On March 28th, 1835, The Hereford Times proclaimed Ann Jane Thornton’s story was an, ‘extraordinary history which every other person in the empire had no doubt heard of’. Thornton, a seventeen-year-old girl who disguised herself as a male sailor to travel to America, achieved notable popularity in England in the mid-1830s. The depth of her recognition in public media, though embellished in the opening press clipping, is curious due to the assumption in prominent historical studies that such a phenomenon had ceased long before the time she was exposed. The female sailor trope, deeply present in the media of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, was considered to have died out with the emergence of the more delicate ideas of femininity in …show more content…
By addressing the popular perceptions of the female sailor in a narrow context, Thornton becomes an optic into the relationship between contemporary media and the social context of the mid-1830s. The lack of studies on female sailors in the nineteenth century means that the descriptions of Thornton herself, her relationships and the reception by the reading public will be ascertained in association with secondary material on the prevalent social trends. In addition, focussing on a female sailor in the mid-nineteenth century will create a discourse of comparison between nineteenth century examples and the more extensively studied examples of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Drawing on the frameworks used in existing research on female sailors in previous centuries, this work seeks to test their applicability in an altered cultural setting. The existing historiography on female sailors often cover decades or centuries of examples, placing them as tangential to narrative that concentrate on discussing the larger relationship between women and the sea. Alternatively, relevant works also stem from an English literature base and therefore are more interested in text and language than historical context. Suzanne Stark’s Female Tars provided the most pertinent to the nature of this topic, as in Chapter Three, she sought to dissect the nature of public responses to female sailors through an examination of press reports. Her overarching argument was two-fold; the public responded with ‘tolerant amusement’ and accepted the narrative of cross-dressing to find a lost love. This ‘lost love’ narrative will be examined further in the second and third chapters of this work. The time period Stark addressed was from 1690-1850, though the bulk of her
James, Edward, Janet James, and Paul Boyer. Notable American Women, 1607-1950. Volume III: P-Z. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1971. Print.
In the eighteenth century, the process of choosing a husband and marrying was not always beneficial to the woman. A myriad of factors prevented women from marrying a man that she herself loved. Additionally, the man that women in the eighteenth century did end up with certainly had the potential to be abusive. The attitudes of Charlotte Lennox and Anna Williams toward women’s desire for male companionship, as well as the politics of sexuality are very different. Although both Charlotte Lennox and Anna Williams express a desire for men in their poetry, Charlotte Lennox views the implications of this desire differently than Anna Williams. While Anna Williams views escaping the confines of marriage as a desirable thing, Charlotte Lennox’s greatest lament, as expressed by her poem “A Song,” is merely to have the freedom to love who she pleases. Although Charlotte Lennox has a more romantic view of men and love than Anna Williams, neither woman denies that need for companionship.
In the generation leading up to the emergence of the flapper, the popular style for women was that of the “Gibson Girl”. Based on the depictions of women by...
The contrast between how She sees herself and how the rest of the world sees Her can create extreme emotional strain; add on the fact that She hails from the early 1900s and it becomes evident that, though her mental construct is not necessarily prepared to understand the full breach against Her, She is still capable of some iota of realization. The discrimination encountered by a female during this time period is great and unceasing.
Meyerowitz, Joanne. “Beyond the Feminine Mystique: A Reassessment of Postwar Mass Culture, 1946-1958” The Journal of American History (March 1993): 1455-1482
In society, constructs of correctness have been formed on the basis of expected, gendered behavior. Individuals have traditional roles that they play which are based on the historical performance of their gender. Although very rigid, these traditional roles are frequently transferred, resulting in an altered and undefinable identity that exists beyond the boundaries of gender. These transgressions into the neuter role are characterized by a departure from the normal roles of society which, if successful, complete the gender transference and allow the individual to live within a new set of boundaries. The Female Marine, or the Adventures of Lucy Brewer is the fictional autobiography of a woman who recounts her experiences in the navy and life as a cross-dressed male. Throughout her narratives, Lucy is able to successfully leap back and forth between gender roles without repercussion. On the other hand, Hannah W. Foster's The Coquette is a sentimental seduction tale that narrates the tragic demise of a young woman who attempts to exceed acceptable behavioral boundaries by establishing herself as a virile, independent individual, a role established by Simone de Beauvoir to be associated with the male (Beauvoir 405). Because of the similarity in the situations of these women there lies a need for an examination of their narrative purpose. The differing results of success with these women are found in the author's reflection of their audience's narrative expectations that deal with the social outcome of women who attempt to move beyond gender-identified behavioral roles.
