Draft:Mademoiselle B

Mademoiselle B was an anonymous French author from 18th century France. She commissioned a man, under the alias M.G. to write about Hypatia of Alexandria, after which she composed her own response to M.G's work. Later, the two works were assembled into one document titled, "Dissertation sur Hypacie". this was done by E. Watts. Mademoiselle B ignored critical attacks on her writing and drew direct attention instead to the character of Hypatia herself, however did not focus upon her murder, but rather Hypatia's career and her true potential as a female intellectual.

M.G proved less interested in Hypatia as a model of female empowerment, the literary discourse between Mademoiselle B and M.G on this issue points to a real debate. these views became obvious in 1728, in volume five of the French periodical continuation "Des mémoires de Literature et d'histoire" edited by Pierre-Nicholas Desmolets. The main discussion within this work was written by M.G, and within the introduction he states that he undertook the project in response to Mademoiselle B, in order to inform her about Hypatia's "actions and character". M.G acknowledged that many educated women had been active philosophers in the ancient world.

The letter of response written by written by Mademoiselle accounts how she had requested M.G to write a very different historical study than the one that had been published in actuality. She had no interest in the political arguments that M.G had made in his writings. she then made the decision to ignore the majority of his published work, and used her own comments to push her readers towards her understanding of Hypatia, one that focused on her intellect rather than her murder.