Class Blog

Old Maids

~ n02575800 ~ 3 Comments

The two articles on old maids agree that there is a multitude of women that are old maids: female bachelors that are destined to remain that way. Carlile states that an old maid is a women past the age of 25 whose comely features deteriorate. Poor features start to rise and rob the woman of her charm and good looks due to her lack of sexual exploration. “[t]hey become pale and languid, that general weakness and irritation, a sort of restlessness, nervous fidgettyness takes possession of them.” (Carlile). While Sala writes about how you can tell which girls based on their personality and demeanor “Among a family of blooming girls one who already wears the stigmata of old maidenhood.” He believes that a woman either blooms into a marriageable woman or a sad old maid.

While men normally do not remain bachelors their whole lives some women (old maids) seem destined to remain single, as he explains “But how many women-young, fair, and accomplished, pure and good and wise-are doomed irrevocably to solitude and celibacy!” They try to join the married but as Sala further explains “It chills the blood to see these hopeless cases, to see the women resign themselves to their fate with a sad meek smile-to come back, year after year, and find them still meek, smiling, but sad, confirmed old maids.” It is not that they are uncomely as Carlile suggests, but they resign to a life of solitude and without marriage. Sala was a journalist writing a book that was meant to be an accurate description of a day in London during the 1850s, so when he mentions the old maids he is only explaining them as they are, not with a trace of irony or misrepresentation from his perspective.

From Carlile’s view, he wanted women to have sexual emancipation and that without this emancipation, women will become old maids. While Carlile believes it is through sexual exploration as he states “Women who had never had sexual commerce begin to droop when about twenty-five years of age, that they become pale and languid.” If a women does not engage themselves, in these experiences, she will begin to suffer the affects of old maidenhood and start to decline as a person.

Sala, George Augustus. Twice Round the Clock, or The Hours of the Day and Night in London. 1859. Print.

Carlile, Richard. Every Woman’s Book . 1838. Print.

Victorian Opinions on Abortion

~ lazoe1 ~ Leave a comment

Abortion is a topic that has been argued both for, and against, for hundreds of years; nowadays the argument is pro-life versus pro-choice. The article that I read on Lee Jackson’s “Victorian Dictionary” is basically a very long rant that negates the practice of abortions. Augustus Gardiner, a physician in 1894, is the author of such an article. From the very first line we see his viewpoint on the topic of abortion; “Of all the sins, physical and moral, against man and God, I know of none so utterly to be condemned as the very common one of the destruction of the child while yet in the womb of the mother.” The article then goes on to talk about all the places in the world that practice infanticide and the reasons for such a practice. He mentions places like Greece and China and Sparta, places that practice infanticide due to deformities or religious practices, etc. These places are meant to serve as juxtaposition to England because the women in England were getting abortions due to “selfish” reasons. Gardiner states that the women would rather face “the heinousness of the sin; the possibility of death immediate and painful; the likelihood of prolonged illness and future debility; [and] the chance of a blighted being constantly before the sight…” rather than have their children. Gardiner really plays on the ethos of the people of the time by focusing on the fact that killing a child is an act against God.

The only credibility Gardiner has is that fact that he is an actual physician who probably encounters women seeking abortions on a daily basis. Unfortunately, it is known that the Victorian era was a time when women were seen as property whose only real purpose was bearing children and staying at home to cook and clean and raise those same children. Though I am not condoning abortions, I feel as though the women who were brave enough to seek abortions or even desperate enough to attempt to do it themselves were really women speaking out and taking back a piece of themselves that was given away the second they said, “I do.” Gardiner also contradicts himself at times. He states, “we can forgive the poor, deluded girl-seduced, betrayed, abandoned-who, in her wild frenzy, destroys the mute evidence of her guilt…But for the married shirk, who disregards her divinely ordained duty, we have nothing but contempt…” If abortion were truly evil then wouldn’t it make sense that it would be a sin to every woman who had one? Not just the married ones? This quote further supports my idea that his real anger is directed at the married women who did not really exist in the eyes of the law and of men.

Works Cited

“Victorian London – Sex – Abortion – Opinions.” The Conjugal Relationships as Regards Personal Health & Hereditary Well-being. Victorian London Dictionary.  Web. 14 February 2016.

