Philosopher Spotlight: Lucrezia Marinella

“I also wish to demonstrate that the beauty of women is the way in which men, who are moderate creatures, are able to raise themselves to the knowledge and contemplation of the divine essence. Everybody will be convinced of these matters one day, and the obstinate oppressors of women who trample on their dignity with greater insolence each day will be overcome.” – Lucrezia Marinella

Lucrezia Marinella lived in Venice for a whopping 82 years from 1571-1653, something that is quite a feat for anyone in that time. She is often compared to Marie du Gournay, though Marinella never references or mentions her. Marinella is also closely associated with Moderata Fonte (1555-92), another female Venetian writer and poet. Marinella was lucky; she was born into a family that didn’t force her into a convent or early marriage, and encouraged her studies. Her dad himself seemed to encourage women’s education in general in addition to his daughter’s. Marinella’s main philosophical work was The Nobility and Excellence of Women. The book was in response to Giuseppe Passi’s The Defects of Women, and Merinella hoped to defend her stance that the female sex is not only not lesser than male, but that the female sex is in fact more “excellent” than the male.

Though she starts with using names to prove than the female sex is more excellent, I would like to start with some of her other arguments. I find particularly interesting the way she uses physical appearance in her argument. It is important to remember that she was, after all, writing in her own time. This means that she still uses God as a basis for her arguments more than we might see in the last century. She argued that since everything is created in God’s will and idea, women are more “nobler” than men because they are created with beauty and goodness. These qualities are positive and are only attributed to women, not men, therefore making women the nobler sex.

More interestingly though is the way she tackles the argument of Eve being created from Adam’s rib, which people argued make women lesser than men. Marinella’s take on that was, “as woman was made from man’s rib, and man was made from mud or mire, she will certainly prove more excellent than man, as a rib is undoubtedly nobler than mud.” This is an important defence. The argument that women are somehow lesser than men because Eve was created from Adam’s rib is one many of us have heard, and Marinella gives an interesting response to it (something we rarely see).

Another important point Marinella makes is in regards to the tyranny of men. “It is clear to everyone that anger is the origin of indecent accusations against women.” She importantly discusses how men’s anger leads them to hate women and execute the power that they have given themselves against women. Throughout the book, she writes against many philosophers that have written against women having rights, or even being considered as the same species as men. Marinella points out that these men, and many others, take their irrational anger out on women. Ironic, since there is such a long history of men saying women are the irrational ones (hence the tyranny of men!).

“When a man wishes to fulfil his unbridled desires and is unable to because of the temperance and continence of a woman, he immediately becomes angry and disdainful and in his rage says every bad thig he can think of, as if the woman were something evil and hateful.” Marinella attributes men’s tyranny to self-love and thoughtlessness, essentially narcisism. Self-love, “since he judged himself to be a miracle of nature and grew so excessive conceited that he reputed every other person in the world to be unworthy of his love.” In other places in the book Marinella proves that men’s belief of their own excellence is false, which she shows by using beauty and the way men honor women by giving them gifts and bowing to show respect to prove this. Additionally, thoughtlessness “caused him to deceive himself about the nature and essence of women,” which in turn allows man to abuse his power against women and keep them in a subordinate position. “Perhaps a mature consideration of [women’s] nobility and excellence would have proved too great a burden for his shoulders.” Honestly, this line is so sarcastic it’s incredible (and I’m sure had Marinella read the work of Marie du Gournay she would have greatly enjoyed it). Regardless, Marinella goes on to discuss how men really convinced themselves using whatever arguments they could, even if they were false or only part truths, that women are of a lesser species than men and therefore should not have any rights or freedom—inherently false arguments.

Marinella was an interesting woman. Based on the way she was raised and her life choices, had she lived long enough to read the work of Gabrielle Suchon, Marinella would support Suchon’s conception of the ‘Neutralist’. As an important feminist Venetian figure, it is important to remember her and pay close to attention to the way she argued. She used men’s words and actions against them to show their hypocrisy. More importantly, I think it is important to consider the reasons she gives for why men want to belittle women and ensure they have no rights or freedom. Many of her points that show the tyranny of men are important, and still apply to men today. They show how engrained men’s tyranny is in custom and go back millennium. We have to remember that change takes time, Marinella had hoped for a certain future as can be seen by the first quote in this post, and we still haven’t gotten there. We have made great strides in trying to get women to be considered and respected as men are, but there is a long way to go! Plus, these kinds of arguments really can and should be applied to all humans.

#philosophy #venice #europeanphilosophers