In her discussion with Lady Reason in Le Livre de la cité des dames about the misogynistic commonplaces that constantly undermine the position of women, Christine de Pizan refers to the allegation made by some that when Christ chose to appear after the Resurrection to Mary Magdalene rather than to one of the disciples, he did so because he knew that a woman's tongue was the best guarantee that the news would spread quickly:

Christine recognizes that behind this gloss on Christ's apparition a joke is intended, but deplores both the joke and those who perpetuate it; Lady Reason takes the condemnation further, alleging blasphemy. Confronted with jokes in misogynistic discourse, an earnest writer of defence like Pizan has necessarily to quash the humour that others intend. To fall in with the joke, even supposing that she or other women were disposed to do so, would be an act of complicity, a recognition that women are endowed not with persuasive eloquence, as Christine argues, but with the garrulousness that the medieval working notion of women takes for granted. For the serious defence writer, all misogynistic argument must be treated with a gravity that recognizes the consequences in women's lives of the attitudes behind it.