I’ve wanted to write about ballet and feminism for awhile, but haven’t known where to start. I asked readers to give me a hand by asking questions, and so far I’ve received one response. So please keep asking! It doesn’t … Read more →
Just some more background on Wollstonecraft, to clarify my earlier remarks about Wollstonecraft’s writings being geared toward the middle class. If you’re new to my Wollstonecraft series, you can start here. From Moira Ferguson and Janet Todd, Mary Wollstonecraft (1984): … Read more →
Some more stuff from my copy of Mary Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (Norton Critical Edition, 2nd ed, Carol H. Poston, editor). From Mary Wollstonecraft by Ralph Wardle (1951): The overwhelming majority of Englishwomen of [Wollstonecraft's] time had known … Read more →
If you’re new to Mary Wollstonecraft, start here. Wollstonecraft believed society created “unnatural distinctions” based on sex and class; likewise, the family was so arranged that its various members could not fully benefit from the virtues of family life. The … Read more →
Mary Wollstonecraft does have a way with words. If you’re new to this series, start here. The preposterous distinctions of rank, which render civilization a curse, by dividing the world between voluptuous tyrants, and cunning envious dependents, corrupt, almost equally, … Read more →
Please read my post on Rousseau, and my first and second Wollstonecraft posts. If you’ve been following along, this is about where we left off: Exalted by their inferiority (this sounds like a contradiction), they constantly demand homage as women, … Read more →
Although Wollstonecraft and Rousseau were prominent voices in the mid-late 18th century, many other writers chimed in on the status of women and women’s education. The following resources are gleaned from Ralph Wardle’s essay in my copy of Wollstonecraft (Norton, … Read more →
Please read my post on Rousseau and my first post on Wollstonecraft. A point before we continue on with the next two chapters regarding ideas about “sexual character”: Wollstonecraft is mainly addressing the rising middle class. She lived through a … Read more →
Now that I’ve presented the dominant discourse on gender in the 18th century via Rousseau, it’s time to move on to Mary Wollstonecraft and her most famous work, A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792). You can follow the link to read … Read more →
This is the first post in my new series comparing feminist texts and anti-feminists texts, or texts that illustrate dominant beliefs about gender, in Europe and North America since the Enlightenment. This post presents Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s views on gender from his … Read more →