Talk:Bluestocking

message: There is a reference to blue-stockings in the play Hippolytus by Euripides.  Does anyone know the true date of origin for this term, since it must be before the 15th century?
: The reference to the blue-stocking by Euripides is in the Great Didactic by Comenius.  Comenius added in the blue-stocking refernce to suit his needs.  The actual line is "I hate a clever woman."
Actually, the reference to "blue-stocking" comes from M. W. Keatinge's 1907 translation.  Comenius, who wrote in Latin, actually says, "Aut illud qvod apud Euripidem Hippolytus loqvitur:  Odi eruditam."  
You can find the original Latin text here:  http://www.uni-mannheim.de/mateo/camenaref/comenius.html
and Keatinge's translation here:  http://archive.org/details/cu31924031053709
The error has been picked up other sites (as one can see by googling "Comenius bluestocking"), so I do hope it gets corrected.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 97.80.129.167 (talk) 16:25, 14 July 2013 (UTC)
replies: text: A reference to bluestockings has been attributed to John Amos Comenius in his 1638 book, where he mentioned the ancient tradition of women being excluded from higher education, citing Bible and Euripides. That reference, though, comes from Keatinge's 1896 translation and is not present in Comenius's original Latin text.[a] ... 
Ken K. Smith (a.k.a. User:Thin Smek) (talk) 18:38, 20 January 2019 (UTC)
thread_title:  Euripides reference 

message: The role of educated women in society has indeed expanded remarkably since the 15th and 18th centuries, and this article needs to take an encompassing viewpoint.
Members of the BlueStocking Society were very prominent and successful in society;  one such member, Elizabeth's cousin Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, has been described as the "most interesting Englishwoman of the century"(1), and may have personally saved millions of lives by introducing inoculation to western society(2).
To characterize such women as frumpy, or to embark on a monologue about the role of beauty in society does a huge disservice.
In addition there were many prominent men who belonged to the Society, and although they too may have felt pressure to dress fashionably, there is no record of them objecting to the term bluestocking.  And in Wikipedia's very extensive review of Margaret Thatcher's unprecedented accomplishments, the word 'pretty' does not appear even once.
Doc.Ian (talk) 20:11, 16 June 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Characterization 

message: Surely the use of the term in US political discourse over the course of the last century and a half is relevant for both denotation and connotation:
:The current tempest over pornography mirrors a similar schism in the "first wave" of feminism.  The "Redstockings" included such trailblazing pro-sex feminists as Victoria Woodhull, the early Margaret Sanger, and Emma Goldman, who defied, resisted, and on a good day aspired to overthrow the state.  The "Bluestockings," in contrast, variously sought succor from a state they presumed to be beneficent, and in a bolder mood, aspired to become its agents.  Their politics were elitist and centered on the right to vote, for which they often appealed on anti-immigrant grounds.
:'The reforms they sought through the existing state predominantly took the form of protective morals legislation.  "Bluestockings" campaigned for essentially repressive anti-vice measures regarding prostitution, alcohol, and the like, helping to create a climate of opinion that facilitated passage of the Comstock laws, criminalizing both "obscenity" and the distribution of contraceptives and information about abortion-laws which were then used to haul Redstocking sisters Sanger and Goldman off to jail. (Today the pro-censorship climate MacDworkinism has nurtured has helped to reincarnate the Comstock laws in the Communications Decency Act, criminalizing internet discussions of abortion and other such "indecency.")
:In the most striking aspect of this historical parallel, the Bluestockings cut their political teeth in the Temperance movement, locating in "demon rum" a male vice they deemed a central factor in women's oppression.  Drink was the ruin of the lower classes, the bane of women whose husbands beat them and drank up the family's wages....Just why was it that working class men drank, after twelve-hour days in the mines and factories?  Such questions were too threatening, so instead the elite reformers blamed the oppressed.
Crosson, Cathy. "Pornography and the Sex Censor"
(source cache as of 2010-05-29)
drawing from
Strossen, Nadine. Defending pornography: free speech, sex, and the fight for women's rights.
.
All the best,
Michael (talk) 19:56, 29 May 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  recent US history and usage