Unifying Dualism of Women in Society

Sometimes traditional arguments cannot be effective because what is at stake is too threatening. In these cases, all we have left to achieve common ground are our narratives, our identities. If we know and can understand our history more comprehensively by our stories, we can begin building a better vision (Enos 136).

Women are seen as both subjects and objects by society.We are cultural subjects, yet our very bodies are objectified by society in such a way that the line between subject and object may get blurred for us.The objectification of women has certainly had an affect on how a woman perceives herself as a subject.Paulo Freire, as cited in Kathleen Weilerís book, Women Teaching for Change: Gender, Class, Power, talks about this subject-object dualism, ì...the relationship between subject and object, consciousness and reality, thought and being, theory and practiceî (73).He says that, ìAny attempt to deal with the relationship that is based upon the subject-object dualism, while denying their dialectical unity, is unable to satisfactorily explain this relationshipî (Freire, as cited in Weiler 73).A similar relationship exists in the relationship between woman and intellectual.A ìsmartî, ìintelligentî, or ìintellectualî woman is often seen as a coveted object by an institution or another person.Such a woman is recognized because it is seen as an exception for a woman to be smart.The cultural identity of women and their objectification forces women who occupy certain subject-positions in society, like the subject position of teacher, to somehow deal with this subject-object dualism.How did this dualism come about?What are its consequences?And finally, how can women, specifically women educators in composition studies...

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Slater, Miriam, and Penina Migdal Glazer. "Prescriptions for Professional Survival". In Conway, Bourque, and Scott (eds.), Learning About Women: Gender, Politics, and Power.Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press, 1989. pp. 119-135.

Weiler, Kathleen. Women Teaching for Change: Gender, Class, Power.New York: Bergin and Garvey Publishers, 1988.