History 364-0-01: Gender and Sexuality in Victorian Britain; Northwestern University, Fall 2014
Marriage, Sexual Independence, and “The New Woman”
- For each of the historical writers we have read this week, what was the purpose of marriage? With whom do you agree the most?
- Marriage is union, not necessarily with love, to have children without being out of wedlock
- Marriage is for the good of the nation and race, happiness is not important
- In what ways did “The Woman Who Did” challenge Victorian perceptions of gender, and in what ways did it reinforce them? Does this reflect the fact that its author was a man? Why or why not?
- Enforced gender stereotypes, that women are weaker
- When people think highly of women, it’s used as a reason not to corrupt them with power and rights because they’re so innocent and pure
- Is “The Woman Who Did” more a critique of marriage or a cautionary tale regarding the New Woman?
- To Showalter, was the idea of the New Woman actually a good thing for women?
- Yes, it was progress, in that time period it was radical
- Drawing from this week’s readings, was motherhood a blessing or a burden for Victorian women?
- It was seen as an expectation, and if they don’t meet it, they’re a failure
- For daughters, the mother needed to take care of them until marriage, or else they end up badly
- “I can’t commit suicide because I need to take care of the kids”
- Are there ways in which Allen or Caird hindered the progress of the Victorian Women’s Movement?
- People may get turned off by excessively radical or extreme viewpoints
- She is more evolutionary than revolutionary, and is constrained by Victorian views
- Which of Caird’s arguments would be considered outdated today? Which would be considered radical?
- Confinement is no longer an issue because children can move out and live on their own
- Having children without marriage still has a stigma (having a family without marriage, “why aren’t you married yet?”)
- For Allen, was Herminia’s martyrdom for the sake of the future woman justified? What would Caird or Showalter say? What do you think?
- Taken as a whole, do you think the primary source readings for this week broke down distinctions between public and private spheres, or reinforced them?
- The anonymous letters showed aspects of privacy to the public, revealed information about marriage
- Women talking about private sex-related topics to the public, which broke down the barrier between the two spheres
- For Victorian women, what was the relationship between sex, love, and freedom?
- For Victorian women, it was almost impossible to see all three happening at the same time
- In modern day, all three happen together often, and it is likely