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It surprises me that so many people don't know much about Mary Wollstonecraft's personal life, and I suspect it's a fairly puritanical attempt to rehabilitate her reputation after a long round of Victorian moralising, but to deny it kind of continues that Victorian morality.
Here's a few things you might not know about Mary Wollstonecraft:
-she had lots and lots of extramarital sex, and wasn't shy about it
-she had some incredibly intense relationships with women, too
-for real, her first daughter was conceived in a fucking tollbooth near Paris
-she had lots and lots of extramarital sex, and wasn't shy about it
-she had some incredibly intense relationships with women, too
-for real, her first daughter was conceived in a fucking tollbooth near Paris
She was also VOCALLY anti-marriage. She was pretty fucking radical, and she lived it. (she did marry towards the end of her life, but given the dates, well into her pregnancy)
Mary Wollstonecraft didn't keep any of her somewhat messy personal life a secret, she was just... her. And that being her involved some very intense relationships with women, proposing moving in as a unicorn with a married man, shagging in a tollbooth, and more.
Wollstonecraft would have probably been pretty fucking proud that Mary Shelley was such a chip off the old block she lost her virginity on her grave.
Anyway, yeah, it's 2020, so let's stop with the Victorian moralising and accept that yeah, Mary Wollstonecraft was a fucking slut, and there's absolutely nothing wrong with that.
One could also make the facile point that it was in fact a move towards being conventional that killed Mary Wollstonecraft - she died a married woman, from complications in childbirth.
oh and btw, what I'm stating in this thread is just the facts that are *known*, if you read any of her fiction, particularly the imaginatively-titled "Mary, a fiction", you can kind of read between the lines as to just how much of a passionate person Wollstonecraft was.
I'm reticent to call Wollstonecraft bi because she died in the 18th century, but...
-she had obsessive, deep, passionate relationships with at least 2 women
-one of whom she'd planned to move in with
-she wrote a novel about a woman called Mary who loves her friend romantically
-she had obsessive, deep, passionate relationships with at least 2 women
-one of whom she'd planned to move in with
-she wrote a novel about a woman called Mary who loves her friend romantically
should add, because people seem to be taking this as a defence of the statue: the statue is fucking garbage, like if you're going to do a horny Wollstonecraft statue, do her shagging her boyfriend in a Paris tollbooth.
