Some thinking is older than we know.

Been reading Jean Rousseau as supplementary reading for my History of Modern France class. I had thought that "Modern France" would be the 20th century, perhaps beginning with the Franco-Prussian war as a background before we move on to the Arms Race and Great war, but no. This class begins with "Le Ancien Regim", or, The Old Regeme, which refers to the French Bourbon Monarchy. Specifically we are studying Luis XIV, XV, and XVI, the last three kings of France.

As the philosophers and thinkers of this era are very important, as supplementary reading we are given Voltaire, Rousseau, and Diderot. Whilst reading a biography of Rousseau's life, I've come across some interesting passages In the margins it says that they are condensed from his work "Emile" I think I need to find a copy and digest the real deal, but for now here is what has me interested:

Quote:
It is as a republican that he attacks the sexual relationships which prevail in the decadent kingdom of France, where he discerns a deplorable form of sexual uniformity in which the men are as effeminate as the women.


Quote:
In this most advanced form of modern culture, boys, he protests, are simply brought up to be young ladies in jerkins; and men, being unable to make themselves men, are turned by women into women


The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637

Copyright 1991 Maurice Cranston

The Noble Savage: Jean Jacques Rousseau, pg 187

I guess I find these particular passages interesting because they echo many of my own opinions of "our" modern era. For me this is why researching history is so fascinating, that so many opinions and ways of thinking are, in fact, not very new.

Discuss?