THE (MAN'S) WORLD
While researching Kate Chopin and her novel The Awakening, specifically related to the main character, Edna Pontellier, I stumbled across an article that discussed the rights to ownership in the late 19th century. Men had rights to own property: home, land, business, wife, children. All of these things belonged to the man. Women were not allowed, in most cases, to own anything at all.
It took a moment for that idea to sink in: women were not able to seek lives of their own--to pursue autonomy--because they were the property of their husbands.
They could not even own themselves. (Brightwell 45)
As hard as Edna tried to break away, she could not overcome societal limitations. Patriarchy held her in place. In the end, death was her only escape.
The expatriate women who escaped to Paris, to the Left Bank, found freedom that women like Edna never could have realized. They had their own money, which allowed independence. Some of them dressed like men, to fit in with the man's world, hoping to gain male respect and equal opportunities. Many smoked and drank; some were promiscuous; they all ignored the culture that said they had to be prim and proper, the very same culture that considered them property. They traveled the world; they opened businesses; they explored the arts. They were free . . .
Whether purposely or naturally, they embodied society's definition of "male" and used it to their advantage.
I own myself, they said to the world.
