The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #127658   Message #2851136
Posted By: Emma B
26-Feb-10 - 05:21 PM
Thread Name: BS: The Sexualisation of our Children
Subject: RE: BS: The Sexualisation of our Children
well never mind here is some info

'A bluestocking is an educated, intellectual woman. Such women are stereotyped as being frumpy' - fortunately not androphobic too :)

hmmmm Plus ça change!

'The reference to blue stockings refers to the time when woolen worsted stockings were informal dress, as compared with formal, fashionable black silk stockings.

The term originated with the Blue Stockings Society - a literary society founded by Elizabeth Montagu in the 1750s.

This provoked derogatory usage in the late 18th century, specifically in reference to women

Women are still under pressure to dress fashionably and an old saying is "women don't become bluestockings until men have tired of looking at their legs".

Women who fail to do this may become the subject of hostile comment corresponding to older prejudices such as that of William Hazlitt who said, "The bluestocking is the most odious character in society ... she sinks wherever she is placed, like the yolk of an egg, to the bottom, and carries the filth with her." '

In Bluestockings - The Remarkable Story of the First Women to Fight for an Education, Jane Robinson reclaims the term and uses it to pull together an extraordinary tale of misogyny, determination, ambition and the quest for knowledge more than a century later.

Wiki

Akways good to know that 'Edukashon' is appreciated by some :)