Archive - Jun 25, 2009

"Women, then, have not had a dog's chance of writing poetry. That is why I have laid so much stress on money and a room of one's own."
- Virginia Woolf, A Room of One's Own

Author Virgina Woolf's A Room of Ones Own is an eloquent argument in support of the idea that a woman, should she want to pursue her own dreams and goals, must have a measure of financial and material independence.

For Woolf this was because:

Intellectual freedom depends upon material things. Poetry depends upon intellectual freedom. And women have always been poor, not for two hundred years merely, but from the beginning of time. Women have had less intellectual freedom than the sons of Athenian slaves. Women, then, have not had a dog’s chance of writing poetry. That is why I have laid so much stress on money and a room of one’s own.

(If you have not taken the time to read this brilliant but dense essay I urge you to do it. It is a great argument, although long.)

So it was 'surprising' to me to read the headline Females who rent weigh less. The subhead? 'Home-owning women outweigh their renting counterparts by an average of 12 pounds'. That's right ladies, do not try to own property, you may think it leads to a greater degree of financial security, and thus more social power and control over your life circumstance. In fact it just makes you fat. And we all know fat, stressed out, property-owning ladies are not as good as skinny, care-free, renting ladies.