A review by leelulah
Are Women Human? by Dorothy L. Sayers
4.0
35. A book in a format than you normally read in
Dorothy Sayers was one of these interesting women that, unfortunately remain too little talked about. She was a writer of detective novels in her own right, and a friend of C.S. Lewis, a classmate of Tolkien... and wrote really funny and poignant essays on the social status of women without considering herself a feminist.
This, as I was made aware by the title almost amounts to her whole texts on the question, the other being the prologue to her translation of Dante's Purgatory. I find her with a tendency towards acknowledging the individuality-singularity of women that could not be to everyone's tastes these days, as it would get mistaken by individualism, but I think it operates on the sex-gender distinction, that women are not meant to conform in every detail to what was, in Victorian times, socially expected of them. Also, if she saw how the denial of biological nature turns more and more dangerous by the day, I think she'd emphasize more of the collective aspect (which still is not denied in these essays).
I wanted to read this after I found her praising of Jesus by not being condescending or otherwise having ridiculous demands of women, or not even making them the 'evil' characters in His Parables... but what I got was much more, even though the book itself is short.
She also acknowledges something the feminist movement is currently struggling with: difference of opinion. Yes, this is a problem in every political movement but it's currently leading to the posible demise of feminism as such with, for example, the TERF wars rooted in cancel culture and denial of truth.
Dorothy Sayers was one of these interesting women that, unfortunately remain too little talked about. She was a writer of detective novels in her own right, and a friend of C.S. Lewis, a classmate of Tolkien... and wrote really funny and poignant essays on the social status of women without considering herself a feminist.
This, as I was made aware by the title almost amounts to her whole texts on the question, the other being the prologue to her translation of Dante's Purgatory. I find her with a tendency towards acknowledging the individuality-singularity of women that could not be to everyone's tastes these days, as it would get mistaken by individualism, but I think it operates on the sex-gender distinction, that women are not meant to conform in every detail to what was, in Victorian times, socially expected of them. Also, if she saw how the denial of biological nature turns more and more dangerous by the day, I think she'd emphasize more of the collective aspect (which still is not denied in these essays).
I wanted to read this after I found her praising of Jesus by not being condescending or otherwise having ridiculous demands of women, or not even making them the 'evil' characters in His Parables... but what I got was much more, even though the book itself is short.
She also acknowledges something the feminist movement is currently struggling with: difference of opinion. Yes, this is a problem in every political movement but it's currently leading to the posible demise of feminism as such with, for example, the TERF wars rooted in cancel culture and denial of truth.