Women and Men Theme Analysis

Nietzsche argues that the relationship between women and men is one of fundamental antagonism, an antagonism which the emancipation of women in modernity has distorted and disguised but not abolished. Indeed, Nietzsche firmly believes that this antagonism cannot be abolished, nor should one attempt to do so. Nietzsche believes that the general attitude towards women in Europe has been distorted by the women’s movements’ attempts to explain the meaning of “woman as such.” Nietzsche believes, rather, that the nature of woman is defined by shame and mystery, and that in attempting to explain herself in the same terms as a man, a woman loses the highest forms of her “art.” This art is the art of lying; because she is concerned with appearance and beauty, truth is inimical to woman, whose attention is directed to the external and superficial, Nietzsche argues. Women, by trying to become scientific, are becoming more like men, an attempt which is bound to result in failure in Nietzsche’s eyes.

Moreover, Nietzsche believes the root cause of this attempt is the self-hatred and self-contempt of women, who despise other women, the concept of “woman as such,” and ultimately themselves. Paradoxically, and perhaps not entirely convincingly, Nietzsche argues that by emancipating themselves, women have made themselves irrelevant, as they have lost their gift of subtlety and, with it, their influence over men. The solution, to Nietzsche, is for men to treat women as property, following what he describes as the “Oriental” model: women should be approached as rare and dangerous animals that elicit both fear and pity. Nietzsche’s attitude toward women, while certainly betraying his deep sexism and misogyny, also indicates the important and disruptive role the movement for women’s emancipation had in the great social, cultural, and philosophical upheavals of his time.