Men and women were held under drastically different expectations in Spain and the Spanish colonies in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. These set gender roles are effectively demonstrated through the life of Catalina de Erauso, who experienced the entire spectrum through her adventures as a transvestite in this time period. Opportunities and freedom in culture, politics and economy, and religion varied greatly between men and women. Men were capable of living out their lives independently and ambitiously. Women, on the other hand, were taught to be reliant and mild-mannered characters in the background. De Erauso shatters this idea of a woman’s role by fulfilling a life of adventure and power. In doing so, she briefly dispels the obligations of gender roles, if only for herself. Catalina de Erauso was a nun, a lieutenant, and a history-maker.
During the Victorian Era, society had idealized expectations that all members of their culture were supposedly striving to accomplish. These conditions were partially a result of the development of middle class practices during the “industrial revolution… [which moved] men outside the home… [into] the harsh business and industrial world, [while] women were left in the relatively unvarying and sheltered environments of their homes” (Brannon 161). This division of genders created the ‘Doctrine of Two Spheres’ where men were active in the public Sphere of Influence, and women were limited to the domestic private Sphere of Influence. Both genders endured considerable pressure to conform to the idealized status of becoming either a masculine ‘English Gentleman’ or a feminine ‘True Woman’. The characteristics required women to be “passive, dependent, pure, refined, and delicate; [while] men were active, independent, coarse …strong [and intelligent]” (Brannon 162). Many children's novels utilized these gendere...
Gender inequality has been around for decades but “the problem lay buried, unspoken, for many years in the minds of American Women (The Feminine Mystique). Although one cannot deny the problem exists, the question which gender is to blame remains unanswered. In the film On the Waterfront, Pop Doyle forces Edie to go home when she went to the waterfront around all the longshoremen. Edie is discriminated against because she is a woman and it was not socially acceptable for women to be on the waterfront. Based on this scene, it seems like men have a larger impact on gender inequality than women do, suggesting the blame is more on men. However to contradict that statement, men in the 1950s were not exposed to any other social standards regarding
Welter, Barbara. “The Cult of True Womanhood: 1820-1860.” Nineteenth Century Literature March 1966: 102-106. Jstor. On-line. 10 Nov. 2002.
The study of gender and its historical analysis has, itself, evolved. Linda Kerber in her essay Seperate Spheres, Female Worlds, Woman’s Place: The Rhetoric of Women’s History argues that the metaphor of a separate women’s sphere which she traces back to the Victorian era and to de Tocqueville’s analysis of America—and which may, indeed, have been useful at one point, i...
Gorham, Deborah. A. A. The Victorian Girl and the Feminine Ideal. Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1982. Martineau, Harriet.
William Shakespeare’s The Tempest provides dialogue that portrays the social expectations and stereotypes imposed upon women in Elizabethan times. Even though the play has only one primary female character, Miranda, the play also includes another women; Sycorax, although she does not play as large a roll. During many scenes, the play illustrates the characteristics that represent the ideal woman within Elizabethan society. These characteristics support the fact that men considered women as a mere object that they had the luxury of owning and were nowhere near equal to them. Feminists can interpret the play as a depiction of the sexist treatment of women and would disagree with many of the characteristics and expectations that make Miranda the ideal woman. From this perspective, The Tempest can be used to objectify the common expectations and treatment of women within the 16th and 17th Centuries and compare and contrast to those of today.
Evaluate and respond to the presentations of women in the Romantic period. Feel free to discuss presentations of women, by women (such as Austen’s Persuasion) as well as presentations of women by men (such as the “she” in Byron’s “She Walks in Beauty”). Consider the following questions: are these presentations problematic? What do they tell us about the values and briefs of the Romantic Period? Do any of these presentations subvert (complicate, or call into questions) the time’s notions of femininity?
Throughout literature’s history, female authors have been hardly recognized for their groundbreaking and eye-opening accounts of what it means to be a woman of society. In most cases of early literature, women are portrayed as weak and unintelligent characters who rely solely on their male counterparts. Also during this time period, it would be shocking to have women character in some stories, especially since their purpose is only secondary to that of the male protagonist. But, in the late 17th to early 18th century, a crop of courageous women began publishing their works, beginning the literary feminist movement. Together, Aphra Behn, Charlotte Smith, Fanny Burney, and Mary Wollstonecraft challenge the status quo of what it means to be a