I have been a bit miffed at Friedrich Nietzsche ever since I read that he once said, “When a woman has scholarly inclinations there is usually something wrong with her sexuality.”

For those of you not familiar with Mr. Nietzsche he was a fairly influential 19th century German philosopher.  Alas, Mr. Nietzsche never married – go figure.  Nietzsche died at the age of 55 in 1900 after a life filled with both medical and mental health challenges.

I find the fact that Mr. Nietzsche is long gone to be terribly disappointing as I have some questions for him in regard to his comment above.  All I can do now is write a letter to his ghost and hope that in some place and space in time he reads it.

Dear Mr. Nietzsche,

Good day sir.  My name is Carol.  I have two doctoral level degrees – a J.D. and a Ph.D. – and I believe it is fair to say that I have scholarly inclinations.  You can call me Dr. Carol.

I write you today to address a comment you made about women with scholarly inclinations that I found troubling.  You said that such women usually have something wrong with their sexuality.  I am wondering how you came to this conclusion sir.

Was this based on some sort of data collection or on some anecdotal information you collected during your lifetime?  Was this comment the result of careful and ongoing observation of women with scholarly inclinations? And if so, were they aware of the study or was it covert?  How did you test the rightness or wrongness of their sexuality?  Was this a lab experiment or a first person experience?  Also, did you query others about their sexuality?  How did you know who to ask and how did you ascertain that their responses were credible?

Additionally, what behaviors indicated to you that the sexuality of these scholarly inclined women was wrong?  Was it based on the woman’s reaction to you or on a series of measurements across the spectrum of sexuality? And what exactly were the boundaries of that spectrum in your evaluation?  Was the level of sexual attraction to you factored into the equation and if so – how and where?

I might suggest sir that your conclusion is faulty and not worthy of such a profound thinker and renowned philosopher as yourself.  Absent a sound methodology and substantial data set to back up your statement, it makes you sound quite pedestrian – as if your statement was nothing more than the byproduct of being spurned by a series of scholarly inclined females.

I recognize that I am just one specimen in the vast ocean of scholarly inclined women in the world, but I can tell you unequivocally that I do not believe your statement fits me (or any of the other so inclined women I know).  Indeed, it has been my anecdotal observation that scholarly intentions tend to make women more liberal sexually and allow them to more strongly embrace their own sexuality.

At some point in the future I look forward to having a conversation with you about this at which point I would be more than happy to show you my scholarly inclinations if you will show me yours.  I take my research efforts quite seriously and before I say out loud that I think you made the statement above because your ego was deflated when you were spurned by a series of strong, intelligent and confident women I want to make sure it is correct.

Yours truly,

Dr. Carol

And that, dear readers, is how a scholarly inclined woman whose sexuality is doing just fine responds to a fellow like Mr. Nietzsche. 😉

Day five hundred and fifty-three of the new forty – obla di obla da

Ms. C