Men have chosen to write about women either to support their own views of how women are treated, disagree with this opinion or just to provide insight into women as characters in society. In Beowulf, for example, by an anonymous author, the author gives the women only a few lines admonishing the glorious deeds of battle. The matriarch in Beowulf is greatly honored by being allowed to pass a cup of mead to everyone. Big deal! But atleast they're allowed to talk. In the Wife of Bath's Tale by Geoffrey Chaucer, a young maid is raped and never even get's to speak and remains nameless. The reason she remains nameless is never really stated. My own thoughts are that she could have no opinion of men worth even trying to explain after she was robbed of her virginity in such a viscous manner. In our common day society women often times respond to sexual abuse and violence by cutting men out of their lives. I neither support no condemn this opinion, but wonder if this ever happened in the medieval times we spent so much time reading about. These two examples state very clearly that the men in this time period preferred the women as children:silent and speaking only when spoken to.