reedom is power and the illusion that men were freer of their sex role than women caused women to see men as their oppressors and themselves as victims. This was fuel to the fire that made men secretly tremble. While women felt they were fighting to be equal, men felt women were fighting to be more than equals. This is the true root of male fear and resentment of feminism. They feel that feminism frees women of their role, but sinks them deeper into theirs. Men of course never admitted that they were afraid of being less powerful than women. Instead they expressed their feelings through violence, anger, and oppression (protection) because men are not supposed to complain, but fight, which in turn added more fuel to the fire.Woolf senses the reality of sex roles as opposed to sexism and it leaks out into her writing. At one point she muses on how things have not been the same since the war. She feels that there is an oversized separation between men and women, but she does not fallow this thought through to its conclusion. When a man goes to war he becomes truly disposable. He is married to the state and it is not a pleasant union. He must kill or be killed, which is a much harsher version of having to provide or fail. The work force can detach a man from his feelings, but a war has the power to numb someone to the world. When enthusiastic boys return from war they are somber men and the women whom they support have little in common with the exaggerated masculinity of their husbands. Neither sex benefits emotionally from the other and a wall goes up between them. Woolf?s most insightful point in her essay comes when she observes a man and a women together and realizes that they complement and belong with each other. She goes on to say that men and women have a female and a male part to themselves and when one part overpowers and denies the other it is impossible to fulfill your potential as a person. Woolf sees lost potential all around ...
