"...She is a woman more worth than any man; men, that she is the rarest of all women"

Alright, screw it. I'm on a roll here so I'll continue on with the 'promised post' about misogyny in Taming of the Shrew. Everyone feels SOMETHING about this show (and you're welcome, both of you reading this, to weigh in in the comments section) but I've done it so long now and in such a pedestrian, work-a-day way (i.e. just learning the friggin' lines) that the 'secret' of the show is elementary to me.

This isn't a show about keeping the sisters down for many reasons.

1. What everyone forgets (and few produce on stage) is that it's a show-within-a-show. The entire misadventures of Petruchio, Katharina, Lucentio, Hortensio, etc. etc. make up the action of a play that is viewed by Christopher Sly, lousy hubsand extrordinaire. It's a FARCE, people. Everything that happens in the show is suspect, and it's all presented with tongue firmly in cheek. True, Shakespeare, in the full bloom of his stupid youth, forgets to append a pertinent coda to the 'on stage' action, but nothing that happens should be taken at face value.

2. Kate is not a turbo bitch for no reason. She has it pretty rough. She's the first-born sister, and Daddy dotes on his second-born baby. No offense meant to my younger sister, but I feel for Kate. She's also someone who is extremely dissatisfied with being auctioned off to a pair of old guys so her goody-two-shoes sister can tie the knot. In any other play (i.e. As You Like It or Much Ado About Nothing), Kate would be a friggin' hero. It denigrates her character and the author to assume that she's crabby just because she's a "bitch". She's a person witb problems and she's brave to lash out the way she does, considering the age she lives in.

3. Because the play involves a guy "taming" a girl, people assume that his actions are misogynist and her final speech is a nightmare of female submission. *I* think the final speech is a beautiful elucidation of the mindset that any spouse should have for his/her significant other. The only thing missing from the show would be a similar monologue by Petruchio about how important it is to be willing to do anything in one's power to please one's spouse, something I believe Petruchio, despite his rich dowry, despite the wager he wins through Katharina's 'obedience', despite all his crazy antics would do in a heartbeat for Katharina, his true equal in every way. Because the show's not called The Taming of the Madcap Swearing Jack, we don't get that speech, but there are other examples of Women getting theirs in Elizabethan sexual politics (see "The Tamer Tamed", et al.)

4. Petruchio be crazy, yo. Okay, Katharina is worked up over her situation, trust, and it's *possible* that someone could "get through" to her and make her feel better through gentle kindness, but the boisterous Pethruchio decides to make a fool of himself and imitate/magnify Kate's behavior in order to show her how ridiculous she's being, how she can have everything she wants (happiness and understanding through a true equal) by simply deigning to acknowledge the man who is turning himself inside out for her. "Making a fool out of yourself" for someone else is pretty much the definition of love in my book.

5. And finally, get over it, people. Men and Women sometimes have trouble making it work for a plethora of reasons: sexual politics, social standing, parents, money, sex, what movie to see and on and on. This is a play where the two people who have the courage to be themselves and to speak what they feel find happiness together and that's, frankly, awesome. I'd compare Taming to any number of "romantic" movies where the uptight society girl is charmed by the devil-may-care worldly guy and she learns to loosen up and he learns the joy of a loving commitment. The Aristocats, par example. Yes, Shakespeare's ghost haunt me, I just compared The Taming of the Shrew to a Disney film, and goddammit, I think the comparison stands.

"I'm half the man I used to be..."