".what should be taught in the new college, the poor college? Not the arts of dominating other people not the arts of ruling, of killing, of acquiring land and capital. She chastises the world of academia rooted in baser interests of personal profit which jeopardize the sacrosanct search for truth and knowledge and criticizes the mode of education which delights in enforcing rigid hierarchies instead of striving to achieve synthesis and harmony.
"Scarcely a human being in the course of history has fallen to a woman's rifle the vast majority of birds and beasts have been killed by you, not by us and it is difficult to judge what we do not share." Not only does she trace the complex interrelationship between war and the lust for power and wealth, but attributes all of it to the underlying patriarchal sentiment of governing the world through tools of intimidation. She is a force of nature in this pretend-letter - inexorable but reasonable, irate but calm, bursting with indignation but dignified, sarcastic but inoffensive - exuding wisdom and poise in every sentence. To borrow from bell hooks, this is Virginia Woolf disemboweling the 'white supremacist capitalist patriarchy' of her times with a merciless precision. So before I go on any further and launch into a full-fledged tirade which will be a regrettable disservice to the purpose and spirit of this essay, let us turn to Woolf's three guineas. Case in point being the initial denial of anaesthetics to expecting mothers in labour on the assumption that women must endure the worst pain known to mankind to atone for 'Original Sin', something Woolf doesn't fail to point out here. What Woolf called an 'infantile fixation' remains a prime character trait of the less fair sex still.Įven now people would rather invoke some misogynous claptrap passed off as inviolate truisms recorded in a book written centuries ago by unenlightened individuals instead of applying intellect or acquired knowledge to judge a real life scenario. The indefatigable benevolence of time has transformed many of her ardent wishes into reality not only within the confines of England but beyond.Īnd yet as I type this, there's an educated man, a graduate of India's premiere engineering institute if his profile is to be believed, insulting a feminist author on my twitter timeline by accusing her of whoring herself.Īt the expense of two dozen or more whatsapp messages and weeks worth of bickering back and forth have I managed to convince a dear friend not to use the term 'feminazi' to discredit radical feminists.
Four score years ago Woolf envisioned a time when the very prospect of members of her sex delivering sermons from the pulpit will not elicit scorn or sneers, when the blonde-wigged, ageing torch-bearers of society would allow women to administer justice, climb the ranks of the distinguished Civil Service and teach young men in universities.
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