A Late Aubade Women and Femininity Quotes

"By woman's reckoning" is the hot-button phrase here. Why on earth would a woman's time be any different from a man's? This is the place where Wilbur makes the clearest distinction between men and women, and it seems a little outdated. We don't think Wilbur was hating on women in any way in this poem, but in instances like these he makes categorical distinctions between men and women that we might not be comfortable making today.

This kind of seems like the woman is supposed to wait on the man. Why can't he go downstairs and get the wine and food himself? This line could be considered sexist, or completely benign. If you think Wilbur would just have easily reversed the roles, then it's no big deal. But if not, it seems like sexism.

This image doesn't necessarily negatively portray women, but conjures up a likeness to the female body: that (some) women have curvy hips like a pear's curves, and the curves are considered beautiful. Again, this isn't necessarily a bad thing, but it's important to see that we're viewing this woman through the eyes of a man and that it's a distinctly male perspective.