Sexism In The Wife Of Bath's Tale

It’s 2017, 1500’s years after the Middle Ages, and yet there are still issues of sexism. The 21st Century is supposed to be about women empowerment, equality and seeing women as MUCH MORE than just objects. This is not a patriarchy anymore. Ever since the beginning of time all women have ever yearned for was equality. Women don’t believe themselves to be the superior sex, they know they are equal to man. Yes, they can own land now, it is not legal to abuse or ‘own’ them, and they can have higher level jobs and vote alongside the white man, but there is still the wage gap, sexual harassment and predators, and trafficking issues. Furthermore, there are still times where headlines state there is an activity any women could, do but there is barely a first woman to do that. There is still objects to overcome. Women have never been treated equally. Reading “The Wife of Bath’s Tale,” a person can see how over

fifteen hundred years ago women had the same ideal all women desired in 2017 and men need to understand this.
In “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” one of Arthur’s lusty knights rapes a virgin.

As punishment, he has to tell Guinevere what a woman wants in order to avoid a beheading. His answered that women want, “sovereignty over husband and lover, they desire the upper hand at all times,” (Chaucer). No woman could argue with him. Chaucer wrote that line in the 15th Century. That one line clearly states that being an equal and treated right is more important to a woman than being in love with a man— which has always been brainwashed into woman that that is the most important thing in the world. We can see how important equality is to women back then, and it's important to know that it’s still the priority for women today in the 21st Century. In today’s world people can see how much women talk about feminism and the actions we take for equality i.e. petitions, marches, and rallies. Women do all this and more and are still not treated equal. So, part of the lesson to learn from this tale is that women, more than anything, still desire one thing spanning over centuries:

equality.
The other half of the lesson to learn from “The Wife of Bath’s Tale” is that men need to understand how important women’s equality is. The Knight only learned his lesson due to his life being on the line. He believed he could just get away with raping the virgin. He believed his lust was more important that her decisions. Since men don’t seem to be aware of how important it is and how valuable women are, they assume they can do anything to them. More than ever, it is more clear how men impose on women. Talk to any woman and they will tell of at least one story where they have encountered sexual harassment, especially with men of power. These days, the news will report about a woman or women who have encountered sexual assault with a Hollywood man. Men in power forget that they are not a God who have the world on their side. Men need to know how no matter who they are or what women they encounter, they do not have the right to a woman’s body, even if they are married. If men could comprehend how women are their own person who deserve the same rights as them, women would gain equilibrium in the world.