ABOUT ME
Last year I took a course called Women in Early Modern Philosophy where we explored a few feminist texts from the 16th-18th century. These readings made me realize just how long women have been fighting for more opportunity and rights. A lot of current feminist discourse mostly remembers the hippie feminists, and occasionally the suffragettes. However, the movement has a far longer history than most realize. 400 years ago, women were fighting for the opportunity to receive an education, and though we have that today, the core arguments of the movements are still applicable today. To argue for an education, women often focused on trying to prove that we are just as human and rational as men, therefore deserve autonomy, liberty, and the same rights. The ideas set forth by these feminists are not only still relevant, but enlightening and vital to the feminist movement today, especially in light of #MeToo and #TimesUp.
There is a lot that we can learn by revisiting texts from a few hundred years ago. Though society has progressed a lot and made many improvements in terms of human rights, there are still a long way to go. The systematic racism, sexism, and oppression of LGBTQ+ community has not gone away, as we can see by the current political climate all around the world. These issues are still very much present, and activism more important than ever. With Brexit and then Trump being elected, all these issues that had been buried during Obama era quickly came to light. Though in this site I will specifically be using early modern feminist texts to shed light on some of the core arguments that have persisted through the centuries in the feminist movements, many of these ideas can be applied to all human rights.
There are other sites that aim to highlight voices of the past, specifically feminist voices. Project Vox, New Narratives, and Feminist History of Philosophy are three such sites, which aim to bring early modern feminist philosophy into the mainstream canon of philosophy. I hope to aid in their missions, as well as to connect early modern feminist ideas to current issues being discussed in mainstream society. My goal is that this will give the movement more information about its history, and thus be able to draw upon important concepts for human rights that have been discussed for centuries.
If anyone has thoughts, comments, suggestions, or would like to submit something to post please feel free to contact me at pastforgottenvoices@outlook.com
​