Jamelah Reads the Classics: A Vindication of the Rights of Woman

In case you were wondering, yes, I am still reading the classics. It’s my calling. And Mary Wollstonecraft’s polemic A Vindication of the Rights of Woman was next on my list, so here we are. As with many of the writers on my list this time around, I first heard of Mary Wollstonecraft when I was a wee, bright-eyed English major, and, perhaps unfortunately, the main thing I think about whenever I see her name is a statement my professor made that her daughter, Mary Shelley and Percy Shelley consummated their relationship on Wollstonecraft’s grave. This naturally led to a discussion of whether or not graveyard sex was creepy and gross (and yes, “creepy and gross” won by an approximately 35:1 margin). This has nothing to do with Wollstonecraft’s work, but if I have to think it, then so do you, because I am all about sharing the pain.

Now that I’ve gotten that out of the way, I can move on to the point of this post, which is Mary Wollstonecraft’s book-length essay. A Vindication of the Rights of Woman is a response to Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s

One Response

  1. Not bad for a girl…hehehe,
    Not bad for a girl…

    hehehe, just kidding. I bet a lot of people don’t know about Mary Wollstonecraft’s contribution to women’s right.

    and you know . . .

    There once was an English teen
    Who’s actions some found obscene
    She diddled her groom
    On her mama’s tomb
    And later she bore Frankensteen.

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