"A, b, c, d"â€"how could the creation of the linguistic confines of the
             English alphabet, that which is the source of our language, the source of
             the ability to communicate on this paper, on this computer, in this moment,
             be an act of misogyny' On the surface, the alphabet seems so innocent, so
             Sesame Street. The act of reciting the alphabet is one of the first
             education experiences of children in our culture. In the realization of
             the alphabet and of language's highest forms of the novel and of poetry,
             language seems infinitely inspiring in its potential for creative
             linguistic interpretation and creation.
             However, in his text The Alphabet versus the Goddess, Leonard Shlain
             alleges that the creation of a text and language based culture limited the
             role of female development in out culture. Language evolved as an act of
             linguistic exclusion of the female, according to the author. In his first
             chapter, Shlain writes that literacy has promoted the subjugation of women
             by men throughout all but the very recent history of the West and that
             misogyny and patriarchy have risen and fall with the fortunes of the
             alphabetic written word. To examine Shlain's thesis, it is instructive to
             take two examples of two very different literary periods, namely that of
             the creation of the Bible as a canonical text for Christians and Jews in
             ancient times, and the dominance of women of the literary art form of the
             novel during the 19th century of Victorian England.
             The Bible almost must' be taken as an example of Shlain's thesis
             because it is such a culturally formative text, even today. And, in many
             ways, the construction of the Bible seems to support Shlain's thesis. This
             is not simply to shallowly allege that religion oppresses womenâ€"quite the
             opposite. However, as discussed in Elaine Pagels' The Gnostic Gospels,
             more often than not, canonizat...