My favorite insult: “female Quixotes”

The true arena for woman’s awakened intellect is, as we hold, at home, and in promoting the progressive improvement of her own sex. Yet even here one not unfrequently meets with female Quixotes, who are for attacking every harmless windmill, which their diseased fancy can convert into a giant. One of these magnified giants in our land Is the evil of light lacing. 

From Godey’s Ladybook, ca. 1843 (http://bit.ly/female-Quixotes)