The Rules

I was actually pretty appalled after I read a few of "the rules," and realized that it was written during my lifetime. Conduct books during the 18th century consisted of numerous codes of "sensibility," and existed solely to teach females how to be attractive for marriage. They listed out guidelines of how women should think, feel, and act in different types of social settings. These were incredibly popular during this time because it was thought that women were too prone to their emotions, incapable of rational thought, and therefore needed directions on how to "properly" act. This lack of rational thought was also one of the greater arguments against the education of women. In A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, Mary Wollstonecraft strives to break down this barrier. She argues that women are in fact capable of rational thought, but have simply been suppressed and forced into a limited lifestyle. She states " women are told from their infancy...should they be beautiful, everything else is needless (380)." She critiques said conduct books, using them as main evidence in her argument that women have been trained to think that they are inferior. Even her quote that "riches and hereditary honours have made cyphers of women" refers to the gross limitations of womankind. In one fell swoop, The Rules completely negates what Wollstonecraft was fighting for. It gives direct actions on how to think and act in order to track down a husband. Things like "dont tell him what to do," "let him take the lead," "be easy to live with," and my personal favorite "do the rules and you'll live happily ever after!" Cleverly disguised as a "self-help" book, The Rules is practically a time machine that takes one straight back to the Romantic period, before Wollstonecraft and other feminists spoke out. It is a perfect model of a conduct book, its one and only purpose to train women on how to become suitable for marriage. The fact that it was published in the last few decades is the most baffling part of its existence.