“Women, in general, are not attracted to art at all, nor knowledge, and not at all to genius.”
“Women, in general, are not attracted to art at all, nor knowledge, and not at all to genius.”
That is one of many quotes of the famous philosopher Rousseau. Rousseau was one of the great philosophers during the enlightenment. He was a man that saw the male sex as the dominant. The female sex was according to his opinion not very smart, that they had one only thing that they could use. There weakness. Woman used there weakness to get help from men.
Maybe that is true? Maybe it is not. I say that that a woman is as independent as a man could be, after all the both sex are humans.
Rousseau’s opinion about women could be affected of the lost of his mom. Rousseau’s mum died shortly after his birth and he was raised by his father until he was ten. His father left him with his aunt and uncle and he was raised by them.
Rousseau did not get raised by a female role model in the younger stage and maybe that could have contributed with his sight on women. Did Rousseau had something against women or could it be that he in some way, that the history forgot to write had been dumped or had he been knocked over by a smarter women? There could be a lot of things that made him to think that a woman was not really smart. But I think it is most of his mother. He was not raised by a female model and maybe he thought that he was a great man and people new who he was, he had become a great man without a women. If he had a woman who was standing in his way he could not been this successful.
I also wonder how his ankle treated his aunt. Maybe he was a lovely husband and Rousseau thought that it made him weak or the ankle treated his aunt like she was useless. I do not think that we ever will know why Rousseau saw the female sex as an underdog. But we can learn something about it. Woman’s today had contributed with a lot. Rousseau would faint if he saw what a woman today could contribute to.
I am sorry Rousseau but after you died a woman actually dashed your theories about women in rubbles. Her name was Mary Wollstonecraft and she also made a book about it “A vindication of the rights of woman”.
There is still up to each individual how they want to interpret the quotes and no one can tell you that it is wrong or right it is just your own opinion.
/Unni
First of all, nice article.
That is a good idea of how his mind got twisted. But I don't think it was unusual to think like that during that time.
Women have contributed with a lot in today's society, that is correct, but at that time they hadn't. I'm not saying that women wasn't smart back then, the reason is that they didn't got the chance to get an education, and without an education it is hard to do something in this world. So I think that he just scratched the surface when he wrote the book. In his position, he could've changed man's look upon women to something better back then, but I think he chose to write as he did because he was frightened that a woman would take over his place as one of the great thinkers.
Thanks for the comments ;)
