Conversation [ Communication / Education / Social interaction / Language & Speech ]
… with women, not just because it embodied their 'natural aversion to coarseness', and their refined and delicate manners, but because, thought to be `naturally' polite, elegant and delicate, their conversation would discipline and … men `fall into the Effeminacy and Delicacy of Women' and women `take up the Confidence and Boldness of Men' in their manners and their language. 10 As poet Joseph Spence explained, while ‘some conversation with the ladies is necessary to smooth and sweeten the temper as well as the manners of men…too much of it is apt to effeminate or debilitate both. 11 Conversation as a practice was not for all …
Children | Controversy | Gentleman | Masculinity | Politeness | Science | Women
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