Analyzing Passages on Women's Rights and Prostitution from a Philosophical Perspective

Mary Wollstonecraft's Critique of Women's Oppression and Her Proposed Solutions

Write in your own words except for the use of one or two key philosophical terms from slides in each passage.
 
Give a brief but accurate and complete summary analysis and interpretation of each of the following passages. Must be 500-750 words.

Your task is to analyze and interpret (that is, to explain, NOT evaluate) BOTH of the following passages. You are expected to be informed about the readings from which these passages are taken, and to write in your own words with the exception of one or two key philosophical terms.

You should complete it without the use of the internet, and you must address what is explicitly stated in the designated passages.

1. In the passage below, what does Mary Wollstonecraft say is wrong with how women in her society are treated, and what needs to be done to correct it?

“It is a melancholy truth [that] … such is the blessed effect of civilization [that] the most respectable women are the most oppressed … How many women thus waste life away the prey of discontent, who might have practised as physicians, regulated a farm, managed a shop, and stood erect, supported by their own industry…. Would men but generously snap our chains, and be content with rational fellowship instead of slavish obedience, they would find us more observant daughters, more affectionate sisters, more faithful wives, more reasonable mothers-in a word, better citizens… Strengthen the female mind by enlarging it, and there will be an end to blind obedience….The laws respecting woman… make an absurd unit of a man and his wife… by the easy transition of only considering him as responsible, she is reduced to a mere cypher… [But] speaking of women at large, their first duty is to themselves as rational creatures, and the next, in point of importance, as citizens is that…of a mother. …The rank in life which dispenses with their fulfilling this duty, necessarily degrades them by making them mere dolls.”

2. In the following passage Louisa Lee Moon objects to what she calls the liberal view of prostitution that often prevails in today’s society. How does she describe this view and what are her objections to it?

“The liberal take on prostitution is simple. One’s body is one’s own possession, and one may do as one pleases with one’s possessions. Thus, if one wishes to buy, sell, or trade one’s body, one has a perfect right to do so…. Such a view ignores the social and historical context of prostitution. First, it ignores the economic and social onstraints that force women into prostitution and the role of the pimp (often male) in manipulating those constraints. More importantly, it ignores the fact that most heterosexual prostitution, despite its worldwide popularity, is grounded in a social context in which women’s sexual role is consent to male sexuality, instead of equal participation in a sexual activity. Men purchase “sex” from women because pur- chased consent is only different from unpurchased consent in that it may be less expensive. I say “may” because unpurchased consent can usually only be obtained after a process of dating, for which the man is generally expected to pay.”