TO MALE INTELLECTUALS of the late eighteenth century, an “overly educated” woman was an abomination. These women, among them female authors whose writing did not conform to the restrictive norms imposed on their gender, were described with a variety of pejorative terms that emphasized their unnaturalness. For Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, an intellectual woman was a “Männin” and “Amazone” (she-man and Amazon), for Johann Gottfried Herder an “Abscheu der Natur” (abomination of nature); while Adolph von Knigge claimed that the “ge lehrte Weiber” (educated women) moved him to feelings of “wenn nicht Ekel, so doch Mitleiden” (if not disgust, then certainly pity). Adjectives such as “abomination” and “disgust” and images such as that of the monstrous Amazon echo the language of gothic literature, in which monsters and horrific figures externalize cultural fears about shifting gender roles, among other things. In associating educated women in general and women authors in particular with “disgust” and “horror,” German intellectuals not only conceptualized them as threats to normative gender roles but transformed them into figures of horror.

The condemnation of women authors as unfeminine, monstrous, and unnatural by male intellectuals around 1800 has its roots in increasingly polarized notions of biologically based gender roles. Femininity was believed to be passive, receptive, and close to nature, while masculinity was characterized as active, assertive, and close to culture. Since femininity was associated with naturalness of thought and expression, it was vulnerable to corruption by too much education, or education in subjects deemed “unfeminine.” By the end of the eighteenth century, terminology emerged to differentiate between two types of educated women: the “gebildete Frau” versus the “gelehrte Frau.” While gebildete Frau referred to an appropriately well-rounded woman who remained true to her feminine nature, gelehrte Frau was transformed into a pejorative term applied to women whose education jeopardized their femininity. Male intellectuals also feared that the intellectual pursuits of the gelehrte Frau would divert time and energy from domestic responsibilities, causing instability in the domestic sphere.