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About this quote

What does it mean?
Female sanctity is incompatible with worldly duties and freedoms; emancipating women corrupts them.
In plain terms
Purity conflicts with freedom, and women's emancipation is seen as corruption.
What can you take from it?
Question the link between morality and gendered freedom.

Where it applies

  • feminist debates
  • cultural norms

Putting it to work

  • reexamine moral standards
  • promote equality

Questions to consider

  • Why is freedom portrayed as corrupting?
  • How can sanctity be redefined?

Another view

Reflect reflects a biased, patriarchal view.

More from Honore de Balzac

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  2. Les femmes tiennent et doivent toutes tenir a etre honorees, car sans l'estime elles n'existent plus. Aussi est-ce le premier sentiment qu'elles demandent a l'…

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  3. Un enfant, monsieur, n'est-il pas l'image de deux etres, le fruit de deux sentiments librement confondus?

    Permalink to quote #122

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