Equivocal Beings

“Manners” Make the Man: Politeness, Chivalry, and the Construction of Masculinity, 1750–1830

“…Indeed, Johnson claims, "it is the work of Emma to make Mr Knightley seem traditional." 111 In fact, despite his more mature years, it is he who represents the new man and the younger Mr. Eltons and Frank Churchills that are yesterday's men. Mr. Knightley represents a new ideal of gentlemanliness that incorporates elements of the chivalric ideal.…”

Liberal Feminism: Individuality and Oppositions in Wollstonecraft and Mill

“…The apparent sequence of Wollstonecraft's argument – from the universal ‘rights of man’ to the particular ‘rights of woman’– suggests that she perceives the rational and independent male as the model that women should be allowed to approach. Furthermore, Wollstonecraft casts her radical defence of rights as a masculine contrast to the effeminacy of conservatives like Edmund Burke, who advocate political passivity (Brace, 2000; Coniff, 1999; Johnson, 1995, pp. 23–46).…”

Back to the Future: Marriage as Friendship in the Thought of Mary Wollstonecraft

“…In that work, Maria Venables tries valiantly to become friends with her husband George, but her efforts founder on his cold indifference 28 . Discussing Maria's later relationship with Darnforth, Claudia Johnson argues that these “episodes finally judge male culture to be so corrupt as to make affective reciprocity between the sexes impossible” (Johnson 1995, 65). She concludes that “the emancipated, sturdy, purposive, mutually respecting, and rationally loving couple Wollstonecraft spent her career imagining is, finally, a female couple” (1995, 69).…”

“…9 9 Yet as Claudia Johnson says, for Wollstonecraft, “[t]he duties of maternity are striking precisely for what they do not signify: they are not binding upon all women, and they do not block women from participating in civic life any more than the equally important duties of fatherhood customarily inhibit men's circulation in the public sphere” (Johnson 1995, 48). …”