Lee Jackson’s Abortion Article: Here

The Feminine Victorian Diet

~ Kyle Hoehne ~ Leave a comment

Lee Jackson’s Victorian Dictionary contains a multitude of passages that deal strictly with the “proper” diet of a woman living in the Victorian era. In The Lady’s Dressing Room, Baroness Staffe lays out her comprehensive ideas on what exactly a woman of the time should and should not eat. She writes, “In order to avoid growing old (that bankruptcy for the sex!), nourish yourself with food, light, but nutritious and varied, according to the seasons” (Staffe 254). Here Staffe is promising the maintenance of youth, or at least the appearance of youth, by proposing a simple dietary regimen. This promise of youth is problematic because she immediately aligns it with women by saying that aging is the ultimate bane of the sex. She isn’t validating her diet by its health benefits but by how it will keep dieters looking young, and therefore more palatable for a male audience.  She goes on to describe a meal that is so sparse, it should hardly count as a meal at all. She recommends only a glass of milk for the first course of the day, followed by “an egg and a vegetable” (254) for the second breakfast. Finally she proposes to dine at six at night, and to “not have too great a number of dishes”.  With a meal plan like this it’s shocking that any women survived the Victorian era at all. Staffe values fruits and vegetables, which is commendable, but she goes on to so urgently detest other foods on the bases that they will somehow mar the complexion, that her overall premise is laughable.  After discussing a woman who lived almost solely off oranges for forty years she writes, “I cannot say I advise such a diet, but certainly the prettiest women are generally as frugal as camels in their food” (259).

Staffe urges moderation but then goes on to cite and commend various women who eat nearly nothing, in apparent contrast with some of her earlier advice.  She operates under the guise of a helping hand; she offers her ideas as a way of attaining beauty and youth, and while she has a few sound concepts, the rest of her advice is so unhealthy that it taints everything else written. Her ideas are often contradictory, and as a result, the only logical conclusion that can be gleamed from her advice is that while she may view her proposed diet positively, it would be both difficult and unhealthy to implement it in Victorian times. The result is a telling piece of indoctrination that tries to compel its readers through manipulation and fable rather than solid rationale.

Works Cited

Staffe, Baroness. “Feminine Diet: Nourishment.” The Lady’s Dressing Room. Victorian London     Dictionary. Web. 14 February 2016.

http://www.victorianlondon.org/index-2012.htm

Abortion

~ Christine Fahnestock ~ Leave a comment

I came across an interesting topic in Lee Jacksons “The Dictionary of Victorian London”, which spoke of the opinions on abortions during the Victorian era.  The opening sentence states that there is no greater sin than “the destruction of the child while yet in the womb of the mother” (Jackson). Language, such as the word sin, allows the audience to understand that the article takes a religious stand-point on the topic of abortion, and that murder is one of the worst sins you can commit.  The act of abortion is even called murder and infanticide within the opening paragraphs of the piece—two strong words used to describe abortion; both of these words are sharp and invoke certain feelings and connotations with them.  The article uses many other strong word choices to negatively describe the act of abortion: “new-born are put to death”, “condemned to death”, “self-destruction”, and “moral-degradation”.

The article says that abortions are wrong, as they “avoid the cares, the expense, [and] the duty of nursing and tending a child” (Jackson); the accusatory remark only points fingers and attempts to shame women of this time period by arguing that the only reason they abort their children is to avoid the responsibility of having them.  The speaker continues to list various parts of the world and their common reasons for abortion, most of which include deformities in the child, or their mothers dying.  In contrast, it says that the women of Victorian England only had abortions for selfish reasons, like the ones aforementioned.

The majority of the article touches on cases of abortion where mothers had sick children, deformed children, or severe health risks, mentioning quite a few cases of women in New York.  The article itself was originally written and published in America, but was later republished in London.  The very closing of the article says, “and now I leave it with confidence that He who founded this great nation … will not leave it to self-destruction and moral degradation” (Jackson), meaning that the speaker is confident that God, the founder of the nation / world, will not allow such a sinful act like abortion to continue on in this world.

