Browsing Tag

Wendy Shalit

Quotables: A Return to Modesty

A Return to Modesty:Discovering the Lost Virtueby Wendy Shalit A truly misogynist culture like our own loves to encourage the so-called fatal woman or “b–ch,” because she confirms its suspicion that all women are really evil, and if we were honest, we would admit it. What it cannot bear is a real, living woman–someone with hopes, dreams, secrets, and all of that other schmaltzy stuff with Dr. Klein & Misogyny, Inc. takes as evidence of being “emotionally labile.” {p. 169} Continue Reading…
August 10, 2011
Quotables: A Return to Modesty

A Return to Modesty:Discovering the Lost Virtueby Wendy Shalit Since respect for her modesty gave her the freedom to withhold affection, so to speak, until a virtuous man came around, men were in turn inspired to become worthy of her. {p. 98} Today our society makes fun of modesty, and then we are surprised to find our men behaving abominably. {p. 104} Hume’s contemporary, Rousseau, recognized right away that defending modesty in utilitarian terms alone was just one step away Continue Reading…
July 29, 2011
Books & Reading, Other Thoughts
Modesty and Chivalry

[dropcap]I[/dropcap]’m still making my way through Wendy Shalit’s A Return to Modesty, and even though some sections are a little more … descriptive … than I’d prefer, I maintain that it is a profound book written by a good thinker. Today I want to touch on a single idea that I’ve been mulling over after my reading last night. Shalit asserts that the proper complement to female modesty is male character {or what was once called honor}: Like modesty, which Continue Reading…
July 28, 2011
Quotables: A Return to Modesty

A Return to Modesty:Rediscovering the Lost Virtueby Wendy Shalit * [T]hey do not seem to be missing anything for not having had a series of miserable romances under their belts. They seem happy. Is this, perhaps, what annoys people most? {p. 6} When I talk to women my age and hear some of the things they’re going through, the kind of treatment they put up with from these boyfriends of theirs, the first thing I ask them is, “Does your Continue Reading…
July 19, 2011