"What does a woman do with her freedom, assuming that she can handle it at all?"...?

Question

I came across this question in The New Yorker ( March 31, 2008 issue) NOT a view of The New Yorker but rather a question raised by the work of Caryl Churchhill an artist of the contemporary English theatre. It's said that her work raises a number of complicated questions about gender and feminism chief among them -- the one I just posed.

I want to see what members of GWS make of that question, how would you answer it?

Answer 1

With freedom comes responsibility; once you can handle that you can handle freedom.

Answer 2

Well here is what I have done with all mine:

Studying at college

Helping feed the poor

Help fund a school for orphaned kids outside the USA

Started my own company

I could go on but I hate to boast. So now let me ask you, what have you wasted all your knowledge on? Surely not some good for nothing artist that can't find any other way to get recognition.

Answer 3

Hard to say what is meant for certain, since the quote is out of context.  As she is both a Feminist and a Socialist, one can assume her statement to be a commentary on those who do not exercise their rights through social or political action.

Answer 4

same thing a man does with his....assuming that he can handle it at all.....

Answer 5

That's not "raising a number of complicated questions." That putting out complete shlt in order to gain attention for one's sub-standard "art."

A bit like Yoko Ono, but without the talent (and yes, I meant that ironically).

Answer 6

Uhhh...anything she wants!

Answer 7

Anything she dang well pleases and she CAN handle it all!

Answer 8

In order to "have" freedom, you have to have had it taken away ,or denied (or else there'd be no concept of being free, if nothing to be free from).

You pose "What does a woman do WITH HER FREEDOM...?" (and then cast doubt as to whether she should even have it!!)  Are you a man? Posing?

I dont undrstand the way this question is loaded.

A woman is not a pet that a man goes out and gets (and keeps).

And so now we've let her loose, out of the cage, and need see if she should be put back in!

_____________________________

There was a most interesting piece done by Elizabeth Cady Stanton, later in her life, about people being BORN as individuals, so "free" ((does anyone remember the title of that?)).

_____________________________

I think what's wrong with all of feminism now is simply this.

What you resist persists.

So if you dont fight, therell be no fight BACK

In other words, it's time to proceed like youve won.

Just take whats yours! Noone will argue!

If anyone DOES attempt to, decline the invitation to debate whether you "get to" or not, by simply ignoring them completely.

I pose it this way "Now that it's ours, what do we want to do with it?"

(It being the ability to take half the government seats, and make a society we WOULD want,  instead of feeling stuck with one we dont.

Women dont know they've won, or at least what that means they need to do next, I beleive.

"ITS OURS" should be your cry.

______________________________________...

"NOW THAT IT'S OURS(the world),

WHAT DO WE WANT TO DO WITH IT?" ________________________________________...

I'm reminded of some simple but convicted folk who sat down together at a church in Seneca Falls New York, in 1848, and discussed what they felt needed to be changed.

They wrote down what they saw was wrong, and what they intended to do about it.

Like a business creating its mission statement, they formed a document as such(The Declaration Of Sentiments), and they went out and, even if it took 70 years, they  got it done!

((It took the Republican Party in the U.S. 35 years to take over.  And THEY did that being a VERY small minority of the populace))

There's no opposition party to them anymore. Its just Republicans or else more Republicans now!

So where's the womens party?

Wheres the b a l a n c e, in ACTUAL self-governance ("democracy")?

Where is ANYONE posing check to the warmongering, and the playing of cops and robbers to be heroworshipped by other wannabe bully-males, and by swooning women?

Where is the feminine half of the human equation, the half of the natural roles, that is to

    --->"create and maintain a nurturing environ for people-growing"?

____________________________

The womens movement is horribly stalled. The right wing has trounced away even the WORD "feminist" from women wanting anything to do with their own good.

And yet, you could just set out ANY DAY to list what you want to do, and start doing it.

AGAIN-->Now that the world is OURS, WHAT do we WANT to do with it?

((oh this could be especially effective with young -idealistically chargeable- college people!))

...I'm just a man myself. But Im not a GIJoe man.

I'd do ANYTHING to help this, if I simply saw something start up.      

  BUT ALL I SEE IS WORDS

So I finish by offering you some words.

-those of Alice Paul, who led the womens movement in England in the early 20th.  She said:

   ------"A C T I O N ,  NOT WORDS!

Answer 9

Well, let's turn the question around:

"What does a MAN do with his freedom, assuming that he can handle it at all...?"

Do you see just how damned silly the question is??

Answer 10

What freedom,they are limited by laws,for freedom are also a persons liberties,and they are limited to a point, and so I ask as well, what does a guy do with his freedoms as well...

I don't know what   GWS is being used for,so I cant answer that part..

Answer 11

with my freedom, i make my own decisions and live my life exactly how i please. i say what i want, go where i want, come in whenever i want and alot more.

Answer 12

I hate Caryl Churchill, not so much as a person but I personally find her work to be totally awful. People like her give me hope that I can be a succesful writer, if she can get a play onto channel 4, I can get a film onto the big screen.

Edit: With that said, any question or statement of hers is not worth the debate. She over exaggerates the apparent plight of women. Shes a bit too extreme in her views. One of her plays in particular, 'Top Girls', is both boring and disgusting.

Tracey is spot on, she is a person who craves attention and to get that attention she often reverts to 'putting out rubbish', a point backed up by the blatant attempt at shocking people in her plays, and she doesn't have a clue how to be subtle.

Answer 13

What do you mean ''Assuming she can handle it at all" Slavery ended so everyone including women are free.... So I guess the answer would be to go out and enjoy her life as she probably has been all along.

Answer 14

She buys 28 cats and spends her time at home talking to them as if they were people.