The Book of the City of Ladies Appearances Quotes

Aristotle wasn't really much to look at. But nobody remembers this detail because it's his brilliant ideas that still live on today. The same should be the case for women, who shouldn't be judged on their beauty but on their ideas and actions.

Lots and lots of people admire Alexander the Great. But the truth is that the dude had a misshapen body and face and was actually pretty tough to look at. The point here is that his body and face didn't matter, because his personality allowed him to do great things.

Women in this book are often concerned with appearances, but not just stuff like makeup. For de Pizan, proper women need to be aware of the fact that people are always watching and judging their behavior. So these women must never allow themselves to be alone with men of bad reputation. It's not because anything will happen between them, but because people will start rumors saying that something did happen.

Christine is quick to praise a woman for her beauty. But she always makes sure to emphasize inner beauty over outer beauty. The most important thing to de Pizan is intelligence—she was herself an extremely well educated woman.

It's sad that de Pizan calls a woman a monstrosity because of her appearance… although an extra row of teeth sounds pretty shark-like. de Pizan is also quick to say that this woman should be admired for the loyalty she showed to her father in difficult times. One might think that de Pizan could have left the whole "monstrosity" thing out altogether, but at least she didn't nickname her Shark Week.

Some women in history had so much bravery that they cut their hair in order to look like men. They did this either to fight in wars or to go into monasteries to serve God. The important thing here is that they transcended their appearances in order to do good things.

Many women get criticized for putting on makeup and dressing nicely because men say they're just trying to make people fall in love with them. Or in other words, women make themselves look pretty because they have huge egos. Christine de Pizan, though, says that this isn't the case: women want to look good because of the sad fact that people won't pay attention to them if they don't.

It's unfair to say that women try to look good in order to make men attracted to them, since men do this sort of thing all the time, too. You think that dudes go to the beach in Speedos or talk about having two tickets to the gun show just to impress other dudes?

People during Christine de Pizan's time were obsessed with pale skin because it represented delicacy. It also meant that a person hadn't spent much time in the sun. Nowadays, pasty-whiteness isn't a particularly hot commodity. But in de Pizan's time, tanning was associated with peasants who had to work in the hot sun all day.

Justine was a very beautiful woman. But even though the devil tried to make her give in to a man's sexual advances, her inner beauty was able to defeat the devil.