Irving’s Depiction of Women Letty Cottin Pogrebin once said, “When men are oppressed, it’s a tragedy. When women are oppressed, it’s tradition.” Washington Irving is at times sanctioned as being a misogynist as a result of his well-known writings such as The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. While his depictions of women represented in his writings were heinous, I do not believe Irving was a misogynist. The corruption women faced in the olden times were the social norm, and men were possibly unaware of any other way to treat women. In today’s times, it is a law that not only women, but everybody must be treated with respect without discrimination or racial injustices. While women face inequality at times, it is not normalized to treat women with disrespect. They are often misinterpreted and underestimated, but in the 1700s, women were expected to do one thing and only one thing: please the men. In The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, two …show more content…
Within each of these stories, Irving wrote about how women were an essential part of a man’s life, yet they were also a burden. The women were needed to cook, clean, and care the family, nothing else. Consequently, if a woman tried to stand up for herself or her family, she could face bitter attention from her husband, occasionally domestic violence. As the years went on, civil rights movements became global and women used their voices to discuss their oppression and mistreatment. In conclusion, in Irving’s time, women were scrutinized as nothing but a tool used to please the men. With this being said, Irving was writing things about women that were normalized in his society. Although, in today’s society, any man who spoke of a woman with a bitter tongue would be considered a misogynist. Women have since claimed the respect they deserve, and any man who challenges it should be transported back to the