Ch 4 Part 1 - Vindication - Wollstonecraft

welcome to vindication on the rights of woman this is a craft lit production and what that means is that i heather ordover will be taking you through the text with my own sometimes annotated audio notes and sometimes annotated on-the-screen notes so that you can just listen. I've also included the actual text from the book. on the screen as well. That way if you are watching the screen you are reading it with me. Some things to know before we start.

vindication of the rights of women was written in seventeen ninety two so is it going to be tough to understand at first yes it will be will the language feel outdated and creaky sometimes you betcha Well, you see wonky punctuation on the screen for the text caption. Sadly, yes. It's not my fault. Was Mary Wollstonecraft a prude? No, she was not. And if you need any more information for this episode, please see the description box below. Welcome to the first half of chapter.

of Mary Wollstonecraft's Vindication of the Rights of Woman. Today's chapter has a fairly specific focus, and you might think, wow, how is it possible that there is so... much to say on this topic I'll be honest I did start to feel like she was kind of looping around like spiraling around an idea at the same time

Every time I started to look at the arguments that she was making and say, ooh, well, could she have cut this? Actually, no. Because that leads into this other, like, microscopically, importantly... discrete point. So it's a lot. A lot of writing from this time was a lot. But let me share the title of the chapter with you. I'm going to read it off the page because I can't memorize it.

It is the observations on the state of degradation to which woman is reduced by various causes. It's the various causes that takes a while. in chapter four. So that's fine because there are a lot of causes. You're going to hear her starting off with some statements that you probably have heard in reference to slavery before. I know this isn't the first time that she's done that, but this is one of the most overt, like I actually remember hearing.

That statement. I don't know who said it first. If I find out, I will put it on the screen for you. Right here. But yeah, she is... Not letting anyone off the hook, whether it's people who oppress other people because slavery slash indentured servitude, or whether it's rich people. especially royalty and nobility, oppressing other people for reasons she does not let them off the hook. And then...

She gets into details about women and women's lives. She doesn't make any value judgments about this. It's not like women are more important or slaves are more important. It's like... oppression sucks guys no matter where it happens it's a bad thing and i kind of like that because otherwise it can get into what happened with the

early days of the suffrage movement and the post-war rights for African Americans in this country, lumping them all together could be problematic because that's trying to get...

let's be honest basically a bunch of wealthy white guys to make a lot of changes all at once and as we know nobody likes change very much it's unsettling and even though the young people, the whippersnappers, say they like change. I know plenty who find the change really throws them off their game. So I think some of us make a big deal about being... Very pro-change. But when it comes right down to it, change is hard. It's not that it's bad. It's that it's hard. And...

The changes that Wollstonecraft is asking for slash talking about in this chapter are not hard in... application like it wouldn't be hard to do but she's pretty clear at various points that once done once these changes are made It is really going to be very hard on everyone, especially the women, because suddenly, hundreds, at least hundreds, if not thousands,

of years of training get tossed out the window. And I do remember my father saying he got to visit China when it was not common for American dude. to go to China. He got to visit China. He also got to visit Russia and was kind of toured around Western Russia and Southwestern Russia. By Southwestern Russia, I mean, went into other... parts of the Soviet bloc, which are now their own country. I was in high school when this all happened, and...

I was asking him, you know, this communism thing, what is this communism thing? I mean, I kind of knew, but I didn't really know. I think I was a sophomore in, what do sophomores know? I think I was a sophomore in high school when he went on the first of these trips. And we talked through kind of the by everyone based on what they can do. And. for everyone based on their needs. And that in theory, this is beautiful. This is everybody gets taken care of. This is like a godsend.

