Taught from infancy that beauty is woman's sceptre, the mind shapes itself to the body, and roaming round its gilt cage, only seeks to adorn its prison.
Mary WollstonecraftRead
I do earnestly wish to see the distinction of sex confounded in society, unless where love animates the behaviour.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Wollstonecraft advocates for gender equality, suggesting that sex distinctions should be blurred unless love informs relationships.
In this quote, Mary Wollstonecraft expresses her belief in the importance of gender equality and the need to move beyond rigid distinctions based on sex in society. She proposes that such distinctions only hold value when influenced by love, emphasizing that human relationships and societal dynamics should be founded on mutual respect and affection rather than outdated gender roles and expectations.
Themes
Gender EqualityLoveSocietyDistinctionPhilosophy
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech advocating for women's rights.
More from Mary Wollstonecraft
All quotes βMake women rational creatures, and free citizens, and they will quickly become good wives; - that is, if men do not neglect the duties of husbands and fathers.
Mary WollstonecraftRead
But what a weak barrier is truth when it stands in the way of an hypothesis!
Mary WollstonecraftRead
The divine right of husbands, like the divine right of kings, may, it is hoped, in this enlightened age, be contested without danger.
Mary WollstonecraftRead
Women are degraded by the propensity to enjoy the present moment, and, at last, despise the freedom which they have not sufficient virtue to struggle to attain.
Mary WollstonecraftRead
Perhaps the seeds of false-refinement, immorality, and vanity, have ever been shed by the great. Weak, artificial beings, raised above the common wants and defections of their race, in a premature and unnatural manner, undermine the very foundation of virtue, and spread corruption through the whole mass of society!
Mary WollstonecraftRead
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