The Natural Feminine in Romanticism: A Commentary Essay -- Gender F

After Bethany and Sarahs presentation, Nature as Woman, I was interested and confused - as were they, I think - by the multiplicity of contradicting views of nature as it relates to gender. According to dominant views on Romanticism, admittance to nature required a distinctly womanly perspective. Paradoxically, this feminine perspective, entitle ycleped sensibility was to be taken utilized most effectively by men, except it rested on feminine emotion as a more pure solution to nature (Fay 5). According to G.J. Barker-Benfields The Culture of Sensibility the sentimentalizing process involved the gravity of a certain manliness that is uncouth and savage (288) unless moderated by a feminine influence, thus woman was to use the so-called natural gifts of her sex to fetch elaboration to her more robust and virile counterpart. On first glance, this moderation of manly characteristics appears to lend legitimacy to feminine ideals however, this app atomic number 18nt liberation of the feminine illuminates two very respectable problems. First, as Barker-Benfield points out, feminine ideals are privileged, simply only as they serve to improve upon man woman is not idealised in her own right. In this service of a masculine purpose woman was to be fashioned by men rather than by herself (288). Second, the seemingly legitimisation of feminine ideals can appear modernized but, as a result, ultimately serves to authenticate an idea of natural femininity that is, in the opinion of many a feminist, a repressive patriarchal well-disposed construct that lacks any real biological referent. Thus it is very fitting, - but not the least bit subtle - that this artificial idea of femininity should be directly applied to Nature herself. If, as Betha... ...constantly striving and weakness to solidify and naturalize its gender assumptions. In the end, gender and patriarchy itself are proven unstable and fundamentally paranoid. Works Cited Bethany and Sarah. Nature Being eq ual as Woman. Romantic Travellers. 10 Feb. 2005. David S. Miall. 18 Feb. 2005. http//www.ualberta.ca/dmiall/Travel/index.htm Fay, Elizabeth A. A womens rightist Introduction to Romanticism. Malden Blackwell, 1998. Privett, Anne. Appropriating Nature Gilpin, the picturesque and Landscape Gardenting. Appropriating Nature A notification for English 409. 10 Feb. 2005. Khaghan Parker, Anne Privett and Luke Ingberg. 18 Feb, 2005 2006. http//members.shaw.ca/weaters/index.htm Mulvey, Laura. Visual Pleasure in memorial Cinema. Literary Theory An Anthology. Ed. Julie Rivkin and Michael Ryan. Malden and Oxford Blackwell, 1998.