{"id":31052,"date":"2016-09-29T13:23:57","date_gmt":"2016-09-29T17:23:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/?p=31052"},"modified":"2016-09-29T13:24:55","modified_gmt":"2016-09-29T17:24:55","slug":"the-taming-of-the-rude","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/2016\/09\/the-taming-of-the-rude\/","title":{"rendered":"The Taming of the Rude"},"content":{"rendered":"

By: Sydney Vollmer<\/em><\/p>\n

You know by now that 2016 the year of the 400th<\/sup> anniversary of Shakespeare\u2019s death and that the Archives & Rare Books Library is celebrating it in a big way by highlighting their Shakespeare holdings. \u00a0BUT it\u2019s also Women\u2019s Week at the University of Cincinnati! \u00a0Surprisingly, the two have something in common, but we\u2019ll get to that.\u00a0 For the next few days, the topic of feminism will be spread \"gender<\/a>across Main Street all the way from TUC to the Rec Center. \u00a0Women\u2019s Week is a nice enough concept. \u00a0I believe in strong females, and I certainly consider myself worthy of any opportunity a man is given. \u00a0There\u2019s always that stigma about feminism though\u2026a stigma that being feminist means triumphing over men. \u00a0And that\u2019s where my problem lies both with feminism and with Women\u2019s Week because last night, I saw a picture of a girl on Main Street holding a chalkboard that referred to boys as stupid. \u00a0My definition of feminism has a lot more to do with mutual respect and a celebration of differences rather than drawing a line between the two sexes and saying one is better than the other.<\/p>\n

\"Taming<\/a><\/p>\n

It\u2019s true that women have a long way to go in terms of respect and equality. \u00a0But why does that mean we have the right to be snide about it? \u00a0There\u2019s some old saying\u2026something about taking the high road? \u00a0As women, our goal shouldn\u2019t be to dominate over men. \u00a0We shouldn\u2019t position ourselves to be like Petruchio in The Taming of the Shrew<\/em> so let\u2019s look at this play for a second. \u00a0Katherine is an unruly woman who has a retort for everything, and no man can stand her. Petruchio sees her as a game and as a challenge. \u00a0He doesn\u2019t care to make her more mild-mannered for any benefit of her own, but just so he could say he did it and gain all the glory from his fellow men. \u00a0At the end of the play, Katherine has been tamed. \u00a0Three husbands make a bet in which the winner will be whoever has the most obedient wife. \u00a0Petruchio is confident and puts down a sizable wager. The others are certain he will not get his wife to come when he beckons. They are, of course, completely wrong and Petruchio wins the bet. \u00a0Yay! \u00a0He has beaten his wife into submission.<\/p>\n

\"From<\/a>Is that really what we want, to likewise beat the men of the world into submission so we can prove we\u2019re more powerful? \u00a0This play of Shakespeare was first performed in London sometime between 1590 and 1592. \u00a0The plot and tone of The Taming of the Shrew <\/em>was perfectly socially acceptable, both onstage and off. \u00a0Now, it\u2019s acceptable onstage because it\u2019s a classic. \u00a0But now that we as women are striving to realize our power, does that mean that we wish \"We<\/a>to be the dominant ones? \u00a0William Shakespeare and the men of the time may or may not have realized they were setting women up for centuries of inequality. \u00a0So, let\u2019s take some advice from them. \u00a0Let us not wish to hear kind words, not because we are feared but because we deserve kind words.\u00a0 Let us not wish vengeance on those who have been more fortunate than us simply by how they were born. \u00a0Let us take The Taming of the Shrew<\/em> and not work to reverse the roles, but work towards a common goal of respect and admiration.<\/p>\n

To view ARB\u2019s editions of Shakespeare\u2019s work or to learn more about our celebration of his quadricentennial, please visit our Shakespeare web page, http:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/exhibits\/shakespeare400\/<\/a>, email us at archives@ucmail.uc.edu<\/a>, call us at 513.556.1959, visit us on the 8th<\/sup> floor of Blegen Library, or check out our Facebook page at https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ArchivesRareBooksLibraryUniversityOfCincinnati\/<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By: Sydney Vollmer You know by now that 2016 the year of the 400th anniversary of Shakespeare\u2019s death and that the Archives & Rare Books Library is celebrating it in a big way by highlighting their Shakespeare holdings. \u00a0BUT it\u2019s … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,13],"tags":[67,742,877],"class_list":["post-31052","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-arb","category-uclibraries","tag-rare-books","tag-shakespeare","tag-shakespeare-400"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31052","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31052"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31052\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/libapps.libraries.uc.edu\/liblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}