Elizabeth Cady Stanton: A Radical For Women's Rights

Thursday, September 3, 2009

Today's book, "Based on many hitherto unutilized, unpublished manuscript collections, Elizabeth Cady Stanton: A Radical for Woman's Rights casts important new light on Cady Staton's life and her relationships with her husband, her lifelong friend, Susan B. Anthony, and her sometime ally, Victoria Woodhull."

Well let's deal with the most important thing first, the cover of today's book is hideous. Couldn't they have done something that was slightly less unflattering to poor Elizabeth. And that color of yellowish-orange needs to be banned (along with the color hot pink.)

Even though I wholeheartedly love Elizabeth Cady Stanton, I didn't enjoy today's book. I felt a little too much like I was reading a textbook - and who really wants to relive high school, it was bad enough the first time around.

Fun facts about Elizabeth:

  • She was high strung as a child. - I've spent the hours since I read that part trying to convince myself that since I was high strung as a child as well, then this must mean that I am also destined for greatness. I have an enormous capacity for delusion, so I have almost convinced myself. Give me two more days and I will believe it completely.

  • She didn't marry until her mid-20's, which was obviously considered very late back then. - But I'm having a hard time telling myself "Isn't it great that such pressure to marry early no longer exists" because I live in the Midwest, otherwise known as the land of "What, you're not married yet? What's taking you so long?"

  • When she got married, she demanded that the minister remove the "obey" part of the marriage vows. - Laura Ingalls Wilder did the same thing when she married Almanzo. It's always been one of the things that I liked about her the most. What a relief that the "obey" part is no longer used in women's marriage vows (although I personally think they should alter the "love, honor, and cherish" part of men's wedding vows to include "love, honor, and pick up my own damn laundry so you don't have to be my personal slave," but I'm clearly just one of those crazy feminists.)
So, while I disliked this book, I came away from it liking Elizabeth Cady Stanton even more than I already did.