Oppression Of Women In Ancient China

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“Conjugality is made of husband’s strength and wife’s frailty…Accepting the blame and keeping quiet while he is angry…Serving the husband around the clock while he is ill.”(N.Lun U, 618 BCE). Ancient Chinese women during the Han Dynasty had one purpose in their lives and that was to be perfect women. Being perfect women meant being quiet, submissive, and beautiful. An ancient Chinese woman’s life revolved around men. They were taught from a young age that they were less than men and that their only purpose was to be good wives and to bear many sons. No matter what their social status, women faced extremely high expectations of beauty. From writings from the time, women were objectified due to their beauty, their sexuality and their social…show more content…
They were taught early on their role of submissive. No matter what their social status was in society , every women was considered to be a second class citizen to men.Women in China were constantly shown that they were less than men. Ancient traditions were used to force this thinking at girls and boys at a young age. “Putting the baby below the bed showed that she was lowly and weak ,… giving her a potsherd to play with showed that she should work hard,…and announcing her birth to the ancestors clearly meant that she ought to think of her main duty as performing the sacrifices in her home.”( Kleeman,2005,pg.112). For a girl or boy to see that, would only enforce the idea that women were less than men. To be raised with this idea being shown throughout their lives would mean that no girl would ever think that she might be equal to men. This practice was done to all female babies during the Han period regardless of their social…show more content…
A geisha was a young girl who was a prostitute trained to entertain men with conversation, dance, and song. These women went through years of training to be a geisha. They were not only trained in the sexual arts but also in music, painting, calligraphy, and poetry. They were simply women whose job were entertained the men of China. “At the courts of kings and noblemen, these young girls(geshias), chosen for their beauty and talent, survived only as long as they could charm.”( Yip,2015,pg.1) . The goal of many geishas was to enthrall a man so that they would be become his mistress or even his wife. After the women began to age, they were considered to be less desirable and would be kicked out of their brothel in favour of someone younger and prettier. The moral was as long as you are pretty and young, you have a place by a

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