Expectations of Women: Then and Now

While exposing feminism through her characters, Jane Austen also chooses to portray the flaws of women in her novels. Isabella Thorpe of Northanger Abbey provides a great example of everything women were expected not to be. While feminism has dramatically increased over the years, we see woman acting more like Isabella, who would be described as a coquette in her time.

Instead of just having those select few women who are looked down on by society, we have turned into a sexualized culture. This has major implications for our women today: Have we taken feminism too far? Yes we want strong and independent women, but there are limits to how women should be. Austen shows that even though women were not supposed to act flirtatiously, many women were not delicate and did involve themselves in manipulating men. This seems apparent today, we know exactly how flirtatious women are but we forget that at one point in time this was hidden and frowned upon.  

Isabella provides an example of how dramatic flirting and manipulation can be, and that it is different from being outspoken and knowledgeable like Austen’s protagonists are. Instead of waiting for men to approach her, she approached men and followed them frequently so that they would be constantly aware of her beauty. This is similar to today, women have been taught to chase men through flirting and also by how they dress and act. We have come a long way for women’s rights, but has society abused it? We have almost reached a point where we are right back to Austen’s issues, but they are the exact opposite of what she had.     

Instead of being delicate, women learn from a young age to be more like Isabella. We have shows such as Toddlers and Tiaras, which is teaching young girls from birth how to attract men by enormous amounts of makeup and risqué dancing. How will this affect how women are treated? They have worked so hard for years to be treated as equals, only to go back to where they started, only with less respect. Who has created this image? I believe that it is our media saturated culture that tries to determine what women should be. It’s almost just like how women were supposed to be a whole list of unattainable things in Austen’s day. Instead of knowledge, they need to be a size 0. Instead of being talented at an instrument, they need to be able to get a wealthy guy. It’s all the same, just in a different package. So maybe we are not so unlike Austen’s culture, but we still think that we would never put those kinds of pressure on women today.