"A man can keep another's secret better than his own. A woman her own better than others"
About this Quote
La Bruyere delivers his misogyny with the neat economy of a salon epigram: two balanced clauses, two genders, two alleged talents, and a smug little click of symmetry that makes the prejudice feel like observation. The line works because it flatters the reader into thinking theyre overhearing a cool truth about human nature, not a cultural script being enforced.
The intent is diagnostic and disciplinary at once. Men, in this formulation, are socially reliable but internally leaky: they can be trusted with the publics business, yet they cannot govern themselves. Women are cast as the inverse: masters of private self-containment, but dangerous in the realm of others affairs. Its not just a jab; it maps where each sex is supposed to belong. Men get the civic arena (handling others secrets, i.e., politics, commerce, honor). Women get the domestic interior (guarding their own, i.e., chastity, reputation). What looks like a compliment - a woman keeps her own secret - is also a cage: her virtue is measured by silence, her power by restraint.
Context matters. Writing under Louis XIV, La Bruyere is cataloging manners in a court culture obsessed with surveillance, gossip, and status. Secrets are currency, and who may hold them is a question of hierarchy. The punchline launders that hierarchy as psychology. Its the Ancien Regime version of a hot take: gendered essentialism dressed up as worldly realism, polished enough to travel through centuries as wit.
The intent is diagnostic and disciplinary at once. Men, in this formulation, are socially reliable but internally leaky: they can be trusted with the publics business, yet they cannot govern themselves. Women are cast as the inverse: masters of private self-containment, but dangerous in the realm of others affairs. Its not just a jab; it maps where each sex is supposed to belong. Men get the civic arena (handling others secrets, i.e., politics, commerce, honor). Women get the domestic interior (guarding their own, i.e., chastity, reputation). What looks like a compliment - a woman keeps her own secret - is also a cage: her virtue is measured by silence, her power by restraint.
Context matters. Writing under Louis XIV, La Bruyere is cataloging manners in a court culture obsessed with surveillance, gossip, and status. Secrets are currency, and who may hold them is a question of hierarchy. The punchline launders that hierarchy as psychology. Its the Ancien Regime version of a hot take: gendered essentialism dressed up as worldly realism, polished enough to travel through centuries as wit.
Quote Details
| Topic | Wisdom |
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