French Common Sense - or the Ultimate Mansplaining

Olympe de Gouges was in the habit of relating personal anecdotes at then end of her published texts. So for instance, the story of how she travelled from Auteuil to Paris, and the evidence that she corrected her own proofs is printed at the end of the Declaration des Droits de la Femme. In a 1791 text entitled "Le Bon Sens François" she tells an amusing story about what happened when she overheard two men in a coach talking about the famous author Olympe de Gouges.
 

She interrupted the conversation: 
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-"So you know her quite well?" 
- "Certainly. Her husband was a cook: she refuses to bear his name! No one knows who her father is. As to her works,  not one word comes from her.  She  cannot read, they were written for her, affecting carelessness and ignorance in the style to make it seem that they are hers." 
- "But I have seen her draft a piece in front of several witnesses, and she even won a bet by doing so."  Replied Olympe. 
- "Ah! Madam! The play was written for her in advance and she was made to learn by heart."
- "Are you quite sure?"
- "So sure that I am prepared to bet she could not do the same again in front of me. Besides I know what I am talking about - I am one of her fortunate admirers." 

Olympe gave her final reply as she was leaving the car: 

- "Sir, I have listened to your idiotic claims with the calm of a philosopher, the courage of a man and the eye of an observer. I am this same Olympe de Gouges that you never did know and never could. Take advantage of the lesson I am giving you: men like you are common enough, but women like me are the work of several centuries."

[Dialogue adapted and translated from Olivier Blanc, Olympe de Gouges, p. 76.]