Mary Wollstonecraft, letter to M. Talleyrand-Perigord, Bishop of Auton:
“But, till men become attentive to the duty of a father, it is vain to expect women to spend that time in their nursery which they, “wise in their generation,” choose to spend at their glass; for this exertion of cunning is only an instinct of nature to enable them to obtain indirectly a little of that power of which they are unjustly denied a share; for, if women are not permitted to enjoy legitimate rights, they will render both men and themselves vicious to obtain illicit privileges.”
Nice, but let’s not go to the other spectrum and condone sayings from women like Andrea Dworkin from Fire and Ice. Contemptible and disgusting.
Why does a statement of social and educational equality illicit a warning of extremes? Feminism is a broad and varied cause with different emphases and agendas. I think it’s methodologically inappropriate to use a disliked extreme as a representative of something that is anything but monolithic.