In the last decades of the nineteenth century, middle-class Parisians became obsessed with their own demise. After France’s embarrassing defeat in the Franco-Prussian War, many used degeneration theory, a scientific model developed in the 1800s that described the gradual decay of a species, as a way of explaining the loss. These pervasive fears of degeneration, coupled with rising anxiety concerning France’s low birthrate, created a climate where stability was both rare and necessary. Many French men looked to what they had seen as constants before the war as a means of finding stability, and one of the most treasured consistencies was the system of gender roles. While French men doubted their own virility as it related to their capacity to …show more content…
Accampo speaks of a specific lecture that took place on November 20, 1905; several newspapers publicized Roussel’s “Freedom of Motherhood” by defaming it as a depopulation speech. Nevertheless, as Roussel spoke, "Her audience was attentive and enthusiastic, interrupting her numerous times with applause." Therefore, despite negative press, many French people other than Roussel clearly held her same views; the separation of loving sexuality and procreation, along with her dramatic revelation of the truth of motherhood, resonated with many in her audience and beyond. At the same time, Accampo points out that Roussel’s critics rarely attended her lectures but instead attacked her ideas from afar. Her analysis reveals two popular concerns with Roussel’s message: "she brought into public discussion an issue that had previously been private, and she did so as a woman. She also created fears that more women would abandon their proper maternal responsibilities." Both of these ideas relate directly to the rhetoric surrounding virginity. First, Roussel unlocked the secret world of sexuality by discussing it so publicly. Whether sexual enjoyment or contraceptives, her topic choice did not conform to the ignorance mothers and suitors sought of young women. Furthermore, Roussel’s subtle …show more content…
The New Catholic Encyclopedia explains, “Virginity is the state of one who has not had sexual relations...It may be therefore attributed to men as well as to women, Apart from considerations of religion and virtue, however, it has generally been more highly honored in women than in men.” Virginity was commonly spoken of as “taken” or “lost”, and if a women did not guard herself against the advances of men, “elle perdra son prestige.” The majority of medical doctrine in Europe up until this point held that the breaking of the hymen was the telltale sign of a loss of virginity. For a society so obsessed with the act of penetrating the hymen, however, very little literature appears to connect the action of hymen-breaking to the concept of
Revolutionary Mothers: Women in the Struggle for America’s Independence. By Carol Berkin (New York: Vintage Books, 2006). 194 pp. Reviewed by Melissa Velazquez, October 12, 2015.
At the beginning of the 1900s, there was a “sexual revolution” in New York City. During this time, sexual acts and desires were not hidden, but instead they were openl...
Another known regional writer from this time period is Mary Wilkins Freeman. Similar to Jewett, her texts use the New England geographical setting. Mary Wilkins Freeman’s short stories and novels are local color examples of the New England area in which she was born. Her works include the New England dialects and traits, components of the area’s Puritan roots, and portrayals of life in rural and penurious New England. During the time of Freeman’s writing, many farmers had begun to move west, particularly because of the spread of railroads. This caused the rural New England population to drop tremendously. Freeman’s protagonists are mainly elderly women or young women of marriageable age of families who remained behind in this New England post-Civil War setting.
The values and rules of traditional community add great pressure on an individual 's shoulder while choosing their identity. While women 's have relatively more freedom then before but however values of traditional communities creates an invisible fence between their choices. It put the young women in a disconcerting situation about their sexual freedom. Bell demonstrates the how the contradiction messages are delivered to the young woman 's, she writes that “Their peers, television shows such as Sex and the City, and movies seem to encourage sexual experimentation... But at the same time, books, such as Unhooked and A Return to Modesty advise them to return to courtship practices from the early 1900s”(27).
This essay will analyse whether the iconic representation of the roaring twenties with the woman's new right to sexuality, was a liberal step of progression within society or a capitalist venture to exploit a new viable market. Using Margaret Sanger's work in comparison with a survey conducted by New Girls for Old, the former a more mature look at the sexuality and ownership to a woman's body and the second a representation of girls coming of age in the sexually "free" roaring twenties. Margaret Sanger is known as "the mother of planned parenthood", and in the source she collates a collection of letters to speak of the sexual enslavement of motherhood through the fulfilment of the husbands desires. While Blanchard and Manasses of New Girls for Old suggests the historical consensus that the flapper is a figment compared to the reality where promiscuity was largely condemned.
