Veronica Francos Defense of Other Women and Self from Attacks - Essay Example

Veronica Franco’s Defense of Other Women and Self from Attacks Table of Contents I. Introduction II. Discussion III. Conclusion Works Cited I. Introduction This paper tackles topic 1, and discusses the reasons for and the means of defending women in general and herself from all attacks, as reflected in her poems and letters. This paper posits the thesis that Franco’s defense of self and of women in general is motivated by self-presevation in the face of attacks to oneself and to one’s basic civil and human rights, and on another level springs from an evolved feminist consciousness that understands the social and human dynamics that systematically oppress and marginalize women, and put them at a disadvantage in terms of human and civil rights alongside men. This paper explores this thesis as they are reflected in her written work and in her life in general (Franco). 2 II. Discussion It is important to note that Veronica Franco was recognized for her support of feminist causes, which imply a certain intellectual capacity to identify women’s causes, and to fight in defense of those causes, as they are relevant to herself and to women of her time in general. Some of her acts of self-defense sprang from immediate attacks, as was the case of her self-defense against a Venetian man in poetry. This is found in Capitolo 16, wherein Franco launches a vigorous defense of herself from the attacks heaped on her by Maffio Venier. The observation here is that because the arena is poetry, Franco was able to offer a more spirited defense outside of the more established conventions of ordinary society, where his male adversary had recourse to the favorable circumstances for himself in that social world. In poetry on the other hand, Franco had more recourse to greater latitude in emasculating her enemy, and in diminishing the enemy’s literary talents. In other words, the means of defense was poetry, and the reason was the shoring up of Franco’s battered reputation and self-esteem due to the attacks on her person by Venier. In Capitolo 16 Franco challenges the man to a duel, but we understand that this duel is symbolic rather than actual. That said, a woman challenging a man to a duel really connotes a physical or intellectual challenge to rectify a wrong or an injustice inflicted on the challenger. In a way, if Venier accepted the challenge, then he would be exposed as less than a man, because he would then be fighting a woman, something cowardly to imagine. On the other hand, this may be exactly what Franco wanted to accomplish in a way, to expose the man as something of a coward, someone who is a bit of a scum. The duel was to be an exchange of insults, and here Franco was confident that she would win, being a master of sorts in verse (Franco (b)): So take up at last the weapon youve chosen, for I cannot bear any further delay, compelled as I am by the scorn in my soul. The sword that strikes and stabs in your hand--- the common language spoken in Venice--- if thats what you want to use, then so do I (Franco (b)). In the above passage it is clear that Franco perceives the insults and verbal attacks of his male adversary as a kind of sword with which she was stabbed in her person and in her soul, if not in her physical body, and so attacked she also was eager to defend herself and her person using the same weapon as her adversary, which is poetry. As a handicap moreover, Franco was letting her adversary choose the weapon they are going to use. She was cocky sure that no matter the weapon chosen, she would prevail in the end, a challenge to the manliness and the capacity of her adversary (Franco (b)): Whichever of these you wish to use, as you do elsewhere, to speed on your arrows in a contest of insults exchanged between us, choose the language that you prefer, for I am equally happy with them all (Franco (b)). On a more general note, on the other hand, her fundamental intent in writing included that of wanting to offer protection and defense to other courtesans like her, who were sometimes treated badly by men, and who were generally treated as inferiors to men, with the female gender in general marked by men to be subordinated to them. The observation is that as it was in her own life and in her own person, whom she defended vigorously and with the energy of someone fighting for her own life and for her own place under the sun, Franco also defended with vigor and enthusiasm her fellow women and courtesans in the main. That general concern for her fellow women is said to have sprung from her natura feminist inclinations and instincts, and informed overall by her high level of self-awareness and her learning (Franco 1-4). To illustrate this, the literature tells us that in her wills, she showed concern for women like her, and for courtesans or prostitutes who were in precarious social positions relative to the men and to other women in society, less able to take care of themselves. In those wills she left provisions for the allocation of some sums for prostitutes who may be in need of help. Beyond the literary merits of those letters, therefore, it is clear from the intentions of the wills that her heart was sincere in wanting to secure and defend the rights and interests of other courtesans and of women in general, against a world that seemed to conspire to put them down and to continue to place constraints to keep their lot caged in their lowly professions and social stations in life (Franco 3-7). Elsewhere, in