But then the way that actually looked at the time was a lot closer to John Hertz 1984 in some cases than it was Gattaca. Which has its own problems. But you know what I mean? There was nothing pretty about the way this was being done in 1982. And I said to him, why would people put up with that? Why would people want that? And he said, well, you know, lots of reasons. And I'm sure we went over many of them.

the one that I remember because it was the one that I wasn't expecting, was, well, also, freedom is really hard. Democracy is really hard. everyone is responsible. That means

You have to read up on the people who you're voting for. You have to read up on, we lived in California at the time. It was, you know, Proposition City. So every time there was an election, there were propositions. And the League of Women Voters would send out these little... voting booklets that would, without bias, simply tell you, in normal human language, here's the proposition text, here's what it actually means.

Here are the effects. And they cite their sources. They were able to catch things that were using manipulative language, like calling a clean air act. a Clean Air Act, when in fact, it's going to be an act that allows more burning of fossil fuels, that kind of thing. The League of Women Voters, they're still out there. I think it's Vote411 is the website where you can get a hold of their... breakdowns of voting information. Anyway, that whole idea of it's really hard to maintain.

What we've got seems very timely, but it also fits Wollstonecraft's points that she makes. She is under no illusion that if women suddenly... were treated the way that she wants to see them treated. Most women would have a really hard time. Most women, honest to God, would hate it. and not necessarily see the benefits and of course it's not like she could release a youtube video that could go viral that could help everybody understand no no no no

Here's why this is really good. All she had access to was a quill pen and some paper. Later, after we're done with the book, I will share some of the... Some of the feedback that Mary Wollstonecraft received from men who read her book in published writing, their feedback. And yeah, it was not, it was not pretty. It was not unexpected. either, but it was not pretty. One of her first points is that women

And I think actually Malcolm X said this in his autobiography. Women and people who are oppressed are routinely taught to scorn freedoms that... you don't have access to. You'll hear this right at the beginning of today's chapter. She's going to go off on education that focuses on very shallow skills, physical appearance. over reasoning or over understanding and that this is kind of a false education and, and it forces women to be dependent on men, which.

keeps them in kind of a childlike state. Like children are absolutely dependent on the adults in their life to feed them, clothe them, take care of them. Not to say that we haven't seen especially in Dickens, examples of very young children taking care of themselves. It's not fun for those kids if they live so long as to grow up and be adult people. Broken people break people.

It's not a great cycle. So this idea of women being kept in a childlike, not childish, not like, that's so funny. Not that necessarily, but childlike dependent state. is definitely part of her thesis. Again, she is going to go back to the fact that reason and virtue, reason and virtue, these are the two most important things. And that reason...

If women aren't allowed an opportunity to grow their ability to reason, it is going to put them into a position where the only thing they can do is access their feelings and emotions. And sub those in as rationality. And that can be problematic. That's like if you've ever known in the modern era, women, guys too, but people. who seem to thrive on drama, it would be interesting to take a step back and go, okay, on the continuum of...

growing up situations that Mary Wollstonecraft talks about. Where do these people fall? These people who seem to be addicted to drama in their lives. Not people who attract it. There are also people who it's just like weird stuff happens to them. And it doesn't seem like it's their fault. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about the people who seem to, if there is no drama, they'll create it.

It'd be interesting to know. I look forward to hearing what you have to say as well on that subject. She will, in this chapter, talk a lot about women's power. When she talks about women's power, you know where she's going. She's going where she's gone in previous chapters. She's talking about the kind of power that women are allowed, which is... basically seductive power and and I guess I mean just to be totally crass about it if guys are going to think with their zippers then it is kind of

a power. It's not pretty to think about, and she is certainly not interested in that kind of power. She's not interested in exhibiting that kind of power herself. But she is very clear about... how women are set up to only see that as their only power. And that it also means that they're reliant not just on... society's approval, but very specifically on the approval of men. And it goes way beyond just, how do I look in this? To which there's only one good response. Fabulous.

One of the other things that she says, which I love because it absolutely goes along with how I believe education works, is she really does feel that... The gaining of virtue and also the gaining of the ability to reason comes from facing challenges. So children, as they're growing up, if they don't have to struggle, if they don't have to solve problems on their own.

