How Does Nietzsche's View On Women

Views on women

-Nietzsche wrote "Women are essentially unpeaceful" and "Man is for woman a means; the purpose is always a child. But what is woman for man?" The answer to this question (as well as the question you pose) is difficult to ascertain and there are a number of opposing and complex views on how he regarded women.
-Hence, Derrida claims that for Nietzsche, there is no eternal essence of womanhood.
-Nietzsche’s view of women is explicitly based upon their role as potential mothers - typical statement is "everything about woman is a riddle, and everything about woman has one solution: that is pregnancy."
-It is an exultation of womanhood as maternity and privileges pregnancy as a vital human form of creativity, and every element
of Nietzsche's characterisation of womanhood refers back to a woman's role as mother.
-In this way Nietzsche denies the equality of men and woman, holding that they are essentially different. He criticized the struggle for equality of rights as yet another form of "mediocrity" and of the "decadence" brought upon by "democracy." Against this equality, he declares himself in favour of a differential relationship between the masculine and the feminine
-The differences between man and woman are ones of powers at their disposal and means of accomplishing their goals. In this regard the question of whether women are made different to men mainly through nature or by social roles is left ambiguous: Nietzsche makes explicit allowances for how woman's ability to express and surpass herself has been constrained by her position in society. But Nietzsche unwaveringly insists on a necessary distinction between the sexes.
-An important point to take into account when reading Nietzsche on women is also the role of Ariadne and Dionysos , as well as his concept of the Eternal Feminine and of amor fati. Derrida has also shown that Nietzsche distinguished between various types of women, old women, young, etc. This categorization is not applied only to "real" women: thus, he qualified Henrik Ibsen as an "old woman"
-Amor fati is a Latin phrase that loosely translates to "love of fate" or "love of one's fate". It is used to describe an attitude in which one sees everything that happens in one's life, including suffering and loss, as good. That is, one feels that everything that happens is destiny's way of reaching its ultimate purpose, and so should be considered good. Moreover, it is characterized by an acceptance of the events that occur in one's life.

-Nietzsche believes that woman are naturally weaker than men -- they have always been, and that is one of the great truths of the ages.
Women are "mediocre" and they aren't naturally inclined to learn or to understand abstract concepts. To Nietzsche, woman are naturally second class to men, and they have an instinct for a secondary role. Women represent the masses to Nietzsche. They tend to be religious, and therefore also represent the slave morality. They are concerned mostly with self-preservation and are petty. They are not trying to overcome nature, be autonomous, creative or innovative: "How much "slave" is still residual in woman, for
example!"

Therefore, Nietzsche is greatly concerned that women are seeking equality in opportunity with men. He believes that women's modern cry for equality will be detrimental to Europe, because it will elevate the position of the weaker to that of an equal. After all, women are lower types by nature, and if they begin to have power, the conflict between the high types and the low types will cease to exist because they are on equal footing. After all, Nietzsche strongly advocates that the idea of the good should not come from the masses, the lower types, and women. The idea of the good should come from the high types, the conquerors, the men. Treating women like equals will be harmful to society because it will end the conflict that is necessary for human excellence to persevere.

"Woman wants to become self-reliant -- and for that reason she is beginning to enlighten men about "woman as such: this is one of the worst developments of the general uglification of Europe. For what must these clumsy attempts of women at scientific self-exposure bring to light! Woman has much reason for shame; so much pedantry, superficiality, schoolmarmishness, petty presumption, petty licentiousness and immodesty lies concealed in woman -- one only need to study her behavior with children! -- and so far all this was at bottom best repressed and kept under control by fear of man. Woe when "the eternally boring in woman" -- she is rich in that! -- is permitted to venture forth! When she begins to unlearn thoroughly and on principle her prudence and art -- of grace, of lay, of chasing away worries, or lightening burdens and taking things lightly -- and her subtle aptitude for agreeable desires! ...

Unless a woman seeks a new adornment for herself that way -- I do think adorning herself is part of the Eternal-Feminine?-- she surely want to inspire fear of herself-- perhaps she seeks mastery.
But she does not want truth: what is truth to woman? From the beginning, nothing has been more alien, repugnant, and hostile to woman than truth -- her great art is the lie, her highest concern is mere appearance of beauty. Let us men confess it: we honor and love precisely this art and this instinct in women -- we who have a hard time and for our relief like to associate with beings under whose hands, eyes, and tender follies our seriousness, our gravity and profundity almost appear to us like folly. ...

We men swish that woman should not go on compromising herself through enlightenment -- just as it was wasn't thoughtfulness and consideration for woman that found expression in the church decree: [Woman should be silent in church]. It was for woman's good when Napoleon gave the all too eloquent Madame de Staël to understand: [Woman should be silent when it come to politics]. And I think it is a real friend of women that counsels them today: [Woman should be silent about
woman.]"

That modern women want to have be treated as men's equals is proof to Nietzsche that our wills have been tamed, and that man have become weak. Men are not strong enough anymore, and this is represented by their loss of power over women. To Nietzsche, this is an indication that nature is ending and that the struggle between the high and the low types is ending too. Women cannot be equal because they are not innately equal. Furthermore, they will tame men.

"To go wrong on the fundamental problem of "man and woman," ... to dream perhaps of equal rights, equal education, equal claims and obligation -- that is a typical sign of shallowness, and a thinker who has proves shallow in this dangerous place -- shallow in his instinct -- may be considered altogether suspicious, even more -- betrayed, exposed: probably he will be too "short" for all fundamental problems of life, of the life yet to some, to, and incapable of attaining any depth. A man, on the other hand, who has depth, in his spirit as well as in his desires, including that depth of benevolence which is capable of severity and hardness and easily mistaken for them, must always think about woman as Orientals do: he must conceive of woman as a possession, as property that can be locked, as something predestined for service and achieving her perfection in that. ... As is well known, from Homer's time to the age of Pericles, as their culture increased along with the range of their powers, they also gradually became more sever, in brief, more Oriental, against woman. How necessary, how logical, how humanely desirable even, this was -- is worth pondering."

Therefore, Nietzsche believes that the natural, and therefore rightful, position of women in society is as subordinates to men. Women are inherently weaker than men, and they do not deserve equality because this would tame men even further. Eventually, he argues, this will only hasten the demise of the great struggle between the weak and the noble. If women become equal to men, Nietzsche believes that our ideals have lowered, and that our will has been irreversibly tamed.