admire about Elizabeth, and a reason that I can strongly identify with her. She doesn't hold stock in social etiquette that doesn't serve her purpose. In thinking on that scene, I've tried to come up with a modern equivalent, and I think the perhaps showing up to job interview with dirty clothes and a disheveled demeanor would be comparable. After all, the women that judged Elizabeth would surely spread prattle on about her solecism, which could damage her reputation and thus her chances for finding a suitable husband; similar to how an unprofessionally dressed person at an interview would have a severe disadvantage of getting a job. After all, a woman's job in this time period was to get married and produce more children.

The role of women in P&P really made me realize how much progress women really have made over the years. When Austen describe's Mrs. Bennett's primary responsibility to marry off her daughters, I think she was being quite serious. Since women weren't present in the workforce, a woman's survival seems to have depended upon her ability to find a husband that could provide for her. While part of me understands this as a social construct of the time period, I personally find it so difficult to truly comprehend. I know a great many incredibly strong women, and it would be such a shame if they were confined by society to only get married and produce babies. While I certainly don't want to discredit the important of motherhood, nor do I not value women who raise their children (especially in this day and age), but one of the key aspects of the women's movement was choice. A woman should be able to choose to have a career or a family, that choice shouldn't be made for her by society. I think this is actually one of the few ways that a gender role has evolved over the years. While it isn't completely unheard of for a man to stay at home and raise children, there is still a certain stigma and judgment that goes with that, even from fairly progressive individuals.

In these first few chapters, I've decided to focus more on key topics that come to mind when I'm reading, rather than the actual occurrences of the story, because sometimes only one event can happen in the duration of an entire chapter. I think soon I'll also go through a brief analysis of the characters and some larger commentary about Austen's writing. Until then...