If they don't sometimes have not great things happen to them, it prevents them from gaining the kind of mental fortitude that they need. to be good adults, or in her case, really be moral people. Wollstonecraft, of course, is very focused on morality and reason and virtue, and virtue and morality are two sides of the same coin. In today's chapter, she does not let rich people off the hook at all. She is once again brutal. She really has no...

No Fs left to give when it comes to the rich. She also seems to predict the French Revolution at one point when she's talking about kind of class warfare differences, things like that. It's hard. to look back on writing that's contemporaneous for a time period like this and to know like we know what's coming. So our view of their writing is going to be tainted by that. At the same time, it's hard to tease apart, like, who really did see this coming? Who was it who identified, like, ah, this?

point in time, this thing that happened is a problem, and it's going to be a bigger problem very soon. Yeah, nothing nice to say about the rich. Powerful people who are powerful because they are rich, she has nothing nice to say about them. And she gives reasons for why she has nothing nice to say about them. Over and over and over.

She doesn't talk about it quite so much in this chapter as she has in previous chapters, but the idea that if you're very sensitive, if you're very emotionally fragile... And if everything is like emotion and drama and emotion and drama, that's unstable and almost untenable. Like you can't really keep that up forever. And that's not good for kids.

or other people around you. That's just not a great way to do life according to her. And you can really start to see what she's talking about with the examples that she gives. Her idea of an equal education, she's not necessarily talking about women learning all the same Greek and Latin and exactly the same books. She wants to see women wrestling with an education.

about knowledge and the acquisition of knowledge because the process of learning gives you some self-regulation, some self-control, some strength of character. Her ideas of equal education don't mean getting educated exactly like men, but wrestling with the knowledge, testing the limits of the knowledge. That's where she's really advocating. That's what she is advocating for. She's anti-chivalry, but she's not anti-chivalry like... I hate King Arthur stories. She's anti-chivalry in the...

If a woman is bending down to pick up her own handkerchief, don't knock her out of the way to pick it up for her. You know what I mean? It's like, if somebody is there who needs help... Please be courteous. She's talking about guys who are being courteous because they are very clear that little woman can't do that thing by herself. i'll do it it's very patronizing it is not part of polite society she is really being very clear that the kinds of things that she's talking about are where

A woman's dignity is taken away from her by having this action done for her, something that she really could and should be doing herself. However... I think this is super, super important. She says several different times in this first half of the chapter, and I think she does say it again in the second half of the chapter, questions of love and...

behavior around falling in love, being in love, early love, kind of the dance of early love and flirting. She's like, that stuff's off the table. We are not talking about that. how you behave during that portion of an actual love match. That should be flirty and fun. That should be, oh, let me do that for you. Because you wouldn't be doing it for them because you think they're incapable. You would be doing it for them because you love them. Or you are falling in love with them. She does say it.

several times but you have to keep that in the back of your mind she is not dissing flirting she is not anti-flirting she is not anti-falling in love she's not even anti-guy she's anti-jerk You know, she's anti-toxic masculinity. She is not anti-masculinity. She wants to actually be at the table with the guys arguing about Thomas Paine and...

the latest thing that they've got access to from Rousseau that she can argue about it with people. She just wants to be at the table with the big books, with the guys who have also been educated. in a way that would allow them to wrestle with these ideas. She just wants to wrestle with her brain. It's a hard chapter. I'm not going to lie. I've tried to put things on the screen to make you laugh or at least go, oh, Heather, you know, cringe. It's a hard chapter. Second half.

is a little better, but also still hard. But that will come after this one. So here we go with the first half of Mary Wollstonecraft's A Vindication on the Rights of Women.

