Quotation
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“My own sex, I hope, will excuse me, if I treat them like rational creatures, instead of flattering their fascinating graces, and viewing them as if they were in a state of perpetual childhood, unable to stand alone.”
Mary Wollstonecraft · Enlightenment feminism · Enlightenment · 1792
What does it mean?
The usual reading takes the sentence as her contract with the reader: she will not write another conduct book that praises women's charm, because that praise is how women are kept as permanent children. A competing reading hears condescension, and the verb 'excuse me' shows she expects the charge, but the alternative she refuses is flattery, not respect. It stands in the introduction, where she says what kind of book this will be, before the attack on Rousseau and on Dr Gregory. Rational creature is the status she assigns. Perpetual childhood is the status she says the culture already assigned.
Did Mary Wollstonecraft really say this?
The library’s label is Well attested. Wollstonecraft's own English, from the introduction to the 1792 Vindication. She is explaining the tone of the book to women readers. The gilt-cage passage and the sentence on enlarging the mind are in chapter 2, not here.
Where it comes from
A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, introduction
Approximate date: 1792.
How to use it
A school report in Liverpool that praises a girl for being delightful and never says whether she can handle the harder paper is the flattery this sentence refuses. Treating someone as a rational creature is a demand for work, standards, and criticism, which can feel less kind than praise. She thinks the kindness is the cage. A teacher who only protects confidence and never raises the standard has not yet granted the status.
A mindset reading
Notice compliments that are really exclusions. The habit is to ask whether a piece of praise would be offered to a person expected to stand alone. If it would sound odd said to a colleague with authority, it may be a way of keeping someone in childhood. She includes herself as the one who might be resented for dropping the flattery. The risk of sounding harsh is part of the method.
Understand the philosophy
The introduction sets Wollstonecraft against books of advice that train women to please. The key terms are rational creatures and perpetual childhood. She will argue in chapter 2 that an education in beauty shapes the mind to the body, and in chapter 4 that she wants women to have power over themselves rather than over men. This sentence is the tone note for that argument. It is not a claim that manners never matter. It is a claim that fascination has been used as a substitute for education.
- freedom
- knowledge
- society
FAQ
What does it mean?
The usual reading takes the sentence as her contract with the reader: she will not write another conduct book that praises women's charm, because that praise is how women are kept as permanent children. A competing reading hears condescension, and the verb 'excuse me' shows she expects the charge, but the alternative she refuses is flattery, not respect. It stands in the introduction, where she says what kind of book this will be, before the attack on Rousseau and on Dr Gregory. Rational creature is the status she assigns. Perpetual childhood is the status she says the culture already assigned.
Did Mary Wollstonecraft really say this?
Well attested. Wollstonecraft's own English, from the introduction to the 1792 Vindication. She is explaining the tone of the book to women readers. The gilt-cage passage and the sentence on enlarging the mind are in chapter 2, not here.
Which work is it in?
A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, introduction Approximate date: 1792.