The Book Of The City Of Ladies By Christine De Pizan

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The Book of the City of Ladies Since the humans were created there have been gender roles applied to both sexes. Men have been portrayed as the more dominated sex. While on the other hand, women were seen as the weaker. Whatever a man could be portrayed to be a woman could not be. These ideas about gender lasted for many centuries. Even in modern times you can still see the separation between genders, even though some of the lines have been blurred. In The Book of the City of Ladies By Christine De Pizan she creates a city of just ladies with the help of Reason, Rectitude and Justice. Reason and Rectitude help her create the city. Justice helps her fill to the city with the worthy ladies. They …show more content…
“I began to despise myself and the whole of my sex as an aberration in nature” (De Pizan Pg.7). This shows how some women in medieval times would let the opinion of men determine what they thought of themselves. Men were telling women how they should feel about themselves based on their opinions. If a person only learns one perspective about their selves then they will believe it is true. The problem is that perspective will be based down from generation to generation. This is why it was hard to change the ideas about women. These ideas have been in place so long that it was hard to accept any others. “She was the first to raise her voice against misogynist tradition” (intro.xxviii) What De Pizan’s book does is question those ideas by showing the importance of women. “One of the central arguments in the book is that women have contributed to the moral and spiritual development of civilization as epitomized by the urban community” (Intro.xxx). By using religion as a main theme she is able to prove this …show more content…
In the story Gods create Eve from Adams ribs. Eve ends up getting them both kicked out the Garden of Eden by eating fruit from the tree of life and giving some to Adam. Some men have use this example to justify putting down women. “Misogynist writers in the Middle Ages used Eve as ultimate proof that women inherent sinfulness and disobedience” (De Pizan Pg. 9). What they failed to realize is that God created Eve from Adam making them equals. Just because Eve acted a certain way doesn’t mean all women will take after her. Adam should have some blame placed on him because he gave into temptation by eating the fruit .Eve to some men represented the bad qualities that women may possess. On the other hand, what about the Virgin Mary? Some see the Virgin Mary undoing the evil caused by Eve (Bennet Pg. 194). However even though she is Jesus mother that’s still not enough to convince some of the men the worthiness of women. “ Men have been so ungrateful by forgetting that thanks to a woman, the Virgin Mary that the gates of paradise have been open to them”( De Pizan Pg. 130). Although the Virgin Mary is pure and important figure in Christian faith because she is a woman takes away from her importance. How important can she be if some people can forget about her? Eve and The Virgin Mary will always be compared to each other due to their importance in the Bible. To some they represent the two sides of women. By looking

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