Chapter 4. chapter four observations on the state of degradation to which woman is reduced by various causes that woman is naturally weak or degraded by a concurrence of circumstances is i think clear but this position i shall simply contrast with a conclusion

which i have frequently heard fall from sensible men in favor of an aristocracy that the mass of mankind cannot be any thing or the obsequious slaves who patiently allowed themselves to be penned up would feel their own consequence and spurn their chains men they further observe submit

everywhere to oppression when they have only to lift up their heads to throw off the yoke yet instead of asserting their birthright quietly lick the dust and say let us eat and drink for tomorrow we die women i argue from analogy are degraded by the same propensity to enjoy the present moment and at last despise the freedom which they have not sufficient virtue to struggle to attain

But I must be more explicit. With respect to the culture of the heart, it is unanimously allowed that sex is out of the question.

but the line of subordination in the mental powers is never to be passed over only absolute in loveliness the portion of rationality granted to woman is indeed very scanty for denying her genius and judgment it is scarcely possible to divine what remains to characterize intellect the stamen of immortality if i may be allowed the phrase is the perfectibility of human reason for was man created perfect or did a flood of knowledge break in upon him when he arrived at maturity that precluded error

i should doubt whether his existence would be continued after the dissolution of the body but in the present state of things every difficulty in morals that escapes from human discussion and equally baffles the investigation of profound thinking and the lightning glance of genius is an argument on which i build my belief of the immortality of the soul

reason is consequentially the simple power of improvement or more properly speaking of discerning truth every individual is in this respect a world in itself more or less may be conspicuous in one being than another but the nature of reason must be the same in all

if it be an emanation of divinity the tie that connects the creature with the creator can that soul be stamped with the heavenly image that is not perfected by the exercise of its own reason yet outwardly ornamented with elaborate care and so adorned to delight man

that with honor he may love the soul of woman is not allowed to have this distinction and man ever placed between her and reason she is always represented as only created to see through a gross medium and to take things on trust but dismissing these fanciful theories and considering woman as a whole

let it be what it will instead of a part of man the inquiry is whether she have reason or not if she has which for a moment i will take for granted she was not created merely to be the solace of man and the sexual should not destroy the human character into this error men have probably been led by viewing education in a false light not considering it as the first step to form a being advancing gradually toward perfection but only as a preparation for life perfection i say

it's not strictly just but i cannot find a better word on this sensual error for i must call it so has the false system of female manners been reared which robs the whole sex of its dignity and classes the brown and fair with the smiling flowers that only adorn the land this has ever been the language of men and the fear of departing from a supposed sexual character

has made even women of superior sense adopt the same sentiments thus understanding strictly speaking has been denied to woman and instinct sublimated into wit and cunning for the purposes of life has been substituted in its stead the power of generalizing ideas of drawing comprehensive conclusions from the individual observations

is the only acquirement for an immortal being that really deserves the name of knowledge merely to observe without endeavoring to account for anything may in a very incomplete manner serve as the common sense of life but where is the store laid up that is to clothe the soul when it leaves the body this power has not only been denied to women

writers have insisted that it is inconsistent with a few exceptions with their sexual character let men prove this and i shall grant that woman only exists for man i must however previously remark that the power of generalizing ideas to any great extent is not very common amongst men or women but this exercise is the true cultivation of the understanding and everything conspires to render the cultivation of the understanding more difficult in the female than the male world

i am naturally led by this assertion to the main subject of the present chapter and shall now attempt to point out some of the causes that degrade the sex and prevent women from generalizing their observations i shall not go back to the remote annals of antiquity to trace the history of woman it is sufficient to allow that she has always been either slave or a despot and to remark that each of these situations equally retards the progression of reason the grand source of female folly and vice

has ever appeared to me to arise from narrowness of mind and the very constitution of civil governments has put almost insuperable obstacles in the way to prevent the cultivation of the female understanding yet virtue can be built on no other foundation the same obstacles are thrown in the way of the rich and the same consequences ensue necessity has been proverbially termed the mother of invention the aphorism may be extended to virtue

it is an acquirement and an acquirement to which pleasure must be sacrificed and who sacrifices pleasure when it is within the grasp whose mind has not been opened and strengthened by adversity or the pursuit of knowledge goaded on by necessity happy is it when people have the cares of life to struggle with for these struggles prevent their becoming a prey to enervating vices merely from idleness but if from their birth men and women are placed in a torrid zone with the

