Fierce Fabulous French Women We Love
Madame de Stael: The World's First Modern Woman?
Resist, keep resisting, and find the center of your support in yourself. - Madame de Stael
Part 18th century Lady Gaga, part Madame de Châtelet, De Stael was a fiercely fabulous French aristocrat who rocked the 18th century by championing women’s rights, religious tolerance, and intellectual freedom long before they had landed on our cultural map. She was political when women were supposed to be apolitical and well-known for her salons with political radicals, artistes, and assorted literary iconoclasts. Her ideas so deeply challenged the status quo of her times that Napoleon itched to be rid of her. “I shall break her, I shall crush her,” he declared. “Let her keep quiet, it’s the wisest counsel she can take.”
De Stael, however, did not keep quiet – not in the way she spoke or the way she dressed. At a time when power dressing and the politics of appearance were de rigueur, she was outrageous: She wore garish turbans, loud ungainly clothes, and often received guests while wearing short petticoats and thin shirts (an 18th century fashion faux pax). Even her breasts were a problem: De Stael enjoyed low-cut dresses that showed off her snowy peaks – another act that scandalized Napoleon and the petite bourgeoisie of the times.
But Madame de Stael truly did not give a damn; she was committed to leading an authentic life. As her friend and colleague Isabelle de Charrière put it, women must imperatively “think from childhood about what you can obtain for yourself” to avoid the perils of becoming simply “a pretty goldfish circling endlessly in a Japanese fishbowl.” In rejecting the stiff wedding-cake aesthetic of the day, De Stael refused to be simply decorative as a woman. Powerful men still flitted to her fire and her crazy-brilliant mind. The embodiment of Smart-is-Sexy, De Stael essentially flipped a middle finger at social conventions - and it served her well. November 25, 2015
