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Society Has a History of Viewing Women as "Less Than"


I was shocked to find out about Aristotle’s thoughts of women in “A History of Women’s Bodies.”  Aristotle hypothesized that women were created as a birth defect because they weren’t fully developed before birth.  Dang, I always thought Aristotle was so smart…  How did such a smart man reconcile the fact that no one could be born without a woman?  He really dropped the ball on that observation.  Darwin’s views on women also shocked me.  He believed that women basically use up all their energy on childbirth.  Therefore, Darwin argues, women will always be lacking in development both physically and mentally.  One of the current women’s issues that stem from previous thoughts and attitudes about women is the view of PMS as a medical diagnosis for “behavior problems” in women (Weitz).

Works Cited
Weitz, Rose. "A History of Women's Bodies." Women In Culture An Intersectional Anthology for Gender and Women's Studies, Second ed., Wiley Blackwell, 2017, pp. 248-55.

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