Feminism since the begining

In several of my classes we have touched upon the idea of feminism. It is something that more often than not evokes a rather negative connotation from most audiences because of the idea of the all-powerful, uterus-worshiping, man-hating feminazi's that are all-too-common in the subject matter. It is really almost disgusting to have to share any sort of environment with those people let alone be forced to have any sort of discussion with them. They're stubborn, irrational, and overly aggressive just for the sake of argument. Since the last phase of feminism has died down somewhat, we're now entered a post-modern feminism era that doesn't focus on empowering women but rather any sort of minority. They've changed focus to supporting the little man and engaging interaction with the normally-ignored, which makes me want to suggest that we remove the title of femisist and replace it with something more appropriate like civil-equality.

Regardless, i'd like to revert attention back to a woman who started it all. It was the daughter of an astronomer for the King of France in the early 1400s. Her name was Christine de Pizan. Because of her father's position, she was able to educate herself unusually well and began writing several books which were normally thought to be written under a pseudonym because it was assumed that there was no way a woman could possibly be so educated.

Her biggest accomplishment was writing a book titles The Book of the City of Ladies in which she was troubled by so many examples of men trodding on women without repercussion. She was then visited by three angels who explained to her how little the men knew of their mistakes and why there was no punishment for the naive. With the help of the angels, she would found a metaphorical fortress of a city built and maintained by strong and powerful women. After the city was built, the book went on the illustrate countless examples of how women in the past have shown great leadership and strength. It is written in a historia magistra vitae (history teaches life) format and is used for examples with which present day women should base their own behavior. For those of you interested in women studies, if you haven't read this book or perhaps excerpts, brush up on a few stories, calm down, put the castrating knife down and stop trying to rule the show. Its not about domination, but rather prowess, strategy, and diction.