her ordinary letter to a new mother for instance, the reader is able to catch a glimpse of the inner motivations and forces that propel Franco to work towards defending and advancing the cause of women, and those forces are tied to a kind of genuine love and concern: “In the end, the fatigue and pain of childbirth have turned out to be a sweet blessing to you. Now you have borne such a beautiful baby boy, which delights me as much as the difficulties of your pregnancy saddened me” (Franco 32-33). It is important to note that in Franco’s world, this measure of attention through a written output, in the form of a letter lovingly written, is a high act of devotion, because her heart is in her written work. It is with the written work that Franco after all tried to fend off the attacks against herself and her fellow women. This letter then is also a kind of blanket of support with which she tried to shelter the new mother from the injustices of the world inflicted on all new mothers and women like Franco (Franco 32-33). The above discussion makes clear what the reasons for the spirited defense of all women, of courtesans, and of herself, and those are tied to Franco’s own desire to preserve herself and a natural act of self-defense, and to a genuine love and concern for all women in general and to women who are like her courtesans, who live by offering their bodies to other men. She was acutely aware of the precarious social position of prostitutes, and was herself careful to cultivate her intellect so that she may be set apart from ordinary prostitutes who had nothing to offer but their bodies. For Franco that initial drive to self-cultivation, education and learning was a kind of adaptation to survive, and this she arguably later on extended in their use to include the defense and protection of all women. In other words, she used her intellect and her gifts in the arts to launch a defense of women, and to also leverage that to make money in order to help others who are like her. The means is her prowess in poetry. That prowess allowed her to command a loftier position among courtesans and presumably larger fees for her services, to help herself and those around her survive financially, but also to use her intellectual gifts to try and defend women where she could. For instance, in Capitolo 24, the situation was that a man was intending to deface a courtesan in order to end that courtesan’s livelihood and career, presumably because of some deep-seated animosity from jealous impulses. In that capitolo Franco first cajoles and consoles the man and prompts the man to assume a loftier and more gentlemanly atttitude towards the courtesan that had become the object of his ire, in hopes of pacifying the anger and saving the courtesan from a tragedy. At the same time, the capitolo digresses from the personal into a more general discussion and lament of the inferior position of women in society in general, even though intellectually and in their feminine traits women are sometimes not only equal to men, but benefiting men with their unique feminine gifts. Here Franco begins with the particular, and summons her intellectual gifts to argue for a more humane and equal treatment of women in the hands of men (Franco 19-21). This capitolo highlights a lament as the beginning of the defense of womanhood, the lament consisting of Franco making note of the lack of freedom and the general subjugation of women (Franco (c)): Unfortunate sex, always led about by cruel fortune, because you are always subjected and without freedom! But this has certainly been no fault of ours, because, if we are not as strong as men, like men we have a mind and intellect (Franco (c)) This lament is followed by Franco making an incisive comment on the power and gifts of women, that they are to be considered rightfully with more respect given their feminine gifts mixed with intellects that are equal to their male counterparts. In reference to the strength of intellect of women and the other superior gifts of women Franco says thus (Franco (c)): and I am certain that in this respect women lack nothing, but, rather, have given more than one sign of being greater than men. But if you think us inferior to you, perhaps its because in modesty and wisdom we are more adept and better than you (Franco (c)) III. Conclusion Love and concern for courtesans and for women in general can be construed as the motivations of Franco for wanting to protect and defend them and herself from attacks on their persons and their sex, and from the entrenched inequalities that they had to live through in their time. These motivations were amply displayed in the way she deliberately set aside monies for women in her wills, but also in her more passionate defense in her written poems and letters. It is noteworthy that in her own person she made use of her education and cultivated intellect to shield herself from the injustices of the world heaped on her because she was a woman. This same intellect and prowess in the arts and in poetry was her means of defending those that she cared for, herself and women in general (Franco; Franco (b); Franco (c)). 3 Works Cited Franco, Veronica. Poems and Selected Letters (Ann Rosalind Jones and Margaret Rosenthal Trans). University of Chicago Press. 2007. Google Books. 22 April 2014. Franco, Veronica (b). “Capitolo 16”. Veronica Franco Edited Poems/ The Poets Garret. n.d. Web. 22 April 2014. Franco, Veronica (c). “Capitolo 24”. Veronica Franco Edited Poems/ The Poets Garret. n.d. Web. 22 April 2014. Read More