McMillan, James F. Housewife or Harlot: The Place of Women in French Society 1870-1940. New York: St. Martin's Press: 1981.
...roviders. One thing is clear, although it may have been frowned upon, the women of the time were undergoing a change through breaking social norms, going to parties on their own or with other women, drinking, smoking like men- although frowned upon, these acts were bold, they were new to the women of the era. They were the beginning of a woman’s more expansive and self-defined place in the modern world.
Accordingly, I decided the purposes behind women 's resistance neither renamed sexual introduction parts nor overcame money related dependence. I recalled why their yearning for the trappings of progression could darken into a self-compelling consumerism. I evaluated how a conviction arrangement of feeling could end in sexual danger or a married woman 's troublesome twofold day. None of that, regardless, ought to cloud an era 's legacy. I comprehend prerequisites for a standard of female open work, another style of sexual expressiveness, the area of women into open space and political fights previously cornered by men all these pushed against ordinary restrictions even as they made new susceptibilities.
In the latter years of the nineteenth century, women's roles in American society underwent gradual but definite growth, spurred on by a rapidly changing society. As the nation recovered from its Civil War and slavery faded away, a massive transformation of industrialization took place, and revolutionary scientific ideas, such as those presented in Charles Darwin's Origin of Species, and by Sigmund Freud, caused people to question and to rethink fundamental aspects of their lives, religion, and beliefs. Social reforms in the fields of health, labor, and education developed as the publication of books and periodicals revealed to the public the problems therein. At the turn of the century, women's roles were severely limited by society's concepts of male supremacy and female inferiority. Women were perceived as weak, a notion upheld by the "prevalence of invalidism among nineteenth century women". (Muhlenfeld, Elisabeth) Fashions of the times didn't help either. Voluminous, billowing skirts hampered movement, and corsets caused dizzy spells and fainting. A woman's priority in young adulthood was to find a husband, and after doing so, raise a family and run a well-kept household. Women were not expected to harbor aspirations other than "... the acquisition of a husband, a family, and a home....". (Cowen, Ruth Schwartz) The male-d...
In Of Woman Born, Adrienne Rich effectively weaves her own story into a convincing account of what it means to become a mother within the bonds of patriarchal culture. Her conclusion that the institution of motherhood, which she distinguishes from motherhood, must be destroyed in order to release the creation and sustenance of life into the same realm of decision, struggle, surprise, imagination, and conscious intelligence, as any other difficult, but freely chosen work is substantiated by her courageous confession that contradicts culturally normative notions of motherhood.
The Movement for Women's Rights Inside "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Women have been mistreated, enchained and dominated by men for most of the human history. Until the second half of the twentieth century, there was great inequality between the social and economic conditions of men and women (Pearson Education). The battle for women's emancipation, however, had started in 1848 by the first women's rights convention, which was led by some remarkable and brave women (Pearson Education).
Within the public sphere women had the option of peaceful protest which allowed for them to sway the political system that had oppressed them for so long. Unfortunately public protest could not change the oppression that took place in the private sphere of domesticity. We can see in the story that Mother has no intere... ... middle of paper ... ... E. Freeman.
"People and Events: The Pill and the Sexual Revolution." PBS. PBS, n.d. Web. 12 May 2014.
When people think of a mother they think of a comforter, a lover, and a role model. Today, most women’s dream is to become a phenomenal mother: being someone their child, and even observers, can look up to. What if a woman is denied her dreams of becoming a mother, or even compelled to think being a mother is indecent? Suppose people of the world are conditioned to believe the words “birth” and “mother” are obscene, and the only mothers existing in the world were called “savages.” Would one’s dreams be crushed as a result of the absence of motherhood? Would she feel like something is missing in her life without the love of a child? In Brave New World, by Aldous Huxley, the unpleasant feelings toward births and mothers are universal. To be living in a world which is “perfect,” there are many imperfections because of the lack of a mother’s love.