Editing Bluestocking (section)

{{Short description|Term for an educated, intellectual woman}}
{{Other uses}}
{{Italic title}}
{{EngvarB|date=October 2013}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2020}}

[[File:Bluestockings3.jpg|thumb|Portrait of Bluestockings by Richard Samuel]]
[[File:Rowlandson-Bluestockings.jpg|thumb|right|Caricature of blue stockings by [[Thomas Rowlandson|Rowlandson]]]]
'''''Bluestocking''''' (also spaced '''blue-stocking''' or '''blue stockings''') is a [[Pejorative|derogatory term]] for an educated, [[intellectual]] woman, originally a member of the 18th-century [[Blue Stockings Society]] from England led by the hostess and critic [[Elizabeth Montagu]] (1718–1800), the “Queen of the Blues”, including [[Elizabeth Vesey]] (1715–1791), [[Hester Chapone]] (1727–1801) and the [[Classics|classicist]] [[Elizabeth Carter]] (1717–1806). In the following generation came [[Hester Lynch Piozzi]] (1741–1821), [[Hannah More]] (1745–1833) and [[Frances Burney]] (1752–1840).<ref>Tinker, 1915.</ref> The term now more broadly applies to women who show interest in literary or intellectual matters.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Bluestocking-British-literary-society |title=Bluestocking {{!}} British literary society |website=Encyclopedia Britannica |language=en |access-date=2020-04-26}}</ref>

Until the late 18th century, the term had referred to learned people of both sexes.<ref>{{citation |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=80e-gY-4VY8C&pg=PA235 |page=235 |year=2007 |title=Early Feminists and the Education Debates: England, France, Germany, 1760–1810 |isbn=978-0-8386-4087-6 |author=Carol Strauss Sotiropoulos}}</ref> It was later applied primarily to intellectual women and the French equivalent ''bas bleu'' had a similar connotation.<ref>{{citation |author=Hannah More |author-link=Hannah More |title=The Bas Bleu, or, Conversation|year=1782}}</ref> The term later developed negative implications and is now often used in a derogatory manner.{{citation needed|date=May 2020}} The reference to blue stockings may arise from the time when woollen [[worsted]] [[Stocking|stockings]] were informal dress, in contrast to formal, fashionable black silk stockings.{{Citation needed |date=March 2013}} The most frequent such reference is to a man, [[Benjamin Stillingfleet]], who reportedly lacked the formal black stockings, yet participated in the [[Blue Stockings Society]].<ref>{{citation |author=James Boswell |author-link=James Boswell |title=The Life of Samuel Johnson, LL.D, Comprising A Series of His Epistolary Correspondence and Conversations with Many Eminent Persons; And Various Original Pieces of His Composition; With a Chronological Account of His Studies and Numerous Works |page=823}}</ref><ref>{{citation |author=Ethel Rolt Wheeler |title=Famous Blue-Stockings |page=23}}</ref> As Frances Burney, a Bluestocking, recounts the events, she reveals that Stillingfleet was invited to a literary meeting by Elizabeth Vesey but was told off because of his informal attire. Her response was “don’t mind dress! Come in your blue stockings!”.<ref>{{Cite web |url=https://daily.jstor.org/the-bluestockings/ |title=The Bluestockings |last=Wills |first=Matthew |date=2019-04-04 |website=JSTOR Daily |language=en-us |access-date=2020-04-26}}</ref>