Soft Butch Perspective on Women's History Writers Past and Present

The history of women is fascinating and disturbing. Most of the far reaching history of women has been written by male writers; women were generally uneducated. Thus historical documents prove to be one sided, offering a male perspective of women from eras long gone. An entire gender perspective is denied today's women because few women were able or capable of recording their history. Fortunately, times have changed drastically in the last hundred years, and more of the world's women have gained educations which were once reserved solely for men. Women are and have been considered the "weaker" sex. While "weaker" may be an accurate physical description, the trials and tribulations women have and do endure speak of inner strength misunderstood by, both, themselves and their male counterparts. Women were and are physically and mentally stronger than male writers of old have portrayed.

The image of a Stepford Wife corresponds to the standard historical representation of women. Various famous women throughout history have failed to conform to such stereotypical imagery, while many more have "fit" the stereotype perfectly. Those non-stereotypical women faced persecution from both men and stereotypical women. Persecution which ranged from harassment to death. At the beginning of last century a woman who chose to wear pants faced verbal abuse, physical assault and accusations of trying to be mannish. In some cases pants wearing women were locked up in mental hospitals where they were forced to "practice" being "regular" women; force which extended itself to behavior modification therapy which included electric shock therapy. These early pants wearing women were unwitting pioneers in the women's rights movement. And these early pioneers had to forge the way through the blind hatred of stereotypical women who abhorred the idea of women in pants. Today's business women reap the rewards of those early pioneers by wearing pantsuits to their corporate jobs.