Aphorism #9: On Nietzsche Indiviudating Misogyny
“Though not published until August 1883, it was actually written in Rapallo the previous January—at exactly the same time as the abusive letters quoted above. Its remarks on women, in other words, are cut from the same fabric as those letters, are an act of revenge. Nietzsche more or less admits this, describing Zarathustra as a great ‘bloodletting’, by means of which he got the pain of the Salomé affair out of his system (KGB III.1: 403). The catharsis, however, was incomplete since he needed to make a second attempt in Beyond Good and Evil. Here, as we saw, ‘woman’ is described as ‘the beautiful and dangerous cat’ with ‘tiger’s claws’ concealed inside her glove. Since he repeatedly described Lou as a ‘cat’ this is as good as naming names. To know Nietzsche’s biography is to know exactly who the tiger was that had mauled his heart.”
This highlight from The Oxford Handbook of Nietzsche was resurfaced to me recently by my Readwise app. It belies something that it’s worth reminding ourselves of again and again. It’s a point that Nietzsche himself wants to remind us of. Here he is in §6 of Beyond Good and Evil:
“Gradually it has become clear to me what every great philosophy so far has been: namely, the personal confession of its author and a kind of involuntary and unconscious memoir; also that the moral (or immoral) intentions in every philosophy constituted the real germ of life from which the whole plant had grown.”
Nietzsche was a wounded lover. He wasn’t natively misogynistic. In fact, as the article in The Oxford Handbook of Nietzsche explores in depth, he was a bit of a pioneering Feminist. So why the sass towards women then? Because Nietzsche’s work was as much art and individuation as it was philosophy. “In the philosopher, conversely, there is nothing whatever that is impersonal” (BGE §6).
Nietzsche was using his writing the way artists have done since time immemorial — for catharsis; as a “bloodletting”. Some of us write sappy poems or love songs; Nietzsche wrote aphorisms.
How conscious was he of this process? How identified with it? From the stories in the essay it would seem: not that identified. Among his friends were brilliant women: some of the first female PhDs in Switzerland and socialite patrons of the arts. There are stories of him playing pranks and of his shy politeness. There was a degree of teasing with his friends over his misogynistic writings. How obvious to them that this was not a monster of a man.
But it wasn’t just banter, it was salve. Nietzsche was a sensitive soul and Lou cut him deeply (though she was right to do so given some of his earlier bravado).
Today I’m reflecting on the recapitulaters of Nietzsche’s misogyny in the 21st century. I made a video about Nietzsche’s views on women back in 2021 (worth a remake I think — lot of rambling). Reading the comments hurts one’s faith in humanity:
@microfarming8583
It's it misogyny or is it facts that you find difficult to digest due to your own internal development issues?
@elroliz9442
Experience made him wise
@mountainseeker2844
Are you saying misogyny is a bad thing 😂@darkcat5649
Nietzsche has correctly predicted so many things I see no reason to question his judgment on this. Oh and I’ve looked around at the state of things that’s proof enough
@EvanRutledge
You can’t really believe every society in the history of the world got it wrong on women until the USA in 1965.
Are these souls hobbled by a Lover’s wound? Are their beliefs “a kind of involuntary and unconscious memoir”? Is it a salve for the sting of their rejection/s? Of the unfairness of nature’s hierarchy of beauty in the age of the algorithm? Read enough Red Pill/MGTOW/Incel content and you can hear a Shakespearean refrain “The boys doth protest too much, methinks”.
I believe in Nietzsche this was conscious. Given that nobody was buying his self-published books we might let him off the hook for an irresponsible use of his platform. He was using his work to individuate — to exorcise the wound in his heart. Unfortunately, he ended up legitimising the alienation of young men lacking in critical thinking who idolise him. In the age of the ideological gender gap, Nietzsche’s exorcism has fuelled many demons. Partly because he never worked through it himself. Once again he was ahead of his time and we are left struggling with the same problems he identified but found no resolution for.