Jumat, 18 Januari 2008

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women writers



How to be a Woman Writer?
By: Osya

Woman matters have always been eliminated in our patriarchal world. Half of six billion people are women. Yet, how many women are involved in politics and society? Instead, most women do almost all kinds of works at home. And women must do it as they are force to. In fact, women’s involvement in politics or society is not valued greatly. Unfortunately, women’s role is not only eliminated in politics and society, but also in other aspects of life, including in literature. Taking for instance, not more than ten women achieved the most prestigious prize, Noble Prize, in the annals history of literature.
Thus, there may be many big questions appear in our mind. How to write, how to be a woman, and how to be a woman writer? One may wonder from these questions, why it seems so hard to be a woman writer in our society? Well, it is not such a surprising matter since being a woman means being a mother. And it means that a woman should always bound to her domestic life’s matters; cooking, staying at home, working in the kitchen, or bringing up the children. Moreover, many people think that being a woman, being a writer, and being a parent and wife are big conflicts. It is just because difficult for women to do all three at once. Probably, most of us just hang this thing up and take up some other profession, as being a woman writer is obviously hopeless. In addition, women eventually start to play other roles in their life. And unfortunately, women usually play as supporters for writers; their role is more often to become inspiration rather than creation. Then, do we have a spare time to write?
Everybody should realize that we are all born creative; all of us, no exception. In fact, creativity is not specific for a certain group of people. So, when a woman decides to be a writer, go ahead! Instead of asking the questions above, I prefer thinking about how to make all these kinds of distractions help, inspire, and even discourage us as writers. How to keep our creativity? This is a big question as well.
Then, should a woman have a private space to write? Virginia Woolf once said that in order for a woman to be a writer, she needs a private room with a door, a lock, and financial security. This idea seems pretty good. However, it sounds difficult for many women to do, for everyone one day, when they have to be a mother. It sounds impossible that we have to lock ourselves away from everyone else. We presumably should put up with all these distractions from different conditions.
But before deciding to be a writer, one of course should be a reader. I think, at least for a while, by reading we can ignore all other distractions. Sometimes reading can inspire someone to be a writer; reading is the wonderful gift of hearing another’s thoughts, and of seeing other views imagined by another person than ourselves. So, be a professional reader at first!
Again, there are some thoughts appear in our society that women writers seem odd and queer, that they still write no good and that they are not equal to male writers. As a matter of fact, based on the historical backdrop, the widespread education of women was not common until the nineteenth century. Even, in the arena of British and America, literature was once widely dominated by men. What about today then? Unfortunately, it is just nearly the same! Both evidence of the past and present say women writers nowadays are just in a bad area, they are still men dominated in writing and literature.
From this phenomenon, one may suspect that being a woman is a disaster. It seems that a woman is born by bringing much more obstacles than a man. There are so many things that prevent women from expressing themselves, including writing. So, do we have to change our sex? In other words, should we wish to have “balls” in order to be a writer? Is it fair that only those with balls (men) are considered really writers? No, it is absolutely not! This is just like any sort of thing that will keep women from writing, from expressing their feelings. Again, this is sort of distraction.
On the other hand, a distraction is a disaster. But on the other hand, distractions can be an inspiration to write. Probably, out of distractions come art, knowledge, and even something best. Because of some distractions, there will be words-many words-to write down. Kim Wells said “So maybe being a writer is partly about those moments of watching two orange butterflies chase each other in the afternoon sunlight, and getting ready to stop and think about dinner. Being a writer is sometimes about those moments when you, the observer, take note of something others ignore in their arrow-straight heroic quest to get things done” (quoted from http://www.womenwriters.net/summer04/wellsspeech.html).
So, what all writers should do is taking those moments of distractions and put them in such beautiful structures and narratives. Therefore, a woman does not need to choose whether she should be a housewife or a writer, but she has to be both. In fact, being a writer is a piece of cake; it only needs a pencil and some paper. And it is enough, as long as she knows what she has to do is to explore as many ideas as possible and walk around in them. Writing is a free activity; we can start thinking about something, reading, and writing it down. All of these activities are easy to do’ anyone of us can do them anytime anywhere, with no limits.
I remember one of the feminist leaders from Egypt, Nawal El Saadawi, whose writings have angered both political and religious authorities in Egypt. She was imprisoned by Anwar Sadat for performing crimes allegedly against the government and was not released until her assassination. Being a writer is extremely difficult for El Saadawi, since the political freedom of her state does not allow to. She said that writing is very dangerous in her country.
Once she was in prison, she said that everyday the jailer comes and examine her cell carefully to find a pen and a paper of hers. It is forbidden for her to have them. Since, according to the jailer, they are more dangerous than a gun. In addition, she, as the political prisoner, was not allowed to have anything in the cell. However, Nawal E Saadawi insisted on keeping writing and writing. Thus, because of this prohibition, she decided to have a pen and a paper by any means. She used toilet paper and a small eyebrow pen that she got from one of her neighbor prostitutes in the cell. She wrote her own memoirs in prison only on a piece of toilet paper by using a very little eyebrow pen.
As a matter of fact, writing is completely a struggle as well. No matter how many destructions a woman has, they should inspire rather than destruct from her ability to write. Additionally, one thing for sure for a woman is thinking about why she decides to be a writer, and how it fits with her being a woman too. As being a woman is not the label that makes us different or inferior, so be proud to be a woman and be proud to be a woman writer!
References:
http://www.womenwriters.net/summer04/wellsspeech.html (12th of Dec 2007, 12:55 PM).
http://www.democracynow.org/2000/3/29/women_writers (12th of Dec 2007, 12:55 PM).