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Published on The Shadow of the Enlightenment (http://www2.evergreen.edu/shadow)

Stephanie Ash

Starting in the late 1600s women in France began to develop a symbolic power that circumvented their very real powerlessness. By inviting intellectuals into their bedrooms they formed circles of power and influence that shadowed the contempary male sphere of power based on might and money. Patronesses could marry or endow primarily male writers with money to increase their symbolic power via the writer whose sphere of influence is virtually limitless. By limiting the topics of the salon and defining rules of the salon, the women of the salon wielded even more intangible power. The salon turned what had been seen as a detriment: a woman's confinement to the home and limited resources and turned those to advantage. I see the same pattern in our Language and Gender book, conversation itself can be a tool to manipulate, control and change without seeming to by the clever use of what one has at hand. What is seen on the surface is not the substance that lies beneath nor should it be assumed to be.

‹ Janet Williford [0]

Source URL:
http://www2.evergreen.edu/shadow/shadow/stephanie-ash-0