meridian sun of pleasure darting directly upon them how can they sufficiently brace their minds to discharge the duties of life or even to relish the affections carry them out of themselves pleasure is the business of a woman's life according to the present modification of society and while it continues to be so little can be expected from such weak beings inheriting in a lineal descent from the first fair defect in nature the sovereignty of beauty they have

to maintain their power resigned their natural rights which the exercise of reason might have procured them and chosen rather to be short-lived queens than labor to attain the sober pleasures that arise from equality exalted

by their inferiority they constantly demand homage as women though experience should teach them that the men who pride themselves upon paying this arbitrary insolent respect to the sex with the most scrupulous exactness are most inclined to tyrannize over and despise the very weakness they cherish often do they repeat mr hume's sentiments when comparing the french and athenian character he alludes to women

but what is more singular in this whimsical nation i say to the athenians is that a frolic of yours during the saturnalia when the slaves are served by their masters is seriously continued by them through the whole year and through the whole course of their lives accompanied too with some circumstances which still further augment the absurdity and ridicule your sport only elevates for a few days those whom fortune has thrown down and whom she too in sport may really elevate forever above you

this nation gravely exalts those whom nature has subjected to them and whose inferiority and infirmities are absolutely incurable the women though without virtue are their masters and sovereigns ah why do women i write with affectionate solicitude condescend to receive a degree of attention and respect from strangers different from that reciprocation of civility which the dictates of humanity and politeness of a civilization authorize between man and man and why

do they not discover when in the noon of beauty's power that they are treated like queens only to be deluded by hollow respect till they are led to resign or not assume their natural prerogatives confined then in cages like the feathered race they have nothing to do but plume themselves stock with mock majesty from perch to perch it is true they are provided with food and raiment for which they neither toil nor spin but health liberty and virtue

are given in exchange but where amongst mankind has been found sufficient strength of mind to enable a being to resign these advantageous prerogatives one who rising with the calm dignity of reason above opinion dared to be proud of the privileges inherent in man and it is vain to expect it whilst hereditary power chokes the affections and nips reason in the bud the passions of men have thus placed women on thrones and till mankind become more reasonable

it is to be feared that women will avail themselves of the power which they attain with the least exertion and which is the most indisputable they will smile yes they will smile though told that in beauty's empire is no mien and woman either slave or queen is quickly scorned when not adored but the adoration comes first and the scorn is not anticipated louis the fourteenth in particular spread facetious manners and caught in a specious way the whole nation

in his toils for establishing an artful chain of despotism he made it the interest of the people at large individually to respect his station and support his power and women whom he flattered by a puerile attention to the whole sex obtained in his reign that prince-like distinction so fatal

to reason and virtue the king is always a king and a woman is always a woman and a wit is always a wit might be added for the vain fooleries of wits and beauties to obtain attention and make conquests are much upon a par his authority and her sex ever stand between them

and rational converse with a lover i grant she should be so and her sensibility will naturally lead her to endeavor to excite emotion not to gratify her vanity but her heart this i do not allow to be coquetry it is the artless impulse of nature

i only exclaim against the sexual desire of conquest when the heart is out of the question this desire is not confined to women i have endeavoured says lord chesterfield to gain the hearts of twenty women whose persons i would not have given a fig for the libertine who in a gust of passion

takes advantage of unsuspecting tenderness is a saint when compared with this cold-hearted rascal for i like to use significant words yet only taught to please women are always on the watch to please and with true heroic ardour endeavour to gain hearts merely to resign spurn them when the victory is decided and conspicuous i must descend to the minutiae of the subject

i lament that women are systematically degraded by receiving the trivial attentions which men think it manly to pay to the sex when in fact they are insultingly supporting their own superiority it is not condescension to bow to an inferior

so ludicrous in fact do these ceremonies appear to me that i scarcely am able to govern my muscles when i see a man start with eager and serious solicitude to lift a handkerchief or shut a door And the lady could have done it herself had she only moved a pace or two.

