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Banishing the Beast: Feminism, Sex and Morality (Paperback)

by Lucy Bland (Author) "In November 1885, a spinster mathematics teacher wrote to a bachelor professor of applied mathematics and mechanics of her impressions on the divide between the..." (more)
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Product details

  • Paperback: 432 pages
  • Publisher: Tauris Parke Paperbacks (21 Dec 2001)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 1860646816
  • ISBN-13: 978-1860646812
  • Product Dimensions: 19 x 13.5 x 3.3 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 524,316 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Synopsis

A series of sensational articles on child prostitution appearing in the Pall Mall gazette in 1885 produced such universal outrage that the age of consent was soon raised from 13 to 16 by act of parliament. This is the starting point for this insightful examination of the ideas and activities of feminists around issues of sex and morality up to the end of World War I.
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In November 1885, a spinster mathematics teacher wrote to a bachelor professor of applied mathematics and mechanics of her impressions on the divide between the sexes: Men seem to say: by long descent, by unparalleled power, by race necessity, physical instincts must be obeyed . . . Read the first page
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Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Women and Sex, 16 Oct 2009

Victorian attitudes to sex were much the same as ours but their practice was more hypocritical. This was exemplified by the double standard, the understanding that while a young woman would remain chaste for her wedding night, a young man was expected to sow his wild oats. That upper class young men would sow their oats with working class girls turned the practice into a moral, social and political issue. It was on these issues that Josephine Butler led a successful campaign in 1886 to repeal the Contagious Diseases Acts of the 1860's and to raise the age of consent from thirteen to sixteen. Butler's campaign did not change the double standard that "the lack of chastity was understandable and excusable in men but unforgivable in a woman". The feminist argument was that there should be a new sexual morality in which both men and women would live by the same ethical precepts.

In 1885 the Men and Women's Club was formed by a small number of upper class people to discuss a range of political and social issues including "sexual instinct, sexual behaviour and sexual feelings". Motivated by freethinking, Darwinism and radicalism their attempt to discuss matters on a "scientific" basis lasted only four years. The men's attempts to understand how women thought and what they wanted failed. Men saw motherhood as the key divide between the sexes, women saw themselves being "judged and valued by their bodies rather than their minds". Men regarded child bearing as an essential female function, women wanted to be able to have the choice to be mothers - or not. Each sex had different perceptions of what the other wanted, needed and expected from their sexual experiences.

It was a commonly thought in mid-nineteenth century medical circles that a women's mind was controlled by her uterus and that if young women used their intellect it would fatally injure their procreative capacity. Neither could women be expected to have the same brainpower as men because their brains were smaller. The prevalence of evolutionary ideas amongst the upper classes considered mankind to be in its highest stage of evolution in the mid-Victorian middle class household and establishment of the British Empire. Women were regarded as lacking tenacity of purpose and determination and were generally unreasonable. Such ideas were challenged by feminists who claimed women had greater self control and therefore greater virtue than men and, as such, were the natural agents of future moral and civilised change.

There was clear distinction between social purity feminists and those who sought greater sexual freedom presaging the conflict between those seeking to equalise the value of both sexes as persons and those looking to exclude men from expressions of sexuality. The question of reproductive rights - control over one's body - remains at the heart of feminist discourse and is no nearer an agreed solution. Spousal rape has been outlawed in Britain and there is some degree of control over reproduction. The latter remains controversial, not because of male hatred of women, or a desire to control women's choices but because in a democratic society changes arise from the marketplace of free ideas in an imperfect and quasi-historical culture which responds to consensus and elite driven influence. In a sex saturated society educative sex (including relationship education) has failed but sex for entertainment is rampant ranging from the L word to hardcore pornography.

Inevitably there were misconceptions. Many thought the introduction of contraception would lead to sexual slavery rather than reproductive freedom as women were freed from the constraint of potential pregnancy. Sexologists such as Havelock Ellis argued "that male domination and female sexual submission were rooted in our earliest evolution and therefore inevitable." Sex became equated with heterosexual penetration and defined as an expression of racial instinct, an idea which lent support to the eugenics movement.

Bland's scholarship is extensive, although I was surprised to note the exclusion of Glen Petrie's magnificent biography of Josephine Butler - "A Singular Iniquity"- from the otherwise comprehensive bibliography. Her conclusions provide mixed signals. While rejecting radical calls for the abolition of sex she suggests that birth control has removed women's ability to refuse intercourse on the grounds of potential pregnancy. Sex education is inadequate but one wonders how "the active encouragement of an environment in which (women) can explore and define (their) sexuality freely with all its potentialities and pleasures" would be met by the production of sexually explicit material "by women for women". Feminism may have produced new forms of language but the underlying problems have not been solved even though the beast is no longer confined to one sex. A splendid read, a worthwhile purchase and five well earned stars.
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