Taslima has a great post on 19th century reactions to education for women in Bengal. She includes two satirical paintings, one of a woman beating a man with a broom, and the other of a man nursing a woman – at least that’s the caption Taslima has on it, though he’s portrayed just standing there with an implement I don’t recognize.
What a hateful world to live in. One, there’s the idea that men are supposed to beat women instead of the other way around, instead of the idea that nobody should beat anybody. And two there’s the deeply sad idea that a woman should nurse a man but not the other way around. Seriously? So if she’s ill, he’s supposed to just shrug and go off with his friends?
Sad, sad, sad.
Thanks Ophelia. The woman is sitting on a chair and her husband is standing beside her hand-fanning her. If women get an education, they would become the master and the husband will be forced to play the role of a slave or a servant or a subservient wife.
Um, yeah, exactly. I’ve seen this. The wife is sick and can’t get out of bed; the husband’s “help” consists of taking himself out for pizza because she can’t cook dinner.
Oh I see it now, Taslima, thanks – I see the fan. Before I just saw the handle, and I thought the fan part was a wall decoration.
So he’s like a servant – because a woman and man can’t just take turns doing nice things for each other, it has to be all or nothing.
There were satirical cartoons of that type in Punch in the 19th century too, of course.