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24/3/16 20:04Charlotte Temple is neither a well-written book by modern standards nor an enjoyable one by my standards. The prose is very purple ("pellucid drop of humanity" for "teardrop," for example) and it's sentimental and moralistic.
But it's kind of interesting that it purports to be a pro-listening-to-your-parents, anti-eloping-with-some-guy-you-just-met book; and yet, it seems more of an indictment of a society that trains girl to not speak their own minds, to go with the flow, to be eager to please others, and then acts surprised when girls raised under that system turn out to be rather easily seduced. Not because they are full of lust or disobedience, but because they don't know how to say "Hey, dude, nope, I'm not eloping with you."
Any kind of "feminism is actually BAD for women! psych!" contrarianism has to face the fact that even the most restrictive and confining forms of patriarchy don't actually seem able to protect women even as they claim they're the only thing that can.
But it's kind of interesting that it purports to be a pro-listening-to-your-parents, anti-eloping-with-some-guy-you-just-met book; and yet, it seems more of an indictment of a society that trains girl to not speak their own minds, to go with the flow, to be eager to please others, and then acts surprised when girls raised under that system turn out to be rather easily seduced. Not because they are full of lust or disobedience, but because they don't know how to say "Hey, dude, nope, I'm not eloping with you."
Any kind of "feminism is actually BAD for women! psych!" contrarianism has to face the fact that even the most restrictive and confining forms of patriarchy don't actually seem able to protect women even as they claim they're the only thing that can.