Rich's central argument was that women had been trained to put self-responsibility second to relationships and responsibilities to others: 'We have been offered ethical models of the self-denying wife and mother; intellectual models of the brilliant but slapdash dilettante who never commits herself to anything the whole way, or the intelligent woman who denies her intelligence in order to seem more "feminine."' The remedy was not selfishness but self-possession. It meant 'not treating your body as a commodity with which to purchase superficial intimacy or economic security.' It meant 'insisting that those to whom you give your friendship and love are able to respect your mind.' And it meant 'refusing to sell your talents and aspirations short, simply to avoid conflict and confrontation.' Rich quoted Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre: 'I have an inward treasure born with me, which can keep me alive if all the extraneous delights should be withheld or offered only at a price I cannot afford to give.'