George Sand - State Feminist

Mary Malone writes;
George Sand, the nineteenth century French writer, who called herself by a man's name, sometimes dressed in men's clothing, and regarded love as some kind of entertainment, was an early example of a State Feminist.
Underlying her work and her life was the assumption that masculinity was better than femininity, and that the lower orders should know their place. She might have sympathy for their plight, but they must not help themselves.
In true bourgeois fashion she saw 'love' as a subjective experience. The Romantic  Movement was part of the ideology of the rising military bureaucratic classes. In the new world of hierarchical obedience there was no need of give and take. It was all a matter of self.
George Sand was one of the nineteenth century's progressive patriots, some kind of safe radical. The working class were just a romantic ideal.
In her account of 'A Winter in Mallorca' she is contemptuous of the locals, wishing upon them some good benevolent French intervention.
In later life, at the time of the Paris Commune, she sided with Thiers and Versailles against the ordinary people.
Unfortunately, like modern day State Feminists she was bound by her class notions. The 'people like us' are those who command. The rest are non people.
For her the masculine was good, because the masculine in those days meant a place in the hierarchy, with its medals and its titles. For her, a woman, autonomous in her work, was sneered at as the servant of others.
Like the State Feminists today who claim to be radical while oppressing the poor, she could never take the truly radical step of being one of the poor and the powerless.
Instead, like now, the aim of the State Feminist was more power.