Honesty of Women's Writing Today vs. The Past: Limitations on History and How We Understand Women's Rhetorical Practices

History seems to play a role in pretty much every rhetorical theory there is. In fact, in my opinion, each rhetorical theory was formed as a result of some sort of history or historical event. When I was writing my dialogue for our PE assignment, I started off my reading the Heilbrun and Campbell texts looking for the ways in which the limitations of history affected our understanding of the rhetorical practices women use in their writing. I ended up not basing my dialogue around this question, but I did find a lot of support for this idea in the two texts.

Heilbrun focuses a lot on how women writers were forced to write in a certain style. A style which essentially took the truth out of their writing and created a false idea of an "ideal woman". A woman who never suffered, never longed for power or control, a woman who was submissive and only saw the beauty in life and a women who never accomplished anything (Heilbrun, 12). History played a role in developing this ideal woman. In 1973, women finally began writing the truth about their experiences and steering away from this forced identity (with the publishing of May Sorton's second book Journal of a Solitude in which she rewrote her experiences from her first book but with more honesty). This book was a turning point in women's writing because it paved the way for women writers to write more honestly about themselves. However, prior to 1973, in the heart of the women's right struggles and feminist movements, women were seen as the submissive, stay at home housewife and was controlled by her husband, not allowed to have any say, opinions, or accomplishments other than having children, cooking and cleaning. This was shadowed in women's writing, because there writing had to represent this lifestyle. They had to write about a fake life, a life that I almost feel they wish they could truly have. In my opinion, I think feminist literature was a cry for help, because women were forced to not only lie about their life, but lie about their emotions.

The way in which history affected how they wrote was complex. Since women could not have a say or desire for power, they could never write with even the slightest implication of a complaint or a problem. Everything had to be cheery and positive, which ended up hurting the women in the end. Many women, including Heilbrun herself, struggled to create this "ideal life" in their writing, knowing they were falsely documenting their lives. As a result, many women suffered from depression and, like Heilbrun, committed suicide. The feminist struggle affected female biographers, because they feared writing about a women's life because they feared the truths they may uncover in place of the lies everyone knew from the woman's writing. History shaped the way the women wrote and forced them to be something they were not on paper.

In Campbell's essay, the limitations of history are apparent as well. Her essay talks about a remake of Sojourner Truth's famous speech given at the Akron Women's Rights Convention. This was a speech given by an African American women in the heart of not only the feminist movement, but also the civil rights movement. Although Truth was illiterate, whoever wrote her speech was not and Truth said the words, going against everything that was expected from a woman, let alone a black woman. When Gage rewrote her speech 12 years later, she created in a way that exemplified the racial and sexist stereotypes of the time period in which it was performed in order to show how the words and phrases led to its effectiveness. 

In her blog, Angelica posted a very important thought: "until women and men are viewed as completely equal, then there will be no equality in literature". I think this theory completely hits on everything Heilbrun was struggling to solve in her studies. I don't think women will ever been seen as equal to men, because a woman will always be judged for her actions. Angelica points out that Heilbrun uses the word powerlessness to describe women prior to the 1970s. Women today definitley do have a lot more power and freedom, but I think with power comes an even bigger paradigm than even Heilbrun discovered: women abuse their freedom and their power and push their limits as far as they can. I pointed out in my comment back to Angelica's post that the idea of feminism comes to mind with Miley Cyrus. She was a girl who was reserved and "good" and decided to break out and express herself more freely. She is just as famous as many men, if not more and she is just as successful, but yet she is judged for her actions more than a man would be if he did what she did. Why is it that Miley Cyrus gets so judged for expressing herself. I think equality needs to dig deeper than just literature and extend into all aspects, because on paper, Miley Cyrus coming out with her drug use and alcohol use would be viewed as brave and she would be praised, but Miley Cyrus twerking on TV and singing about her drug use is getting her judged and hated by many people. Why does that double standard exist? Do women actually now have more discursive power on paper than in reality? Is writing a way for a woman to earn respect, because of the honesty they can have? Why does that honesty exist now though, when it was so shunned prior to the 1970s? 

To conclude, I feel that history limited the way female writers wrote because of the identity it forced them to take on on paper. Women had to live a certain lifestyle, and on paper they were forced to oblige to this lifestyle by hiding any pain, suffering or accomplishment. What was going on in the world around the women limited their abilities to document their lives, or have anyone document it for them and it caused women to lose any sort of identity they had because they lost their honesty (Heilbrun, 12). But today, women have gained this honesty and the only time they are seen as equal, essentially is on paper, where they can come clean about their sins and find forgiveness from their bravery. 

Campbell, Karlyn Kohrs. "Agency: Promiscuous and Protean." Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies 2.1 (2005): 1-19.

Heilbrun, Carolyn. "Introduction." In Writing a Woman's Life. New York: Norton, 1988. 11-24

-Alex