Lecture 3: The Victorian Period

 Includes the 19th century in England, America and Canada

 People believed Victorians were polite, prudish and discrete with talking about sex
- True to some extent that the 19th century was “prudish”
- But, they mostly talked about it behind closed doors
 There was the emergence of a new middle class
- Before industrialization, there were the elites and nobility of society (top 1-2% of
society), then everyone else
o These people didn’t have to do paid work
 Their money came from their land
 They didn’t have to conform to the separate spheres
- With the Industrial Revolution came this new middle class
o There was a new mode of factories, manufacturing sector, etc.
o This class was eager to establish a new identity for themselves
 They weren’t born into wealthy families, so they had to earn their
own way
 They aimed for an identity that separated themselves from the
working poor
 How did the new middle class create this identity?
- Created a new ideology called = The Ideology of Separate Spheres
- It is divided into two sections:
1. Public = male
o The world of paid work and politics
o Mostly inhabited by men
2. Private = female
o Family and household
o The domestic sphere
- Everyone within the working class had to work to survive
 What made it easier to implement this ideology?
- The two-sex model
o Women and men are different from each other
o Women were physically and emotionally weaker
 They are unable to handle public life
o Men were stronger
o Helped fed into the idea why women should stay at home and why men
could go out and work
 It kept women out of the public sphere so they weren’t competition
for men
 For women who did enter the workplace, they were given cheaper
wages
 It was justified because they “didn’t belong”
o Separate Spheres and Two-Sex Model are mutually exclusive
  It influenced patriarchy and took root into the industrial system
 Spinsters: women who didn’t marry
- These women did not fare well
- They were considered trouble
 Women appeared as weak
- They were seen to be more prone to disease
- More inferior to men
- It helped form this notion of women’s physical passivity
o Different from the Middle Ages
o During Roman and Greek periods, women appeared as sexually temptresses
 Passionless
- The passionless doctrine is connected to her passivity
- Women are weak, passive and PASSIONLESS
- Women were sexually disinterested
o This can be an improvement
 They are no longer seen as lustful and manipulators
- Being passionless was connected to her value
o She would be considered virtuous, moral, modest and respectable
o This did not adhere to women of colour or non-middle class women
 They were animalistic, not respectful, etc.
- It prevented women from expressing their full range of sexual desires
- There were some benefits for women who choose to adhere to this doctrine:
o They didn’t have to get married
 This was great for lesbians
 Nobody would have assumed you were having sex with women and
could fly under the radar
o Helped protect women in abusive marriages
 They could refuse sex and not be considered rebellious
o The greatest contributor to the death of women was childbirth
 This doctrine helped protect women from death
 They could refuse sex and not get pregnant
o Helped protect women from accusations of being sexually powerful
- It was the greatest method of birth control
o In the 19th century, children were an economic liability
 They couldn’t help bring in income for their family
 They couldn’t work if too young
- This doctrine didn’t work in favour of men either
o Women were morally superior because of their sexual restraint
o Many men went to prostitutes
- This doctrine was popular, but most women didn’t buy into it
o It was promoted by the white middle class, by medical professionals and by
the clergy
 o Mosher survey: a survey conducted by a female doctor who asked her
female patients to share how often they had sex and if they were satisfied
 Most women had regular sex within marriage and experienced sexual
pleasure
 Women had more sex than everyone thought
 The Cult of True Womanhood
- A code of behaviour as to how women should behave
- There were 4 ingredients for being the perfect middle class women:
1. A woman is domestic
o They stay in the private sphere, manage the home and be a wife/mother
2. A woman is religious
o By religious, they meant Christianity
o Go to church
3. A woman is pure
o Abstain from sex until after marriage
4. A woman is submissive
o Listen to her husband and do what he says
o The passionless doctrine feeds into this ingredient
- There were no expectations that immigrants would conform to this cult (1830s-
1860s)
o Why would slave owners not want their slaves to conform to this ideal?
 Female slaves were doing hard labour and this was not compatible
with the cult
 Slavery wouldn’t be as profitable because women would have been
unable to do public labour
- The church and clergy published many books on this
o Considered prescriptive literature
o “How-to” books
- Women were scared into conforming to this cult
o There were still some women who didn’t and they met an unfortunate fate
 Husband could leave them
 This would cause the woman to succumb to poverty
 Husband could commit you to an insane asylum
 They could meet a sad demise of death
 “God would punish you”
 Women suffered from depression
- They experienced so many mixed messages
o They are told to be pure, but are rewarded for being mothers and having lots
of children
 They are told to be passionless, but their greatest passion should be
motherhood
o Women were told they were moral guardians of society because they could
exercise restraint, but they were given no power
 - If a woman was seen flirting, wearing too much perfume, etc. they would appear as
sex crazed
o This would get the woman labelled and admitted to an asylum by a father or
husband

Female Friendships
 Girls formed close friendships with each other
- Example: In Anne of Green Gables, Anne and Diane were very close
 These friendships grew out of the conditions women had to go through
- Men and women didn’t have anything to do with each other
o Men was working all day and women were home
- Women spent a lot of time with other women
o They were confined and primed into these relationships
- Women have much more in common than with men
- In the domestic sphere, females created a world of love and ritual
o It stressed female nurturing and the support among each other
 Encouraged among married women too
- Way better than adultery
o Adultery was considered the worst sin
 The middle class encouraged the bond among women
 Boston Marriages:
- Two women lived together as spouses
- A long-term relationship, mostly monogamous
- Shared a household
o It gave the impression they were like a married couple
- Most of these women were highly educated
o Women either (1) married and conformed to the cult of womanhood OR (2)
go to school and have a career
- Many of these relationships started in boarding schools
o Most likely area for female friendships to blossom
o Called Boston Marriages because most boarding schools were in Boston
o It started a social trend
- Seen as perfectly acceptable, why?
o These women didn’t marry, but weren’t going against the cult
o They should be getting married, but this was the next best option
o There was no assumption they were having sex with each other
 Sex was defined as with a penis, so how could they possibly be having
sex?
- Preferable to a woman living alone
o Women in these relationships were well-educated and were making a good
living
o Better than a single woman relying on charity from the state/church
 Why would society promote female friendships?
 1. They could influence each other into conforming
2. Mentor each other
3. If they were hanging out with their friends, that means they aren’t with other
boys
4. Prevented women from feeling isolated and depressed
5. Seen as a good step to marriage
o They learn how to share, be generous, consider other feelings
 Were these relationships sexual?
- Some historians believe they were
o They examined letters/diaries that women have left behind
 These women have expressed a desire to hug, caress, touch, be in
bed together, etc.
 They had pet names for each other
 Called each other “my beloved” or “my love”
 Expressed jealousy when their friend spent too much time with
another woman
o Marriage was considered traumatic because it would take two females away
from each other
o Even though there is possibility of sex, it doesn’t mean they were lesbians or
they wanted to leave their husbands
- Some historians believe they were not
o These letters/diaries were written with a sentimental language
 Rather than romantic/passionate language
- Some historians believe this isn’t an important question to debate
o Women lived in a world filled with patriarchy, and these friendships provided
a safe space for woman
 These female friendships started to become stigmatized by the end of the 19 th century
- Due to the rise of the medical field, sexology
- These doctors started to talk about female friendships in an ugly way