THE BEAT GOES ON….

I too found it especially interesting that more emphasis was put on warning the young people of the day than the alleged infanticides. The repeated warnings to the younger generation mimic a drum beat being played in the background of the ongoing murder/execution narrative. The beating of the warning drum is still playing in the background of the social expectations of women in contemporary America.

I think that the women in the narratives are very similar in some ways to the normal woman of today. Most women have goals and want opportunity without limit. Most women, as the women of that day, are strong, generous, kind, and intellectual. Even though it seems that the narratives are written by men, I sense strength in the women that we have discussed in class. The strong, independent woman emerges through the written smoke screen, at least to me. Another likeness that can be used to look at how the contemporary woman is similar to the “normal” women in our readings can be seen in how we treat young women that get pregnant out of wedlock.

One thing that still confounds me is that if a young woman today gets pregnant, the bulk of the responsibility is laid on her shoulders. As in the execution narratives, the man/boy/father is absent in the picture and is not usually held to the same social judgment and condemnation, not to mention the financial and personal expense. In the narratives, the warnings are addressed to all young people, but young women are the ones targeted to suffer the consequence.

Unlike the women in the execution narratives, I think the average TCU student has no thought that they should be in at night and should not run around with “lewd” men. Most of the students that I come into contact with manage their schedules as they please with no thought that they are going to be persecuted for doing so. That concept is foreign to students at TCU. I think that in so many ways, our culture endorses the freedom to go where you want when you want. The primary limits on a young woman today are mainly those of being in harm’s way. So, the drum beats on and is played in effect, by a different drummer called the criminal mind.