âFor the harmony of race, each individual should be the expression of an easy & ample interpenetration of the male & female temperamentsâfree of stressâ¨
Woman must become more responsible for the child than manâ-â¨Woman must destroy in themselves, the desire to be lovedâ.â
From the work of Mina Loys âFeminist Manifestoâ I believe that she feels that in order for a woman to get or achieve a power role they must first be desexualize themselves like in her quote âWoman must destroy in themselves, the desire to be loved.â I surmise that Loy is claiming that women have been especially susceptible to love, whereas men are susceptible to sex, with men achieving the power role in the relationship. She also says that âWoman is the equal of man for she is notâ which I feel she means that men and women are not equally treated and do not have the same rights, that men are more superior. Overall from the entire passage I think that Loy believes men and women should be free to choose what roles they want to play without consideration to stereotypes and assumptions, but that certainly wasnât the case back then because no one was treated equally.
When Loy write “Woman is the equal of man for she is not,” she includes more earlier in the sentence. She writes: “And if you honestly desire to find your level without prejudice–be Brave & deny at the outset–that pathetic clap-trap war cry Woman is the equal of man-For She is NOT.”
What are the reasons for this inequality? Rather than just arguing about “back then,” let’s get specific about when Loy wrote this, and in what ways there was a lack of equality. Remember also that just because Loy argues that women are not equal to men doesn’t mean that she thinks this is good. She refers to parasitism and prostitution–what does she mean there? How are these the two roles women have found for themselves?