You Should Be A Looking Glass

"Women have served all these centuries as looking-glasses possessing the magic and delicious power of reflecting the figure of a man at twice its natural size."  Virginia Woolf expresses the sentiment that women are expected to keep up the moral morale of their husbands.  In class we were given an excerpt, that we were read in psychology class also, from a 1950s high school home economics textbook. "The goal: Try to make your home a place of peace and order where your husband can relax in body and spirit;" the game: being a god wife.  That's how I took it.  They were expecting you to play a game; make your life perfect to suit your husband.  It's not real life.  This reminded me of the musical our high school produced this year. How to Succeed In Buisness Without Really Trying.  One of the songs that the female lead sings is about how her dream is to wait for her husband to come home late.  This was absolute satire of the buisness world and the wives of buisness men so it did not bother me. It also written in 1961 and that was when women were still fighting for respect.  The part that stumped me was my own thought.  At one point a secretary walks across the stage and all of the guys follow her and watch her as she passes by.  I thought "Why are the watching her she isn't wearing tight clothing or anything!"  I realized I have fallen into the stereotype we were talking about in English class.  Women in our time need to be sexy and I could not grasp why men would stare at a woman in normal buisness attire.  The image of an attractive women may have changed but Woolf's quote still is true.  A woman is expected to be there to support men and make them feel better about themselves.  The image of women as the caring supporture will never leave.