The article does not take a scientific approach to the topic of abortion, and models the views that would have been accurate for the Victorian time period—especially involving a highly religious view on the matter.  The religious view is not only accurate for this time period, but also stands with a lot of people in the current time period.

 

 

“Victorian London – Sex – Abortion – Opinions.” The Conjugal Relationships as Regards Personal Health & Hereditary Well-being. Victorian London Dictionary.  Web. 14 February 2016.

http://www.victorianlondon.org/sex/infanticide.htm

Cross-Dressing: A Desirable Crime!

~ n02714729 ~ 1 Comment

In Lee Jackson’s Victorian Dictionary, I researched accounts of cross-dressing women and found that many of these women were often “found out” in lawful investigations following the conviction of a separate crime. The first article I read was written for a newly published magazine at the time (though the source did not indicate which), and it tells of a woman who called herself Bill Chapman, who caused a disturbance at a bar after being complained of by many others for being a “cheat and imposter” (1). The article, entitled, “HATTON GARDEN. EXTRAORDINARY CASE- A MAN-WOMAN,” tells of Chapman’s alternative lifestyle of smoking cigars, wearing men’s hats and trousers, and traveling with another woman, who is her wife. The investigator’s comment,”She may be a disorderly and disreputable character, which, in fact, her dressing as a man clearly shows, but I know of no law to punish her for wearing male attire” (1) clearly depicts a common attitude towards the great misunderstanding of transgender people at the time. This claim also identifies with the words used to describe Chapman, referring to her a “creature” and using the pronoun “it.” Chapman reasoned her dress as “owning to the cruelty of her father-in-law” (1).
Another account from “The Penny Illustrated Paper,” discussed a woman who disguised herself as a man so she could make more money. Her in initial crime was “annoying the landlady of a lodging house…by creating a disturbance and threatening to beat another woman…whom she had been living with as husband” (4). In spite of the crime, this article heavily focuses on the fact that she is a woman in man’s clothing. In fact, the heading of the article is “A WOMAN FOR SIX YEARS IN MAN’S CLOTHES” (4). This seems that the lore to get people’s attention to read the article is more so by pointing out her “oddity” rather than her crime, then again, how else can one expect Victorian society to react?

It wasn’t until recently that cross-dressing became socially acceptable on the surface of society, so I found these accounts to be quite interesting, especially when considering the different reasons as to why women cross-dressed. Was it for women’s rights? or was it an expression of their sexuality?

Works Cited

“Hutton Garden. Extraordinary Case-A Man-Woman.” Victorian London Dictionary. Web. 14 February 2016. www.victorianlondon.org.

“The Penny Illustrated Newspaper.” Victorian London Dictionary. Web. 14 February 2016.

‘Man-Woman’

~ Autumn H ~ Leave a comment

Browsing through Lee Jackson’s “The Victorian Dictionary,” I found an article under Women’s Sexuality about a “Man-Woman”.  The article, titled “Hatton Garden. Extraordinary Case – A Man-Woman,” was written and published in 1835 as an investigative report. The article, essentially, tries to investigate a transgendered woman who goes by the name, Bill Chapman. Bill Chapman dresses in male clothes, is a ballad singer, and lives with Isabella Watson whom are “considered to be man and wife.” Bill is arrested for tricking the inspector into believing Bill is a man (at least it is suggested). Just from the article title alone, the author seems amazed by such a person. It seems there wasn’t a word for “transgender” so the very concept seemed very confusing, the author acts as if he has come across an important discovery for which he calls a “creature” in the first sentence. The author does not seem to condemn Bill Chapman, but just seems very confused on how to react or call him which reflects the time’s slim understanding of transgender people.

The characters in the article dehumanizes Bill because they are unsure what to call him since they cannot accept his identified gender. As I mentioned before, the author calls Bill a “creature.” The inspector, Oakley, calls Bill a thing: “…although the thing before them, that called itself Bill Chapman, was attired in man’s apparel, he had ascertained that it was a woman.” Because there is no word for transgender, the author and characters of the article don’t even identify Bill as human with their mention of “it,” “creature,” and “thing.” They dehumanize Bill in their lack of accurate diction.  Oakley then attaches the pronoun, she, to address Bill before revealing he’s known Bill for ten years. Oakley did not realize Bill was a woman until recently which (it is suggested) is what leads to his arrest.

