You're a woman, just as I am. That you...advise people and shoot zombies doesn't make you any less female than me, does it? If I hadn't married Hugh as I did my family would have been terribly disappointed, and whatever I might say of the rest of his family, he's a wonderful man and I love him and my children. Don't you want that? I know there are women who don't, but you're hardly suited to a religious vocation either!
Yes, but if you don't try out the things that don't work, you'll never discover those that do. I'm not an alchemist, though. I'm not aware of the details.
I don't find it dishonorable to do so, not if it's set to the right purpose. The knowledge exists, after all.