Around 1589 a woman named Jane Anger wrote a pamphlet for the protection of women: “To defend them against the scandalous reportes of a late Surfeiting Lover, and all other like Venerians that complaine so to bee overcloyed with womens kindnesse.”
Jane was responding directly to Thomas Orwin's “Boke His Surfeit in Love, with a farwel to the folies of his own phantasie” published in 1588. She argues that men only see women as objects of sexual desire, and that once that desire is satisfied, they abandon them.
Ian Brownlow tells me on a recent walk over the East Lancs bridge to Windle Hall, he was intrigued as to why a small poster was attached to one of the pillars on the bridge with Jane’s words and other quotes on the professionally printed poster.
He asks if I or any of our readers knows why?
I do know that International Women's Day was observed on March 8 and the event “inspires us to celebrate achievements in women’s equality and emancipation worldwide”.
The day also brings attention to areas of continued inequality, where acts of courage and determination are still needed in order to make the world more just. But why on a poster on the bridge to Windle Hall? The town is getting more discerning in its fly-posting.
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