How does the protagonist in Fantomina embody early feminist thoughts on female curiosity?

Question: How does the protagonist in Fantomina embody early feminist thoughts on female curiosity?

Quote 1: “This excited a Curiosity in her to know in what Manner these Creatures were address’d:--She way young, a Stranger to the World, and consequently to the Dangers of it; and having no Body in Town, at that Time, to whom she was oblig’d to be accountable for her Actions, did every Thing as her Inclinations or Humours render’d most agreeable to her: Therefore thought it not in the least a Fault to put in practice a little Whim which came immediately into her Head, to dress herself as near as she could in the Fashion of those Women who make sale of their Favours, and set herself in the Way of being accosted as such a one, having at the Time no other Aim, than the Gratification of an innocent Curiosity.” (Fantomina)

Quote 2: “…English culture portrays curiosity as the mark of a threatening ambition, an ambition that takes the form of a perceptible violation of species and categories: an ontological transgression that is registered empirically. Curiosity is seeing your way out of your place. It is looking beyond.” (Benedict 2)

While reading Fantomina it is clear that it is a work stemming from early feminist ideas as it immediately delves into gender roles in regard to power/dominance and the “virgin, mother, whore” classification of women in the Eighteenth century. Throughout the novel the nameless protagonist is portrayed to Beauplaisir, the man she initially lusts after, as either a virgin, mother, or whore. Beauplaisir believes he holds all the power in each of his sexual encounters with the protagonist, yet it is actually she who has made these situations come to be and is essentially playing puppeteer to Beauplaisir’s actions. What drives the actions of Fantomina’s protagonist is the relationship she has between curiosity and desire. In the second quote from the Benedict reading, curiosity is described as a “threatening ambition.” Fantomina’s protagonist is more than just a girl looking to discover sexual relationships; she’s driven to get what she wants from her object through elaborate manipulation. A woman manipulating a man was surely an idea that received backlash at this point in history, but it serves to emphasize the power women held and the magnitude of what curiosity can create. Curiosity was viewed in the Eighteenth Century as an exploration for knowledge that had the potential to completely alter the order that had been established in society by creating new knowledge. Having a woman’s curiosity alter a man’s world is a concept explored throughout Fantomina.

It is interesting that in the first quote the protagonist’s curiosity is described as “an innocent curiosity.” This idea of innocence and the protagonist’s endeavor being “a little whim” juxtaposed with her wanting to embrace the discourse of a prostitute emphasizes the idea of the time that female curiosity was trivial because it was lustful and self-indulgent in nature. The author having the protagonist’s assumedly first quest for knowledge of the unknown being one that she must sell and lose part of herself to obtain also speaks to the relationship between women and curiosity; that the protagonist still owes a man in order to have fulfilled her curiosity. By refusing payment after sex with Beauplaisir, the author is communicating her belief that women can experience curiosity independent of men.