to be taught or not to be taught

The podcast discusses Shakespeare's play "Taming of the Shrew" and its portrayal of women. It explores how the play's themes of taming strong-willed women are still present in modern movies like "Ten Things I Hate About You" and "Kiss Me, Kate." The podcast questions whether these themes should be taught in schools, as they promote the idea of changing oneself for others. It suggests that instead of banning Shakespeare, the curriculum should include discussions on the play's problematic themes. The podcast concludes that students should be older and more educated to understand and critique these themes. Hello everyone, and welcome back to the podcast where we look at Shakespeare and decide to be taught or not to be taught. Yes, hello, I'm Laura White and I'm very excited because today we are looking at a play that influenced one of my favorite movies. The play is called Taming of the Shrew and this analysis is going to be an interesting one. So, to start out, I figured we should explain what exactly a shrew is because I definitely did not know what it was before learning about this play. The Cambridge English Dictionary finds a shrew to be an unpleasant woman who is easily annoyed and argues a lot. Now considering that Shakespeare wrote this in the 16th century, a time where women were told not to speak up and be in the home, this play did not raise any questions. But time has passed and it's become an eyebrow-raising play. In the play, Percutio agrees to, quote, tame the shrewish Catherine so that her well-behaved sister, Bianca, can marry. This rule was imposed by her father and Bianca's suitors thought that the likelihood of finding a man brave enough to marry Catherine was near impossible. It's to me that a strong woman, even in the 16th century, were taught of as impossible to love. It really opens my mind in what life back then was like. We are both women. Yes. If we had any ideas that were beyond the scope of the house, we would be considered in need of taming. Yeah, and even though Shakespeare attempts to make the ending sound like Catherine was tamed by kindness, it doesn't come across as very believable. Okay, so let's talk about the movies where we weren't as analyzing views as Shakespeare's play. So, the first one, which is one of our favorite movies, is a 1999 movie called Ten Things I Hate About You. Now, this movie follows two sisters, Kat and Bianca, whose dad says Bianca can't date until Kat does. Bianca's a social butterfly who has many people pining for her, while Kat is a second-wave feminist that rubs people the wrong way. While this movie describes Kat as a stubborn feminist, the general premise of being shrewish is found in both this movie and the play. The second movie is a 1958 movie called Kiss Me, Kate. It follows two ex-spouses, Lily and Fred, who are actors on a version of Taming of the Shrew. Fred ends up telling mob people, wow, that they're there to get debt from their boss from another actor who had a gambling problem, that they had to keep Lily there even when she wanted to leave the theater and go live a small life with her fiancé, Tex. Okay, wow, so the two of these movies definitely have very different plots, but what is it that relates them to Taming of the Shrew? What brings the three of these together is the strong women who end up changing herself for the man she is with. It's a somber theme for women that watch them because it's teaching us to change our strong headed ways for others. When you look at the scene where Katherine tries to convince the other women that they too should become less shrewish, it rises the question of whether or not this should be taught in schools, especially to young girls. Yeah, so in Act 5, Scene 2, Katherine says, quote, thy husband is thy life, thy keeper, thy head, thy sovereign, one that cares for thee, end quote. Wow. This isn't in just one of our things, because both Kiss Me Kate and 10 Things I Hate About You shows our leading lady offering her belief for her love interest. In a review of the 2012 Stratford Festival, Laura Estill finds that, quote, Kiss Me Kate concludes with a similarly challenging ending. Lily leaves her husband, the powerful and rich Harrison, for her ex-husband Graham, end quote. This is following a two hour film of Fred Graham gaslighting Lily into believing she wants to stay in the theater business. Even though they end the film seemingly happy, Estill also agrees that she, quote, was left wondering if Lily's change of heart and expression of love for Graham was meant to be taken as contrived or genuine, end quote. This is something that can be easy to pass off as another unfortunately, sorry, another unfortunately happy ending manufactured by Hollywood. The same message are being taught to kids in schools by studying the taming of the shrew. What I think we're both agreeing on here is that while Shakespeare introduces Katherine as a major hothead and stubborn person, when he has her say at the end that, quote, I am ashamed that women are so simple to offer war with a chenille for peace, end quote. Another scene I find interesting is the wedding or dates that happen in Shakespeare's play in In 10 Things I Hate About You. In 10 Things I Hate About You, when Kat begins to date with Patrick, he becomes less like herself and more docile. Michael D. Friedman notes that whereas Kate Meinl, I'm sorry if I said that last name wrong, speaks partially to Bianca's teachers, and Patricio, Kat Stafford, turns her sharp tongue against her English teacher and her male classmates. While the film ends with a calmer Kat that continues to date Patrick, the film's percussion, Friedman finds that 10 Things I Hate About You expresses the ideas that Shakespeare's play cannot convey. It represents the means to overcome truish stereotypes of the feminists. Maybe instead of banning Shakespeare and having a complete Fahrenheit 451 moment, the curriculum should include reading, then improving the Shakespearean plays, so that students would get the chance to learn from the plays by reading them and help them evolve, like 10 Things I Hate About You did. I think one of the best things from 10 Things I Hate About You is the ties, is that it ties perfectly is something that Christopher Bershuti brings up. He says, quote, it still puts forward feminist ideas that can be taken by young women. For example, why must the students only read books by dead white men, end quote. While the taming of the shrew can be viewed on the surface as an acceptable story of a woman getting married and calming down, only when you analyze it from the point of view that acknowledges the hypocrisy within the treatment of strong-willed women in society, you will begin to recognize the unjust treatment of Catherine and the implications of teaching young children about the idea of changing yourself to make someone happy. Therefore, the teaching of Shakespeare should be introduced when students are old enough to understand the erroneous themes found in them and educated enough to make the proper adjustments. Thank you so much for listening to our podcast. We'll see you next time.