“The woman was his second mistake”: Rereading "The Anti-Christ" through "The Death of God"
The Forbidden Mechanism. Etching, AI art Introduction “The woman was God’s second mistake” ( The Anti-Christ , §48). Few lines from Nietzsche’s writings have attracted such indignation. Frequently cited as evidence of Nietzsche’s disdain for women, this statement has fueled accusations of misogyny and been mobilized to dismiss his philosophy as poisoned by personal prejudice. Yet to read it only at the surface level is to miss its deeper resonance. What if the remark is not a crude insult, but part of Nietzsche’s broader critique of Christianity, priestly morality, and the collapse of divine authority? In the arc of his thought, especially the proclamation that “God is dead” ( The Gay Science , §125), the figure of woman takes on a symbolic dimension. She becomes the mythical embodiment of knowledge, disruption, and rebellion—the very forces through which humanity undermined the God that created it. Read this way, Nietzsche’s scandalous phrase dramatizes not misogyny but the trag...