Accomplished: A Rather Belated Response

Forgive the tone of the title of this blog entry. It just reflects the anglophilia that my roommate and I have been recently afflicted with. Well, maybe we’re not exactly obsessed with everything English or about England, but maybe with everything BBC! This entry is in response to roomie's blog post, “Accomplished” (http://kristinesync.multiply.com/journal/item/50/Accomplished).

Yes, perhaps, we would fall short of their standards of an accomplished woman, but Austen lived in a time where the accomplishment of women is measured by very, very limited norms. The arts figured prominently in their standards because women could not be expected to be good at anything else since they are ultimately to be married off anyway. I shudder to think of a time when my lack of talent in music and the arts and of the “air” of an “accomplished” woman or the impropriety of my gait and my manner of speaking would have kept me from a life of comfort and a “marriage with affection”.

We moved 8,000 or so miles away from home to become doctors of philosophy in a field that many recoil from. We are, so far, unscathed by this harsh realm that we call the Bronx. Although I have yet to fully understand it, roomie is writing a kick-ass dissertation that I’m sure no accomplished woman of Austen’s time would have even imagined understanding. At our age, we are not having panic attacks at not having any good marriage prospects because we know we can hold our own good fortune… signed in our own names. As for that certain air? We can put one on… take your pick. Yes, there may be much to be desired with our current status, but I would still consider us rather… accomplished.

Happy birthday, roomie!