EXHIBITS

Title page of A Serious Proposal to the Ladies by Mary Astell

The eighteenth century is full of examples of women discussing reputation construction, and Mary Astell begins the process in 1694 in A Serious Proposal to the Ladies when she chastises women who try to build their own reputations. The reason Astell chastises women who try to build their reputations is that they begin to focus on their appearance instead of on their character. Focusing on reputation construction, Astell argues, makes women focus on “the Power, and Riches, the Grandeur and Pleasures of this world” which ultimately makes them forget God.[1] Astell is essentially calling for women to start relying on God so they can become good people instead of trying to keep up appearances.

In order to get women to focus on God, Astell claims that if a person wants a lasting reputation, they have to follow God and seek to possess “Strength and Ease, Solidity and Liveliness, the Sublime and the Plain.” [1] When a person avoids the extremes and focuses on God, they will naturally build a good reputation that will lead them to gain authority and wealth, but their authority and wealth will come from God and not from man.  Astell claims that being good in God’s sight and focusing on your character is more important than pleasing the world. 

Hannah More

Title page of Strictures on the Modern System of Female Education by Hannah More

In 1799, more than a century after Astell, Hannah More discusses issues of reputation in Strictures on the Modern System of Female Education, but unlike Astell, she does not focus on God and focuses on propriety instead.  Although More uses the term propriety, she is essentially talking about appearing to behave properly in public in order to get a good reputation.  More claims that propriety “is to a woman what the great Roman critic says action is to an orator; it is the first, the second, and the third requisite.” [2] If a woman behaves properly, she will gain a good reputation which will help her enact change which is what orators used to do.

More goes beyond the propriety discussion and brings up the term “pleasant” which focuses on a person’s character. More explains that people believed every individual “must earn the epithet of pleasant,” but “pleasant” was used to “combine and express all moral and intellectual excellence.” [2] That is a big role for a simple word to fill.  The definition More gives for pleasant would encompass all of Astell’s requirements for a good reputation such as not being “so Lofty as to fly out of Sight, nor so humble as to become Creeping and Contemptible.” [1] Finding a balance between being lofty and humble is extremely difficult, but that is what had to happen in order for a person to be pleasant. And if a woman pleasant that meant she had a good reputation because people recognized her “moral and intellectual excellence,” or she appeared to have a good character. [2]