Montaigne and Étienne de La Boétie
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| - | ===[[Montaigne and Etienne de La Boétie]]=== | + | The [[friendship]] between [[Montaigne]] and [[Etienne de La Boétie]] has been the object of many speculations regarding its [[romantic friendship|romantic nature]]. |
| - | The French philosopher [[Montaigne]] described the concept of [[romantic friendship]] (without using this English term) in his essay "On Friendship." In addition to distinguishing this type of love from homosexuality ("this other Greek licence" ''sp.''), another way in which Montaigne differed from the modern view<ref>[[John Ruskin]]'s 1865 essay "On Queen's Gardens" is a good example of the later view that emotionality was a female province; Kate Millet analyzes this essay in ''Sexual Politics'' (1969, 1970, 1990, 2000), University of Illinois Press, ISBN 0252068890. Many modern books such as Carmen Renee Berry's ''Girlfriends: Invisible Ties'' (1998), Wildcat Canyon Press, ISBN 188517120X, argue that intensity in friendship is a female capacity.</ref> was that he felt that friendship and platonic emotion were a primarily masculine capacity (apparently unaware of the custom of female romantic friendship which also existed):<ref>Montaigne, "On Friendship", 1580, from The Harvard Classics, 1909-1914 reprinted at http://www.bartleby.com/32/105.html</ref> | + | |
| - | {{quotation|Seeing (to speake truly) that the ordinary sufficiency of women cannot answer this conference and communication, the nurse of this sacred bond: nor seeme their mindes strong enough to endure the pulling of a knot so hard, so fast, and durable. ''(sp.)''}} | + | |
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| - | Lesbian-feminist historian [[Lillian Faderman]] cites Montaigne, using "On Friendship" as evidence that romantic friendship was distinct from homosexuality, since the former could be extolled by famous and respected writers, who simultaneously disparaged homosexuality. (The quotation also furthers Faderman's beliefs that gender and sexuality are [[Social construction|socially constructed]], since they indicate that each sex has been thought of as "better" at intense friendship in one or another period of history.) | + | |
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The friendship between Montaigne and Etienne de La Boétie has been the object of many speculations regarding its romantic nature.
Unless indicated otherwise, the text in this article is either based on Wikipedia article "Montaigne and Étienne de La Boétie" or another language Wikipedia page thereof used under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License; or on research by Jahsonic and friends. See Art and Popular Culture's copyright notice.
