A Feminist Gone Bad

Feminists are not all bad. The extremists are the ones who give the group a bad name, as in any other political or social group. The normal feminists are the ones who wanted to be given the right to vote, and fought hard and long for the final positive outcome (School House Rock - Sufferin' Till Suffrage). The extremists are the ones whoare paranoid that everyone is taking advantage of them just because they are female, they are the ones who throw a fit when a woman is fired, even though ten men are fired with her, etc. etc. They seem to turn a blind eye towards the obvious situation, and create a sort of haze that makes it look like they are being mistreated.

In the case of the wife of Bath, she is a feminist who has been silly from the start. A chronic flirt with a long line of husbands behind her, she uses the bible to support her many marriages.

She is obviously self conscious that she has committed some evil, because she defends herself without anyone even rebuking her. By citing from the Bible, she upholds herego by making herself feel intelligent, and supports her crazy lust and obsession with sex by masking it with the right to choose her own life. Using that same sort of haze, in order to see things from a perspective that is most attractive towards herself.

A simple and lesser creature, she is in love with beauty and boasts of her former good looks. This leads us to believe that she is now an old wench, stripped of the prettiness of youth. (She must be old, how quickly can you go through five husbands?!? Although, she did start at 12.)

Her life story, which she tells before beginning her actual tale, depicts a character still living in her eventful past, and mourning the days when she was wanted after by many men.

The simplicity of her mind is shown by the way she is sidetracked by her own story, forgetting about what she was talking about, and having to pause for a moment to remember. It is as if she has told her story to many listeners, and probably has started to add on to each sentence to make it frillier, and more desirable to the audience and herself.

Because her life story is so long and drawn out, it leads us to have it in our headsfor a little bit longer - most likely what she would have wanted - therefore I was still thinking about it when she began to tell her tale. It was at the part where the knight raped the poor maiden, when I had to pause for a moment. What stance was the wife of Bath taking on this? As I started the audio again, it was obvious that she was actually supporting the rapist! This "knight", the rescuer of damsels in distress 'supposed to be', actually just committed a crime he was intended to prevent from happening! Why then, is the wife of Bath not appalled?

Oh, wait. That is right, this is the wife of Bath - the supporter of sex at any time, any day. No wonder she would create a romantic love story for a rapist, so that he could live happily ever after. But what happened to the poor victim?

Apparently my assumption of the wife was wrong - a feminist, she could not be, or else she would have told a story of the poor girl getting back at the knight, making it so that he could never harm another girl that way again.

And plus, feminists are supposed to hold themselves with high esteem. With a title of 'The Wife of Bath', that isn't exactly possible. Because, it obviously meansthat you are married to Bath. And what do you do in a marriage? Now times that by all of Bath, and voila! You are greeted with a clear picture - the slut of The Canterbury Tales.