In Rachilde's fiction, however, scientists or doctors are associated with sexual knowledge that is both unwelcome and yet empowering, the sort of knowledge that makes a young girl's hair stand on end[…]. This horripilating experience is unwelcome, because it comes in the form of unwanted sexual advances at a time when the heroine is still innocent, but ultimately empowering, because it frees the heroine from any further vulnerability to seduction and gives her power over men.

the same Wool , for instance , one Men felts it into a Hat, another weaves it into Cloth , another weaves it into Kersey or Serge

My tastes, he said, still smiling, incline me to the garishly sunlit side of this planet. And, to tease her and arouse her to combat: I prefer a farandole to a nocturne; I'd rather have a painting than an etching; Mr. Whistler bores me with his monochromatic mud; I don't like dull colours, dull sounds, dull intellects;[…].

‘I like short hair on girls. I like that androgyny thing.’