a wild wish has just flown from my heart to my head and i will not stifle it though it may excite a hoarse laugh I do earnestly wish to see the distinction of sex confounded in society, unless where love animates the behavior.

for this distinction is i am firmly persuaded the foundation of the weakness of character ascribed to woman is the cause why the understanding is neglected whilst accomplishments are acquired with sedulous care and the same cause accounts for their preferring the graceful before the heroic virtues mankind including

every description wish to be loved and respected for something and the common herd will always take the nearest road to the completion of their wishes the respect paid to wealth and beauty is the most certain and unequivocal and of course will always attract the vulgar eye of common minds abilities and virtues are absolutely necessary to raise men from the middle rank of life into notice and the natural consequence is notorious the middle rank contains

most virtues and abilities men have thus in one station at least an opportunity of exerting themselves with dignity and of rising by the exertions which really improve a rational creature but the whole female sex are till their character is formed in the same condition as the rich for they are born i now speak of date of civilization with certain sexual privileges and whilst they are gratuitously granted them

few will ever think of works of supererogation to obtain the esteem of a small number of superior people when do we hear of women who starting out of obscurity boldly claim respect on account of their great abilities or daring virtues where are they to be found to be observed to be attended to to be taken notice of with sympathy complacency and approbation are all the advantages which they seek true my male readers will probably exclaim but let them

before they draw any conclusion recollect that this was not written originally as descriptive of women but of the rich in dr smith's theory of moral sentiments i have found a general character of people of rank and fortune that in my opinion might with the greatest propriety be applied to the female sex i refer the sagacious reader to the whole comparison but must be allowed to quote a passage to enforce an argument that i mean to insist on as the one most conclusive against a sexual character

for if excepting warriors no great men of any denomination have ever appeared amongst the nobility may it not be fairly inferred that their local situation swallowed up the man and produced a character similar to that of women who are localized if i may be allowed the word by that rank which they are placed in by courtesy women are not to be contradicted in company are not allowed to exert any manual strength

And from them, the negative virtues are only expected when any virtues are expected. Patience, docility.

good humor and flexibility virtues incompatible with any vigorous exertion of intellect besides by living more with each other and to being seldom absolutely alone they are more under the influence of sentiments than passions solitude and reflection are necessary to give wishes the force of passions and enable the imagination to enlarge the object and make it the most desirable the same may be said of the rich

they do not sufficiently deal in general ideas collected by impassioned thinking or calm investigation to acquire that strength of character on which great resolves are built but hear what an acute observer says of the great do the great seem insensible of the easy price at which they may acquire the public admiration do they seem to imagine that to them as to other men it must be the purchase either of sweat or of blood

by what important accomplishments is the young nobleman instructed to support the dignity of his rank and to render himself worthy of that superiority over his fellow citizens to which the virtue of his ancestors had raised them it is by knowledge by industry by patience by self-denial or by virtue of any kind as all his words as all his motions are attended to he learns an habitual regard for every circumstance of ordinary behaviour

and studies to perform all those small duties with the most exact propriety as he is conscious how much he is observed and how much mankind are disposed to favour all his inclinations he acts upon the most indifferent occasions with that freedom and elevation which the thought of this naturally inspires his air his manner his deportment all mark that elegant and graceful sense of his own superiority which those who are born to an inferior station can hardly ever arrive at these

are the arts by which he proposes to make mankind more easily submit to his authority and to govern their inclinations according to his own pleasure and in this he is seldom disappointed these arts supported by rank and pre-eminence are upon ordinary occasions sufficient to govern the world louis the fourteenth regarded not only in france but all over europe as the most perfect model of a great prince what were the talents and virtues by which he acquired this great reputation

was it by the scrupulous and inflexible justice of all his undertakings by the immense dangers and difficulties with which they were attended or by the unwearied and unrelenting application with which he pursued them was it by his extensive knowledge by his exquisite judgment or his heroic valour

it was by none of these qualities but he was first of all the most powerful prince in europe and consequently held the highest rank among kings and then says his historian he surpassed all his courtiers in the gracefulness of his shape and the majestic beauty of his features

