Woman wishes to be independent, and therefore she begins to enlighten men about âwoman as she isââ â this is one of the worst developments of the general uglifying of Europe. For what must these clumsy attempts of feminine scientificality and self-exposure bring to light! Woman has so much cause for shame; in woman there is so much pedantry, superficiality, schoolmasterliness, petty presumption, unbridledness, and indiscretion concealedâ âstudy only womanâs behaviour towards children!â âwhich has really been best restrained and dominated hitherto by the fear of man. Alas, if ever the âeternally tedious in womanââ âshe has plenty of it!â âis allowed to venture forth! if she begins radically and on principle to unlearn her wisdom and artâ âof charming, of playing, of frightening away sorrow, of alleviating and taking easily; if she forgets her delicate aptitude for agreeable desires! Female voices are already raised, which, by Saint Aristophanes! make one afraid:â âwith medical explicitness it is stated in a threatening manner what woman first and last
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