Cicero recently made an observation to me that the most recent influx of new Kossacks reminded him of a brood of college students who have read, and failed to understand, the philosophy of Nietzsche. Whether that is the case or not, misunderstanding Nietzsche is a very common event.

Nietzsche wrote in an unique style.  While his books can be read from front to back and themes can be discerned, and ideas are explored and developed, it is also possible to pick up one of his books and start reading at random.

He wrote in brief bursts, with each segment capable of being considered alone, as well as in the larger context of his whole philosophy.  And this encourages the novice philosophy student to misinterpret individual passages.  As an example, Nietzsche famously wrote:

“When a woman has scholarly inclinations there is usually something wrong with her sexuality. Unfruitfulness itself disposes one to a certain masculinity of taste; for man is, if I may be allowed to say so, “the unfruitful animal.”

Taken alone, this appears to be a grossly misogynistic remark.  But that was not his intention.  Reading the following passage shows what his true concern was:

From The Gay Science:
With a Prelude in German Rhymes and an Appendix of Songs.  Originally published in 1882.

On female chastity— There is something quite amazing and monstrous about the education of upper-class women.  What could be more paradoxical?  All the world is agreed that they are to be brought up as ignorant as possible of erotic matters, and that one has to imbue their souls with a profound sense of shame in such matters until the merest suggestion of such things triggers the most extreme impatience and flight.  The “honor” of women really comes into play only here: what else would one not forgive them?  But here they are supposed to remain ignorant even in their hearts; they are supposed to have neither eyes, nor ears, nor words, nor thoughts for this– their “evil”; and mere knowledge is considered evil.  And then to be hurled, as by a gruesome lightning bolt, into the reality and knowledge, by marriage– precisely by the man they love and esteem most!  To catch love and shame in a contradiction and to be forced to experience at the same time delight, surrender, duty, pity, terror, and who knows what else, in the face of the unexpected neighborliness of god and beast!

Thus a psychic knot has been tied that may have no equal.  Even a compassionate curiosity of the wisest student of humanity is inadequate for guessing how this or that woman manages to accommodate herself to this solution of the riddle, and to the riddle of a solution, and what dreadful, far-reaching suspicions must stir in her poor, unhinged soul– and how the ultimate philosophy and skepsis of woman casts anchor at this point!

Afterward, the same deep silence as before.  Often a silence directed at herself, too.  She closes her eyes to herself.

Young women try hard to appear superficial and thoughtless.  The most refined simulate a kind of impertinence.

Women easily experience their husbands as a question mark concerning their honor, and their children as an apology or atonement.  They need children and wish for them in a way that is altogether different from that in which a man may wish for children.

In sum, one cannot be too kind about women.

Nietzsche is making a social commentary here.  He is lamenting the way women are pressured to cultivate an image of thoughtlessness, to conceal their sexual desire, to avoid evidencing any knowledge of sexual matters.  One cannot understand his portrayal of the scholarly woman, until one understands that he is critiquing the whole culture and gender biases of his time.

His assumption that a female scholar has no children, or has to make a choice between studies and family, was a largely accurate assumption at the time.

And he would probably agree that there was something wrong with every women’s sexuality, due to the repression and taboos placed on women’s sexual desire.

Elsewhere, in Book Two, Nietzsche puts these words in the mouth of a sage: “It is men that corrupt women; and all the failings of women should be atoned by and improved in men.  For it is man who creates for himself the image of woman, and woman forms herself according to this image.”

Well, ladies, you’ve come a long way, baby.  Women’s liberation involves not only getting the vote and a chance to work and go to school.  It involves the liberty to break free of the prison of being defined by man’s ‘image of woman’, to learn about sexual matters, express yourself on sexual matters, marry whom you choose, and at a time in life when you feel ready for marriage.  These are elements of liberation.  And Nietzsche would be proud of where you are today.

Nietzsche’s bio