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Virginia Woolf:
Woolf grew up not being able to have a room (intellectually): not allowed on the grass, not allowed in the library. She thinks that being called back into your body equals pulled out of intellectual world. At the end of the essay, Woolf concludes that women (or anybody) who write with a chip on their shoulder (men writing like men, women writing like women) are writing self-consciously. Writers should write as individuals, as a soul, not as a category or a type. The concept that "All who have brought about a state of sex consciousness" is wrong. She says that building one's self up by putting others down embodies racism, sexism, and classism. I strongly agree with this: somehow, this still seems to work for people today. If we were to take a stand against these people, we would realize that this way of building self importance is not only wrong, but shows a lack of actual importance and a weakness of that person.

My perfect room...

My perfect room would be so if it was able to upload the image....not sure what I'm doing wrong. Anyhow, it would be a scene of the band Radiohead playing live. The band is simply amazing. Their music is extremely creative, using interesting ideas in texture, instrumentation, harmonic language, and melody. The music, like my room which was also supposed to play one of their songs, is highly cathartic. Easily the best band that still makes music.

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Mary Wollstonecraft notes:
Wollstonecraft grew up with a father as an alcoholic, and ended up basically taking care of her family. She was self educated, and decided to write for a living. One important writing was "reflections on a revolution in france", followed by "vindication on the rights of man". The latter, published in January 1790 was seen as effeminate; Mary attacks men for not being "manly", meaning virtuous and rational. She defends liberty, and said that the concept of piece was classist. She treats men as a number of classes, or "men" as all humans

Her next important writing was "vindication on the rights of women". Wollstonecraft isolates women as a class of persons who have been treated the same way historically. She believes that society, through education, trains women to be immoral and irrational. With the current bombardment of gender roles and expectations propagated through the media (intentional or not), I would argue that this could still apply today.
ch.1:
Mary is a proponent of meritocracy: the rise to power due to merits and talents, not birthright. She views education as a subordinate system, inducing immorality. As a future teacher, I value the interests and education of students far over the adherence to a system, or molding students to "fit in" with societal expectations. I hope that I never become a vessel of teaching subordinance.
ch.2:
Women are taught to be subordinate, in order to be pleasing. Wollstonecraft says that soldiers are like women, taught to do as they're told, governed by rules and regulations in order to please others. Essentially, she is proving that men can be educated the same way as women, proving women are not naturally inferior. Everything relies on enculturation. She sees Rousseau as a sensualist. His view is that women are governed by fear, using cunning to render themselves as more alluring. She finds this to be nonsense. Rousseau was seen as standing for equality in the French revolution, but apparently just for men.
ch.3:
Mary says that women are taught to be beautiful, using their weakness to lure men. Women still do this today! I find this particularly unattractive, as I am more interested to someone who is an intellectual peer with me, not someone who needs taking care of. She says the women have been given too much, haven't proven themselves, and have been taking advantage in life rather than working hard to achieve. She fully believes in the power of her own word: if her word doesn't hold true, the world has betrayed her. In life, honesty and transparency are paramount: not traditional virtue as we view now. This is an interesting concept: it seems like Wollstonecraft is challenging the concept of right and wrong itself: who defines this? On what basis?

Maid in Manhattan as Cinderella Story

If I remember right, this romantic comedy from a few years ago directly parallels much of the Cinderella story line. In this case, the protagonist is a maid working at a hotel, wishing to be in a better job position. She ends up "borrowing" some fancy clothes from a room in the hotel, and in doing so, has a chance encounter with a handsome, very well-to-do young man (Prince). Well, she ends up being caught, just like Cinderella ends up having to return home back to ashes every night, but when her prince finds her again, he takes her back, insisting that she was forgiven for lying, and saying that he would have noticed her anyhow, not just because of her fine clothes. It seems to me that this is the same deal: the rich guy only notices the girl when she dresses and acts up to his high society standards. Upon being caught in the sense that the male seems superficial, both the prince and the guy in this movie take the girl anyhow, redeeming themselves a bit, showing their "true love" capacity. All in all, I seem to remember this movie being fairly boring and cliche. You knew what was coming the entire time.

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Courtship of Mr Lyon:
The beast from this version of the story is a bit different than the traditional beast that we all know. He is more intense and ferocious, and seems to be less caring, and has a very limited soft side. One theme of the story centers on violence and males: this is the story of a man coming to terms with violence, redemption, need for love regardless of self.
Snow Child:
In this story, the count can be seen as a symbol of masculine power and desire.The girl created represents a "masculine fantasy", beautiful, yet powerless, nothing but a sex object, described as the "child of his desire". If this is meant to be a generalization of all males, I feel that it is unfair and inaccurate. I could see this being accurate as an extreme exaggeration, but overall, just a little ridiculous. The countess in the story is jealous of the girl, competing for the count's love. Essentially, she is under the control of the count. When she says "It bites!", this could represent the pain of being a woman, living in the male-dominated world.

Cinderella notes

I found the Anne Sexton version of Cinderella to be much more interesting than the Grimm brothers version, mainly due to some colorful language. This begins with the term "luscious sweet", comparing a female to possibly a food. It continues by mentioning Dior, a french fashion designer. The next interesting allusion was to Bonwit Teller, a now out of business high end department store. The next reference I researched was "Al Jolson", to whom Cinderella covered in ashes was compared, since he frequently performed wearing black-face makeup. Towards the end, I found a little more colorful language to look up, curry favor. This simply means to seek favor of someone through flattery. Finally, the story ends with "Regular Bobbsey Twins", a reference to an old book series. It is language like this that kept this story fresh, rather than simply telling the tale like the Grimm brothers.