求教 prep2 essay #13 ironically

rachel222222

Essay #13.  537    (23211-!-item-!-188;#058&00537-00)

 

The identification of femininity with morality and a belief in the innate moral superiority of women were fundamental to the cult of female domesticity in the nineteenth-century United States.  Ironically, this ideology of female benevolence empowered women in the realm of social activism, enabling them to escape the confines of their traditional domestic spheres and to enter prisons, hospitals, battlefields, and slums.  By following this path, some women came to wield considerable authority in the distribution of resources and services in their communities.

 

The sentimentalized concept of female benevolence bore little resemblance to women's actual work, which was decidedly unsentimental and businesslike, in that it involved chartering societies, raising money, and paying salaries.  Moreover, in the face of legal limitations on their right to control money and property, women had to find ingenious legal ways to run and finance organized philanthropy.  In contrast to the day-to-day reality of this work, the idealized image of female benevolence lent a sentimental and gracious aura of altruism to the very real authority and privilege that some women commanded--which explains why some women activists clung tenaciously to this ideology.  But clinging to this ideology also prevented these women from even attempting to gain true political power because it implied a moral purity that precluded participation in the messy world of partisan politics.

第一段里面的ironically 理论上讲应该是转折的意思，但是有转折的意味么？我觉得这篇文章的思路挺难把握的~~

谢谢大家了

waitinfall

有转折的意味。

第一句话说普遍观念里女性的天性具有道德感，而且女性更有天生的道德优越性（——觉得这两句话真绕阿），导致了十九世纪末美国的female domesticity的盛行。

Ironically之后说，很讽刺的是，正是这种女性博爱的意识形态促使女性解放了自己，进入了新的领域，如prison, hosptial，battlefield，slum等等。

 

文章的大致脉络：

第一段，观念里的女性的道德优越性一定程度上是女性同胞解放了自己。

第二段说，这种解放还是有限制的。分了两个层次说，第一个是其实女性参与的具体事务（raising money, paying salary等等）与女性的道德优越性并不相干，所以妇女同志们在碰到一些事情的时候还得想办法work around。其次是女性其实是在获取权威和社会地位，而道德优越性让这些行为蒙上了一层美丽而伤感的利他主义色彩，所以很多female social activism是在利用这种意识形态。但另一方面，这种意识形态本身阻止了女性更大程度的参与政治，因为政治就是肮脏地。。。

 

解释得比较复杂，将就看吧。

感觉prep的阅读比GWD还难啊。。

alpaca

这个我也错了……
后来想想貌似ironically表示的是作者对于这种说法的态度，但这种说法是事实，作者也不容否认和质疑吧。
比如说：ironically，那个人裸奔考了800分！你觉得很ironic，但这是个事实，不能不agree吧……
我觉得只能这么理解了。