A Liberal Feminist Analysis of George Bernard Shaw’s "Mrs Warren’s Profession"

Yıl 2021, Cilt: 6 Sayı: 3, 598 - 608, 31.12.2021

Halit Alkan

https://doi.org/10.29110/soylemdergi.994031

Cited By: 1

Öz

Patriarchal society gives legal rights and economic power to men only so that women are subject to men and imprisoned in private sphere. When women who are given only the role of a wife and mother begin to demand freedom and legal rights, the basis of feminism appears. This study applies liberal feminist approach to George Bernard Shaw’s "Mrs Warren’s Profession" (1893) to analyse the gender roles in terms of patriarchal ideology of separate spheres. Not receiving proper education in patriarchal society, Mrs Kitty Warren becomes a prostitute and then a brothel mistress. As a fallen woman, she exploits her fellow creatures to gain economic power in public sphere. She is conventional at heart like women in private sphere because she wants her daughter Vivie not to work in public sphere but to marry the rich, middle-aged Crofts who is her business-partner of brothels. Being grown up in boarding schools, Vivie Warren, representing the ‘New Woman’ type, shakes hands with men, smokes cigarettes, has knowledge of mathematics, graduates from Cambridge, and has the physical strength and intelligence to work in public sphere. Therefore, she refuses her mother’s money, and marriage proposals in patriarchal society in which women are allowed only the role of being a wife and a mother in private sphere. Thus, women and men have no innate difference for mental capacity, but women face prejudices imposed by patriarchal society because it does not allow women to take the same education as men.

Anahtar Kelimeler

Liberal feminism, women’s position, separate spheres, George Bernard Shaw, "Mrs Warren's Profession"

George Bernard Shaw’un “Bayan Warren’ın Mesleği” Eserinin Liberal Feminist Bir Analizi

Öz

Ataerkil toplum, kadınların erkeklere tabi olması ve özel alanda hapsedilmesi için sadece erkeklere yasal haklar ve ekonomik güç verir. Sadece eş ve anne rolü verilen kadınlar özgürlük ve yasal haklar talep etmeye başlayınca feminizmin temeli atılmış olur. Bu çalışma, liberal feminist yaklaşımını George Bernard Shaw’un "Bayan Warren'ın Mesleği" (1893) adlı eserine uygulayarak ayrı alanların ataerkil ideolojisi açısından toplumsal cinsiyet rollerini analiz eder. Ataerkil toplumda iyi bir eğitim alamayan Bayan Kitty Warren, bir fahişe ve ardından bir genelev patroniçesi olur. Düşmüş bir kadın olarak, kamusal alanda ekonomik güç kazanmak için hemcinslerini sömürür. Özel alandaki kadınlar gibi özünde gelenekseldir çünkü kızı Vivie'nin kamusal alanda çalışmasını değil, genelevlerde iş ortağı olan zengin, orta yaşlı Crofts ile evlenmesini ister. Yatılı okullarda yetişen ve ‘Yeni Kadın’ tipini temsil eden Vivie Warren, erkeklerle el sıkışır, sigara içer, matematik bilgisine sahiptir, Cambridge mezunudur ve kamusal alanda çalışacak fiziksel güce ve zekaya sahiptir. Bu nedenle, özel alanda kadınlara sadece eş ve anne olma rolü tanıyan ataerkil toplumda evlilik tekliflerini ve annesinin parasını reddeder. Dolayısıyla kadın ve erkeğin zihinsel kapasite açısından doğuştan bir farkı yoktur, fakat kadınlar ataerkil toplum tarafından dayatılan önyargılarla karşı karşıyadır çünkü kadınların erkeklerle aynı eğitimi almalarına izin verilmez.

Anahtar Kelimeler

Liberal feminizm, kadının konumu, ayrı alanlar, George Bernard Shaw, "Bayan Warren'ın Mesleği"

Kaynakça

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