I appreciate Agrippa's trying to combat the preposterous sexism going on around him, or at least taking a pass at the illogical arguments used for misogyny. I do, though I've never been much of a feminist.
Still, if you take his little argument as a serious attempt to do away with some of the bitterness towards women, I think he does it in a wrong way. What he is essentially doing is being equally sexist towards men, which is humorous at first but Increasingly dangerous the more you laugh at it. All of the beautiful things he says about women would be seen as exceedingly misogynistic if he were talking about men; exalting one sex over the other, even to combat unfair stereotypes and beliefs, is always sexism and always harmful, as well as always unchristian.
As a sort of takedown of works like the excerpt on witches, however - using faulty reasoning and hyperbole to make a point that his audience would consider ridiculous - I really enjoyed this small work. It could be used to make a good point about gender relations.
PS I'll comment on a blog when someone else posts.
That's insightful! I didn't think of it that way, so it's cool to see that perspective.
ReplyDeleteI did not look at it that way, but I see where you are coming from. But could the way he puts women above men point to him being sarcastic instead of serious? Because there were moments I felt he was trying just too hard.
ReplyDeleteI absolutely cannot stand when the backlash from discrimination results in the discrimination of another group. I see it all the time (especially recently) and nothing gets on my nerves more.
ReplyDelete