Transgender people were not only neglected under any form of gender identification, they were also outside the law. Bill is arrested for “being a common cheat and impostor, and creating a disturbance.” When comparing this statement to Oakley’s long-belief that Bill is a man, it seems Bill is arrested because Oakley felt tricked.  Yet, Bill did not break any law as Mr. Bennet states: “I know of no law to punish her for wearing male attire.” However, this does not mean society accepted transgender people. As Oakley points out, he would like to punish Bill, but he has no valid reason to do so. Bill and transgender people are so outside of society there is no law against their choice in attire.

To even make the reporter’s account of the story more unreliable, the author points out that the reporter got the height of Bill and Isabella wrong. This odd note at the bottom emphasizes how confused society was of transgender people.

Yet, we still have this confusion of transgender people today because the English language lacks gender-neutral pronouns. I found this piece very intriguing because of that correlation. Even take the last line of the article, “…although this strange being had lodged for a number of years at the house alluded to, it was never known it was a woman, though at the same time it was never supposed that the creature was a man.” I often find people calling a transgendered person a “he/she” because a gender-neutral pronoun is uncommon. The lack of inclusion of queer people in society is still very relevant today.

Work Cited

“Sinks of London Laid Open.” Victorian London Dictionary. Web. 13 February 2016.

http://www.victorianlondon.org/index-2012.htm

Female Clerks

~ reevesj2 ~ 2 Comments

My topic of research from Lee Jackson’s The Victorian Dictionary was about female clerks. There was a satire article from the Victorian newspaper Punch about a female clerk being hired in a post office. The article deftly makes a mockery of the idea of women working in a post office: “…we see no objection to female clerks, who will, at all events, be sure to have something to say…” (“A FEMALE FUNCTIONARY”). Due to their lack of having a voice in many situations, the writer is teasing the idea that they would love to speak here because elsewhere they are to remain silent and submissive. The article continues to mock women by targeting the limitations of their legal standing: “We rather tremble…for we know what an awful propensity most women have to put papers to rights, and the inextricable confusion into which papers are generally thrown by the process” (“A FEMALE FUNCTIONARY”). Seeing as how women are rarely allowed to sign legal papers without the consent of a male guardian, this is a shot on their limitations. The idea of them handling the legal papers of others is certainly humorous and ridiculous to the Victorian readers. If not degrading enough to the female gender, the satire ends by taking the responsibilities of their position and twisting them into a cruel joke: “Perhaps, however, the State Papers are not intended for reference, and as most of them are possibly mere waste paper by this time, a female hand may be very useful in cramming them into all sorts of holes and corners, where they will be quite out of everybody’s way, and utterly inaccessible” (“A FEMALE FUNCTIONARY”). The author morphs the female clerk from the role of maintaining the functioning of an important service into handling an unimportant task where the result does not affect the documents in the least. He talks about the female clerks cramming the waste paper away where it is in nobody’s was and inaccessible but he is also referring to the clerks themselves as if their job would satisfy them and keep them out of the real business of government and law.

Works Cited
“A FEMALE FUNCTIONARY.” Punch. Victorian London Dictionary. Web. 12 February 2016. http://www.victorianlondon.org/index-2012.htm

