“Yet sacrifice of the self is everywhere viewed as the highest calling, and the more so for a woman, who must give every element of her life to others. Kindness is at all times counseled to women, who are called unnatural if not kind. Yet how can a kindness that blights the life of even one--though it benefit others--be called good? Is it in face kindness to sever oneself from one's own desires? Mustn't the imperative to protect all life encompass--even for a woman--her own? Then we must abandon our accustomed notion of a woman's kindness, and forge a new own.” NatureKindnessSocietyWomanRulesSelf SacrificeGender RolesSocial Rules Book:The Weight of Ink Source: The Weight of Ink
“Men, perhaps, might nourish both heart and mind, but for a woman there could be no such luxury... How readily the rules of female behavior--gentleness, acquiescence, ever-mindfulness--turn to shackles. So, she thought, there must be declared a new kind of virtue: one that made the throwing off of such rules, and even such deceit as this required, praiseworthy.” MindHeartVirtueSocietyBehaviorExpectationsRulesGender Roles Book:The Weight of Ink Source: The Weight of Ink
“A woman such as I is a rocky cliff against which a man tests himself before retreating to safe pastures. I cannot fault any such man as takes what ease the world offers him.” MenWomenNatureGender Roles Book:The Weight of Ink Source: The Weight of Ink
