By the late nineteenth century profound connections were being made between matters of political importance and discourses on sexuality. “The Scare-Crows of Sexual Slavery” by Victoria C. Woodhull presents a fascinating example of how the Women’s Liberation and Black Liberation movements were intrinsically and actively linked together. While she draws an important parallel between the […]
What are we running away from, and what are we running towards in our efforts to change social ideas of sexuality? Or, perhaps in more Foucauldian terms, who are we running circles around? This week’s readings bring new light to the realm of sexuality in Victorian America. The era we commonly define by the repression […]
I was also intrigued by Comstock, whose interpretation of “obscene” lead to bans on things like books – and the obscenity scale ranged from pornographic language and pictures to anything judged to be influential towards immorality (another term with a lot of scope), however indirect.
T. Griswold Comstock’s “Alice Mitchell of Memphis” is a consummate depiction of what Foucault calls “a psychiatrization of perverse pleasure” because of its intense analysis of Mitchell in the context of her family history, mental behavior from observation, and the emphasis on seeking information for medical preservation (Foucault, 105). Comstock’s unique selection in his writings […]
The Victorian consciousness, labeled in conventional academia and history as thoroughly repressed and compartmentalized, is revealed in the documents of chapter 6 to be anything but. When we shift our eyes from convenient assumption and towards the historical reality, rich crenellations and borders appear; in them a wealth of romance, desire, and love come into […]
This reading challenges the stereotype of the Victorian era as a sexually monolithic period of repression and prudishness. Instead, the readings challenge the reader to explore the different sexual attitudes prevalent in the period, and how socio-cultural frameworks helped to shape those very attitudes.
While it is impossible to deny the prevalence of the “Victorian prude” during the 1800s, this week’s readings made it clear the image was not embraced by everyone of 19th century America. It also shed light on many similarities of sexual discourses from then to now. It made me question if and how much we’ve […]
