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immediatebreakfast · 10 months

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One thing that it is noteworthy regarding Mina's words about the New Woman vs her own internalized misogyny is how it was framed between being a "haha aren't all of these ideas silly?" And a "how come this silly ideas can possibly affect my future" moment.

"she will do the proposing herself. And a nice job she will make of it, too! There's some consolation in that."

I know that I may be grasping too tight at meanings that do not bear a lot on the context of the narrative. But why does Mina writes with such resentment at the idea of women proposing to men? Why it would be consolation that at least the New Woman would be able to propose to her beloved?

Maybe Mina feels resentment over the boiling point of women's rights, which are something that she doesn't fully understand, so in her mind they don't make sense? We are in the 21st century, and there are still women who see feminism as this weird thing™ which is not that important, but it also has the potential to turn society upside down, while also being there.

Maybe it could be that Mina rejects the ideas of the New Woman because she sees these ideas meddling with her future marriage with Jonathan (if he still is alive) since a core part of this movement was the demonstration of how women could be independent.

But, here is the thing, Mina sees herself as an equal to Jonathan in their marriage. She wishes to rescue him herself, and never implies that this wish could emasculate him. Then why is she poking fun at this possibility?

So, it could be why this rant does not feel like the same dissonant tone of last year despite being the same. Mina is a New Woman archetype, there is no deny in that, but her internalized misogyny doesn't let her realize the puzzle between her actions, and her thoughts.

I think this flaw of Mina really benefits for not having a strong watsonian vs doylist explanation element. Mina means every single word she wrote down in her personal diary, and Bram Stoker wrote her thoughts that fit the type of characterization she has.

And it's a really good flaw too. We may see how this conflict between Mina's innate "do it yourself" personality, and her deep internalized misogyny may clash at some point of the novel.

#More of Mina self inflicted misogyny at 11 folks #On to other topics I can imagine both Mina and Lucy getting to that weird point between awake and asleep that leaves you #With a headache if you aren't going ''zzzzzz'' in a second #dracula daily #dracula #mina murray

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