I've been doing a lot of thinking lately, about myself, and what it means to know myself. I realized that as a feminist, I often define myself in terms of things outside myself - how I fit into society, how I react to other people. Just as important, however, is starting from inside myself and building outwards. In my introspection, I ran across some beautiful letters that Rainer Maria Rilke wrote at the beginning of the 20th century (published as his "Letters to a Young Poet"), and one section resonated particularly deeply with the part of me who identifies as a feminist. The text:
The girl and the woman, in their new, individual unfolding, will only in passing be imitators of male behavior and misbehavior and repeaters of male professions. After the uncertainty of such transitions, it will become obvious that women were going through the abundance and variation of those (often ridiculous) disguises just so that they could purify their own essential nature and wash out the deforming influences of the other sex. Women, in whom life lingers and dwells more immediately, more fruitfully, and more confidently, must surely have become riper and more human in their depths than light, easygoing man, who is not pulled down beneath the surface of life by the weight of any bodily fruit and who, arrogant and hasty, undervalues what he thinks he loves. This humanity of woman, carried in her womb through all her suffering and humiliation, will come to light when she has stripped off the conventions of mere femaleness in the transformations of her outward status, and those men who do not yet feel it approaching will be astonished by it. Someday (and even now, especially in the countries of northern Europe, trustworthy signs are already speaking and shining), someday there will be girls and women whose name will no longer mean the mere opposite of the male, but something in itself, something that makes one think not of any complement and limit, but only life and reality: the female human being.
I know that some of this may seem slightly outdated, and it is, being written at the beginning of the 20th century. Calling women's foray in to traditionally male sectors of society "ridiculous disguises" strikes me as objectionable, and I know a lot of you will disagree with the distinctions Rilke draws between men and women. However, I think Rilke has identified somethng that we sometimes forget today - as human beings , we need to find that in ourselves that is true and unique. We all know the dangers of falling into a mold that society has created for us because we're women, but I think sometimes some feminists react so much to patriarchical aspects of society that they forget proactivity in favor of reactivity. I certainly don't advocate not reacting to sexism - we have every right to. I just want to put the idea of starting from nothing and creating, rather than trying to tear down what society has given you. I know this is somewhat vague, but it's not supposed to be anything else. I also like Rilke's semi-feminist foresight - we are "female human beings" as opposed to "females," with an implied lack of humanity! Lots of ground still to cover, but what a great start. What are your thoughts on Rilke's?
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Sure some sentiments are outdated, but what a beautiful passage! The imagery of the fruit pulling down from the surface of life, becoming riper and more human in the depths than the light--it's imagery that you can savor.
Most of all, I think we are all engaged in forging the female human being, whoever she may be.