Analysis Of Mary Wollstonecraft's A Vindication Of The Rights Of Woman

Throughout history, women have been represented in a way that emphasizes their beauty and not what their minds offer. Over these years, women have been pressured by society to conform to what is beautiful and to not speak of topics that may ruin their beauty. It was Mary Wollstonecraft, author of an novel length essay called, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, who argued that women have been taught from their infancy “beauty is woman's scepter” and that “the mind shapes itself to the body, and, roaming round its gilt cage, only seeks to adorn its prison.” This statement suggests that a woman grows up believing that her body is all she has, especially when it comes to attracting the greater male. Throughout the course Women and Representation,
The ideal body image for women has changed throughout the years, however it has remained a necessity through these years, to obtain this image in order to get the attention of men. Due to these social demands, women are bullied to perform these unrealistic ‘ideal’ gender stereotypes to stay camouflaged into society an obtain their body image. This involves putting their image before their brains, and sexualizing themselves to attract male attention. In Judith Butler’s ideology of Performative theory, women are carrying out these ideas of the perfect woman and ignoring the fact that they have intelligence, to impress male attention. They believe that in order to look the part, they have to act the part and in doing so they dumb themselves down so that they look attractive to men. In relation to Mary Wollstonecraft’s argument regarding women and how their minds shape their bodies, if women are only focusing on their body shape for the reason that they believe that this is all that they offer, their minds will eventually agree with this statement and will not process anything other than stereotypical thoughts that men think women are only capable of one thing, which is looking nice to impress them. This is not the way it should be however, women should be able to
Advertisement is extremely controversial in the technique that they use to display their female models. This is a prime example of women growing up to believe that their bodies are their first priority and their minds are second. As mentioned in the documentary Killing Us Softly the individuals who are in charge of the layouts and photography of these female models look for one thing and one thing only, beauty. However, in their eyes, beauty does not come in all shapes in sizes. It comes in a blonde haired, blue eyed, size 2 package. This body image is extremely unrealistic, and to have this on display for everyone to see, especially young females, is very controversial. It shows that this is the ideal body image that scepters, in this case scepters being males, want. Furthermore, the advertisements we see today in every day ads are prime examples of Wollstonecraft’s argument that “beauty is a woman’s scepter” and that it is still in fact valid today in out contemporary culture. It symbolizes that women must be of a certain type to be considered beautiful enough to attract men, and when they do they will be able to live the luxurious life they think they can live accompanied by a man. However, they are too blinded to realize that they are actually not that free at all, and they have