The perspective of a woman's life from who's point of view?

           Being a woman is not an easy thing and it definitely was not easy during the early 1900’s. Women were expected to dress, look an act a certain way. Once women began to write and expressing themselves through rhetoric, there were still expectations on how they should write or what they should write. Early feminists like Christine de Pizan and Mary Astell paved the way for future female writers. But even they had to endure much critique and harsh objections about their writing.
 
In Heilbrun’s, “Writing a Woman’s Life”, she talks about how there are four ways in which to write about a woman’s life. That includes, an autobiography, in the form of fiction, a biography, or she may write “her own life in advance of living it” (Heilbrun 11) . She talks about 1973 being a turning point for modern women’s autobiography and she talks about American poet May Saton as an example. She wrote a book about her experience buying a house and living alone. After the publication, she realized that the story was not entirely honest, as it did not portray her times of anger and struggles. Her reasoning behind it was that the story was written in an old genre of female autobiography in which beauty is found within pain and rage is transform into spiritual acceptance.

Heilbrun uses this as example which leads her to talking about women’s prohibitions and the amount of power that they are often limited to. She says on page 18 of “Writing a Woman’s Life” that power is: “the ability to take one’s place in whatever discourse is essential to action and the right to have one’s part matter.” So does women writing about their own experiences empower them? It depends on the writer and the audience. When women write about themselves are they writing honestly and truthfully to express themselves or they please their audience? And if that is the case, wouldn’t writing to please the audience exemplify power of the audience over the writer?

She continues on to discussing how it is difficult to believe women mean the opposite of what they have always been expected say or think. Women’s writing has never had the same appreciation that men’s writing has in our culture. This is due to the very same constraints and stereotypes that have been placed upon women. It’s safe to say that females rhetoric is not easily expressed nor is it easily understood. Writing about a woman’s life can be quite a challenge. Since the 1960’s, biographers have struggled with being unambiguous while being careful not to portray a woman’s desire as something that it is not.

There are limitations on both sides. One is from the reader who is trying to understand the ideas and expressions of the writer without inflicting their own opinions onto the reading so it does not affect the intended meaning of the content. But on the other end you have the writer who wants to keep the reader interested and engaged but also wants to tell the story as truthful as possible without turning it into a fiction story with no real meaning or personal connection to the author. So who is indeed more qualified to write a woman’s story, a person getting the story from the outside perspective or the woman in afraid of uncovering her troubles and fears herself?

 Heilbrun, Carolyn. “Introduction.” In Writing a Woman’s Life. New York: Norton, 1988. 11-24