Got Transcendence?

The road of female persecution does not lead to Rome. Rather it can be traced further back to Ancient Greece, to the lecturing halls of one of civilization's most respected thinkers: Plato. He, the Father of Western Philosophy. . . and the recognized enemy of most feminists.

In her article "Woman as Body: Ancient and Contemporary Views," Elizabeth V. Spelman walks the reader through Plato's views on and arguments against women. Overall, Plato's negative stance against the fairer sex had much to do with his view that woman were too fond of the earthly aesthetic to seek the reward of celestial knowledge. 

Plato favored mind over body, spirit over vessel. To be part of the world, to him, meant to compromise the freedom of the soul and mind for the empty promises of the world.

Women, as Plato viewed them, allowed their minds to become too distracted by the cultivation of physical beauty to attain intellectual enlightenment. In essence, women were the symbol as well as the product of the earth. 

From his resentment for the earthly and synthetic, Plato developed an ideology best known as 'mind/body dualism.' Simply, the core concept of Plato's mind/body dualism is that the focus and nurturing of one's mind will, in turn, feed and liberate the soul; whereas the focus and nurturing of one's body will lead to the crippling and enslavement of one's self to the dominating world of the superficial.

Quoting Spelman: "According to Plato, the body. . . keeps us from real knowledge; it rivets us in a world of material things which is far removed from the world of reality; and it tempts us away from the virtuous life." (111)

. . . A recommended read that chronicles
the shifting body image of women in
Western civilization since the
Victorian Era.

But despite his misogynistic leanings, did Plato think it possible for women to be virtuous? In fact, yes.  As Spelman notes, Plato implants within his dialogue Meno the belief that virtue is virtue; it is not and cannot be defined by sex (i.e. 'man's virtues' and 'women's virtues'). (117) 

Possible, yes. Capable. . .? Perhaps not.

". . .[T]he body, or the irrational part of the soul, is an enormous and annoying obstacle. . ." (113)

Whether in Ancient Greece or Postmodern American, the female body being a quote-on-quote obstacle is a fair accusation to make.

But at what point, at what level, can a woman consider herself above Plato's low and (rather) degrading expectations?

To answer this question, Spelman channels the famous female philosopher Simone de Beauvoir: "Although de Beauvoir doesn't explicitly say it, her directions for women are to find means of leaving the world of immanence and joining the men in the realm of transcendence." (121)

Transcendence, according to Dictionary.com, means "the quality or state of being transcendent"; which then translates further to "going beyond ordinary limits; surpassing; exceeding." 

But how does the modern woman reach transcendence in a global society that invests in and feeds on her insecurities? Constantly, from billboards to commercials, the average female is bombarded with ads centered on dieting and beautification. Rarely does a promotion that advocates education and culture find dominance in that 30 second time gap between show and movie segments. 

The bullying of magazine articles also attributes to this harmful conditioning: the rating of celebrity attractiveness; tips on perfecting makeup application; the comparing of fashion trends; etc. Over and over again, provocative images and oversize headlines prove distracting to focus and progress -mentally or physically. 

Society reduces women from people to products, from beings to dolls. Still tied to the primeval symbol of Mother Earth, we are each seen as but plots of land for a man to conquer and possess.

So where then do we turn? What must we do to elevate ourselves? 

We should start at the heart of it all: ourselves. 

Until we tune out the distractions and focus on more intellectual and spiritual riches, we will remain but subordinates to our surroundings.

Once again referencing de Beauvior, Spelman councils that "woman's emancipation will come when woman, like man, is freed from this association with. . . the less important aspect of human existence." (120)

And the "less important aspect" that she is alluding to...? The human body.

The female body.  

Work Cited

Spelman, Elizabeth V. "Woman as Body: Ancient and Contemporary Views." Feminist 
                Studies 8.1 (Spring 1982). 109-130. Print.