At the Ladies Club

~ Antonia ~ 4 Comments

After learning about the Gentleman’s Club in the “Victorian Period” game, I decided to look into the “Ladies Club” section of the Victorian Dictionary. There was only one article in the section, and it was by the satirical conservative newspaper Punch. However, through the mockery that they give to the idea, they expose exactly what they fear women obtaining. The Ladies Club did not even actually exist, but the piece speculates on what might occur if it did, and how it’s possible formation incites “fearful questions.” Their first question is if there will be a club committee, and if there is how many women will be allowed to speak at once. This betrays a fear of women organizing and having a voice completely outside the control of men. They then question whether there will be a smoking room, and if “cigars will suffer to be lighted” or, for fear of illness, only “the middlest cigarettes.” Not only does this show disgust at the idea of women adopting a symbol of masculinity for their own pleasure, but it doubts whether they will be able to do that, or if their delicate constitutions would prevent it. They then question what women will discuss. Whether it will be topics they feel appropriate, such as “the nursery” and “bonnets,” or if they will talk of more scandalous matters such as love, marriage, and even divorce. In this question they restrict the interests of women to the domestic life. They do not even consider that women may talk about politics, literature, science, or anything outside of marriage and children. They go on, continuing to trivialize women, and their interests, even suggesting that ballots will be represented by cotton balls instead of actual ballots. Perhaps paper is just too heavy. They predict a woman in the club scorning her husband and leaving him to take care of the children for a night, while she takes time for herself. This practice, which men a known to do, is seen as selfish in a woman because her first concern should be the family and not herself. The last point they make on behavior in the club gives a good insight into the male gaze of the period: “what a sensation would be caused on the street pavement, if the Club belles were to congregate about the Club beau-windows, and stare through their eye-glasses every handsome man who passed.” They are revealing an anxiety about being objectified the same way that they objectify women. The entire article shows a fear, not of equality, but of a world where women have power over men in the same way that men have power over women.

Works Cited

“The Ladies Club” Punch. Victorian London Dictionary. Web. 12 February 2016. http://www.victorianlondon.org/women/ladiesclub.htm

Exploring the Victorian Lady’s Dressing Room

~ philliph1 ~ Leave a comment

My entry from Lee Jackson’s “Victorian Dictionary” relates to feminine attractiveness in the Victorian Era. Taken fromThe Lady’s Dressing Room, the excerpt provides a preface to the author’s advice on how to retain beauty. It was intended for a specific audience: married women committed to charming their husbands. 

The text is from 19th Century French etiquette author Baroness Staffe’s work. The translator, Lady Colin Campbell (Gertrude Elizabeth Blood) was a journalist and writer. She was also involved with a few divorce scandals, which is interesting when paired with the text’s intended audience. I’m still not sure whether or not it should be read as satire, and couldn’t find much additional info online for it.

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Introduction and Fordyce’s Sermons

~ Antonia ~ Leave a comment

Hello, I’m Antonia Carey. I’m a double major in English and Theatre Arts with a Performance concentration. I’ve never pinpointed a single favorite author, but some of my favorites are Mary Shelley, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Christopher Marlowe, Sandra Cisneros,  Hemingway, and Oscar Wilde.
Pride and Prejudice seems to be responding to Fordyce’s Sermons by emphasizing the individual over a ubiquitous image of “the female.” Where Fordyce is writing to women on how to be marriageable, Austen is writing about the effect that this constant pressure to be marriageable is affecting each of the women in the Bennet household. The most obviously affected by this idea of womanhood that Fordyce presents is Mary, whom we know is reader of “moral philosophy” (70). Mary does not show any signs of excessive wit or study of “frivolous arts” that Fordyce warns against (395). Yet, in Fordyce’s eyes, she still transgresses against her sex. He writes in “On Female Virtue, Friendship, and Conversation” that “Dulness [sic] and insipidity, moroseness and rigour, are dead weights on every kind of social intercourse” (397). Mary appears to have these in spades, as she is constantly taking the moral high ground and demeaning anything that she finds to be frivolous. It’s noted that when the Bennet sisters go into Meryton, accompanied by Mr. Collins, that “every sister except Mary agreed to go” (105). Fordyce also mentions women learning the difference “between an obliging study to please,” which he finds to be a good quality among women, and “an indecent desire to put themselves forward,” which is something women should avoid displaying. Mary transgresses here as well. It is stated plainly in chapter VI that Mary who, due to not being pretty like her sisters, “worked hard for knowledge and accomplishments, was always impatient for display.” At this event, Mary does play a long concerto, but makes up for it with “Scotch and Irish airs” (62-63). Her behavior at the Netherfield ball is not quite as felicitous. She is imposing on the party, so much so that Elizabeth subtly entreats their father to stop her (132). Mary, by trying too hard to be the woman that she is expected to be, becomes one of the women that Fordyce denounces.