the sound of his voice noble and affecting gained those hearts which his presence intimidated he had a step and a deportment which could suit only him and his rank and which would have been ridiculous in any other person the embarrassment to which he occasioned to those who spoke to him flattered that secret satisfaction with which he felt his own superiority these frivolous accomplishments supported by his rank and no doubt too by a degree of other talents and virtues which seems however

not to have been much above mediocrity established this prince in the esteem of his own age and have drawn even from posterity a good deal of respect for his memory compared with these in his own times and in his own presence no other virtue it seems appeared to have any merit

knowledge industry valour and beneficence trembled were abashed and lost all dignity before them woman also thus in herself complete by possessing all these frivolous accomplishments so changes the nature of things that what she wills to do or say seems wisest virtuousest

best all higher knowledge in her presence falls degraded wisdom in discourse with her loses discountenance and like folly shows authority and reason on her weight and all this is built on her loveliness in the middle rank of life to continue the comparison

men in their youth are prepared for professions and marriage is not considered as the grand feature in their lives whilst women on the contrary have no other scheme to sharpen their faculties it is not business extensive plans or any of the excursive flights of ambition that engross their attention no their thoughts are not employed in rearing such noble structures

to rise in the world and have the liberty of running from pleasure to pleasure they must marry advantageously and to this object their time is sacrificed and their persons often legally prostituted a man when he enters any profession has his eyes steadily fixed on some future advantage

and the mind gains great strength by having all his efforts directed to one point and full of his business pleasure is considered as mere relaxation whilst women seek for pleasure as the main purpose of existence in fact from the education which they receive from society

the love of pleasure may be said to govern them all but does this prove that there is a sex in souls it would be just as rational to declare that the courtiers of france when a destructive system of despotism had formed their character were not men because liberty virtue and humanity were sacrificed to pleasure and vanity fatal passions which have ever domineered over the whole race

the same love of pleasure fostered by the whole tendency of their education gives a trifling turn to the conduct of women in most circumstances for instance they are ever anxious about secondary things and on the watch for adventures instead of being occupied by duties a man when he undertakes a journey has in general the end in view a woman thinks more of the incidental occurrences the strange things that may possibly occur on the road

the impression that she may make on her fellow-travellers and above all she is anxiously intent on the care of the finery that she carries with her which is more than ever a part of herself when going to figure on a new scene when to use an apt french turn of expression she is going to produce a sensation can dignity of mind exist with such trivial cares in short women in general as well as the rich of both sexes have acquired all the follies and vices of civilization

missed the useful fruit it is not necessary for me always to premise that i speak of the condition of the whole sex leaving exceptions out of the question their senses are inflamed and their understandings neglected consequently they become the prey of their senses delicately termed sensibility and are blown about

by every momentary gust of feeling they are therefore in a much worse condition than they would be were they in a state nearer to nature ever restless and anxious their over-exercised sensibility not only renders them uncomfortable themselves but troublesome to use a soft phrase to others

all their thoughts turn on things calculated to excite emotion and feeling when they should reason their conduct is unstable and their opinions are wavering not the wavering produced by deliberation or progressive views but by contradictory emotions you

by fits and starts they are warm in many pursuits yet this warmth never concentrated into perseverance soon exhausts itself exhaled by its own heat or meeting with some other fleeting passion to which reason has never given any specific gravity neutrality ensues

miserable indeed must be the being whose cultivation of mind has only tended to inflame its passions a distinction should be made between inflaming and strengthening them the passions thus pampered whilst the judgment is left unformed what can be expected to ensue

undoubtedly a mixture of madness and folly this observation should not be confined to the fair sex however at present i only mean to apply it to them novels music poetry and gallantry all tend to make women the creatures of sensation and their character is thus formed during the time

they are acquiring accomplishments the only improvement they are excited by their station in society to acquire this over-stretched sensibility naturally relaxes the other powers of the mind and prevents intellect from attaining that sovereignty which it ought to attain to render a rational creature useful to others and content with its own station for the exercise of understanding as life advances is the only method pointed out by nature to calm the passions satity

