Stop Talking Over Us

I understand fully how Judy Brady's essay became an instant classic when it was published in 1971. She addresses a topic that everybody was aware of but nobody talked about, primarily because in the early part of the 1900s and continuing through the century, nobody thought to challenge the strict gender norms that existed in society. The aforementioned topic has to do with the fact that women--more specifically, stay at home wives--do not get enough credit for what they do. I think wives felt such a strong and instantaneous connection to the essay because they had never before had a platform from which to speak about their frustrations. I actually really liked the way Brady approached the topic. I have to disagree with other people and say that I think her sarcasm and slightly passive aggressive tone actually helps get her point across instead of hindering her. The sarcasm is the most noticeable thing about the essay, and even if it means people dislike what she says, it certainly gets their attention. However, all that being said, if her goal was social progress instead of just awareness, her approach was not ideal. By portraying the flaws of men in a negative light, she pushes them further away and prevents them from supporting her cause of equality. If she intended to change the way society viewed marriage, a better way to go about it would be to point out the problem without including so much blame; that way, men will not feel as if they are being attacked.


Medea would definitely relate to the idea of being taken for granted that is discussed in the essay. From my experience reading Medea's lines, a lot of her complaints come from the fact that she was cursed to love Jason, and she did all these horrible things for him (like killing her father and brother and forsaking her homeland), and in return he decided he had enough of her and married a princess instead. Medea gave up her whole life for Jason, and he just assumes she will be okay with him leaving her for a different woman. When he realizes she is not okay with it, he tries to spin the story to say that it was her fault in the first place and her curse actually was a curse on him. In this essay, Brady talks about all the things that wives do that their husbands take for granted as being part of a woman's job. The same thing occurs in Medea, especially with the idea that Jason is allowed to run off with another woman and it is considered to be just a normal thing that men do, whereas Medea is stuck with Jason for her whole life no matter what he does. The feeling of powerlessness and of being talked over by the men around her (specifically Jason and Creon) that Medea feels is the same theme that Judy Brady's essay revolves around, showing that taking wives for granted is something that has been occurring for thousands of years and continues to this day.