Just thinking…. There are instances where women are dehumanized while simultaneously being held to a higher standard by others and this concept is indicative of impossible expectations placed on women by outside forces. Which means that a woman gains by virtue of what she is to others not by virtue of who she really is.
I was remembering a poem, “Nazareth”, by Rosario Castellanos, in which she confronts the age-old symbol of a vessel as a symbol of what a woman should be:
“A vessel is an object which serves whatever purpose is given to it. A vessel only gains value by being able to successfully hold and maintain that which is put into it. Vessels can also be filled with expectations. Like all vessels, fragile. Like all vessels, too small for the destiny poured into it”.
Why is it that we expect more from women than men? Why is it when a man shatters a vessel, so many run to his rescue, clean up, and make excuses while we blame women and hold them accountable when they are shattered and offer no such support? I’m just going to leave it at that.
Whoever this young woman is, she is brilliant. In a few words she has stated the plight that woman world-wide have born since the triad of religions that see women only has vessels, inasmuch, to hold them accountable for mankind’s failure to be civilized.
K. D. Dowdall