Feminist Issues

Abstract

Discussing Mansfield’s feminism, Wheeler declares:

Her analyses are not simplistic; she does not portray women as victims and men as perpetrators or victors. Rather, women are shown to be as much enslaved by themselves as by society or by men (as Blake argued tirelessly), and especially by the ‘insipid idea that love is the only thing in the world’. Men, moreover, are shown to suffer from the emotional immaturity and dependency that result from their own enslavement to money, success, and sexual prowess.¹