has a very different effect and i have often been forcibly struck by an emphatical description of damnation when the spirit is represented as continually hovering with abortive eagerness round the defiled body unable to enjoy anything without the organs of sense yet

to their senses are women made slaves because it is by their sensibility that they obtain present power and moralists pretend to assert that this is the condition in which one-half of the human race should be encouraged to remain with listless inactivity and stupid acquiescence kind instructors what were we created for to remain it may be said innocent they mean in a state of childhood we might as well have never been born

unless it were necessary that we should be created to enable man to acquire the noble privilege of reason the power of discerning good from evil whilst we lie down in the dust from whence we were taken never to rise again

it would be an endless task to trace the variety of meannesses cares and sorrows into which women are plunged by the prevailing opinion that they were created rather to feel than reason and that all the power they obtain must be obtained by their charms and weakness fine by defect and amiably weak

and made by this amiable weakness entirely dependent accepting what they gain by illicit sway on man not only for protection but advice is it surprising that neglecting the duties that reason alone points out and shrinking from trials calculated to strengthen their minds they only exert themselves to give their defects a graceful covering which may serve to heighten their charms in the eye of the voluptuary though it sink them below the scale of moral excellence

fragile in every sense of the word they are obliged to look up to man for every comfort in the most trifling dangers they cling to their support with parasitical tenacity piteously demanding succor and their natural protector extends his arm or lifts up his voice to guard the lovely trembler from what perhaps the frown of an old cow or the jump of a mouse a rat would be a serious danger

in the name of reason and even common sense what can save such beings from contempt even though they be soft and fair these fears when not affected may be very pretty but they show a degree of imbecility that degrades a rational creature in a way women are not aware of

for love and esteem are very distinct things i am fully persuaded that we should hear of none of these infantine airs if girls were allowed to take sufficient exercise and not confined in close rooms till their muscles are all relaxed and their powers of digestion destroyed

to carry the remark still further if fear in girls instead of being cherished perhaps created were treated in the same manner as cowardice in boys we should quickly see women with more dignified aspects it is true they could not then with equal propriety be termed the sweet flowers that smile in the walk of man but they would be more respectable members of society and discharge the important duties of life by the light of their own reason educate women like men

says rousseau and the more they resemble our sex the less power they will have over us this is the very point i aim at i do not wish them to have power over man but over themselves in the same strain i have heard men argue against instructing the poor for many

are the forms that aristocracy assumes teach them to read and write they say and you take them out of the station assigned them by nature an eloquent frenchman has answered them i will borrow his sentiments but they know not when they make man a brute that they may expect every instant

to see him transformed into a ferocious beast without knowledge there can be no morality ignorance is a base for virtue yet that it is the condition for which woman was organized has been insisted upon by the writers who have most vehemently argued in favour of the superiority of man

a superiority not in degree but in essence though to soften the argument they have laboured to prove with chivalrous generosity that the sexes ought not to be compared that man was made to reason woman to feel and that together flesh and spirit they make the most perfect whole by blending

happily reason and sensibility into one character and what is sensibility quickness of sensation quickness of perception delicacy thus it is defined by dr johnson and the definition gives me no other idea than of the most exquisitely polished instinct i discern not a trace

of the image of god in either sensation or matter refined seventy times seven they are still material intellect dwells not there nor will fire ever make lead into gold i come round to my old argument if woman be allowed to have an immortal soul she must

have as the employment of life an understanding to improve and when to render the present state more complete though everything proves it to be but a fraction of a mighty sum she is incited by present gratification to forget her grand destination nature is counteracted

or she was born only to procreate and rot or granting brutes of every description a soul though not a reasonable one the exercise of instinct and sensibility may be the step which they are to take in this life towards the attainment of reason in the next so that through all eternity they will lag behind man who why we cannot tell had the power given him of attaining reason in his first mode of existence

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