How we cite our quotes: (Canto.Stanza)
Quote #4
The Turks do well to shut—at least, sometimes—
The women up—because, in sad reality,
Their chastity in these unhappy climes
Is not a thing of that astringent quality (5.157)
Byron suggests that the Turkish people are right to treat their women as slaves because, in that part of the world, the hot climate makes women want to commit adultery. How's that for nineteenth-century logic?
Quote #5
I'm a philosopher; confound them all!
Bills, beasts, and men, and—no! not womankind!
With one good hearty curse I vent my gall (6.22)
Byron says that he wants to curse pretty much everything about him except women, although he might be sarcastic in his tone here. Most of his criticism he reserves for the shallowness of English political society and, for the most part, he treats women as innocent because they aren't allowed to participate in political society (at least not in Byron's day).
Quote #6
And next she gave her (I say her, because
The gender still was epicene, at least
In outward show, which is a saving cause) (6.58)
Byron excuses himself for referring to Don Juan as a "she" because he is dressed as a woman at this point in the poem. This clever use of the female pronoun reminds us just how easy it is to bend our ideas about gender being something that's fixed from birth.