This morning in class, we listened to the presentation on Gender Wars, a period in history in the early 1600s when misogynists were very vocal and the "woman question" was a large part of literature. This included information about the works of Rachel Speght and Joseph Swetnam, two writers on different sides of the argument. At this time, men were writing about how inferior women were both physically and intellectually to men. However, I cannot help but see irony in the example of Speght and Swetnam. Speght was 19 years old with a classic education, while Swetnam was older and had no formal education. In his works, Swetnam used proven incorrect examples or misquotes to support his ideas. Speght's responses to Swetnam are very different, logical and clearly disproving his claims. While it was rare for women to be educated like Rachel was, here was an educated young woman disproving an older man's claims. Yet the argument was that women were inferior to men physically and less intelligent and intellectual. I find it very humorous.
-Kelly Johnson
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