Sexuality and Desire

Why Sexuality and Desire?

Transatlantic Feminisms in the Age of Revolutions and the many readings I explored often dipped in to issues regarding women's sexuality and desire. By sexuality and desire, I mean to say that certain passages and quotes expressed to me ways in which sexuality and desire for sex were explored by these women writing these literary works long ago. Sexuality is literally what kind of sex and relations the women assume, align themselves with, or otherwise embody. Desire is the expression in some way of the want and need for non-platonic relationships, though not necessarily always to have such relations, as desire can be expressed in not wanting these things, being unable to express desire, or being restricted in some way. I chose to place the entries that follow in this category because to me, they spoke more on sexuality and desire than anything else and they explore the ideas of these things in Transatlantic Feminisms. The various pictures that I chose, I did so with purposeful intent to illustrate the affects of what I cannot articulate.

Sor Juana Ines De La Cruz

“Misguided men, who will chastise

a woman when no blame is due,

oblivious that it is you

who prompted what you criticize;

if your passions are so strong

that you elicit their disdain,

how can you wish that they refrain

when you incite them to their wrong?

You strive to topple their defense,

and then, with utmost gravity,

you credit sensuality

for what was won with diligence.”

-Sor Juana Ines De La Cruz “ A Philosophical Satire: She proves the inconsistency of the caprice and criticism of men who accuse women of what they cause”

In naming this piece of work as a satire, Sor Juana casts men right away as the one's in the wrong and those she is chastising in society. She calls them misguided, perhaps in interpretations of the bible and Christianity, as she herself is a nun. She also calls them hypocrites for making placing women in to situations to which men are to blame for women's actions, and ironically points out that men take away women's defenses and blame them for having sexual desire and using their sexuality to win positions of power, and to get ahead in life in general, when in fact they were won by intellectual thought and hard work. She criticize men for telling women they must not be passionate and give in to their own sexual desires, but that they cannot engage fully in Christianity either, and be fully chaste in that way.

This poem is highly ironic and relates back to feminist theory in that men are the ones blamed here for the oppression of women, as well as highlighting the age old oppression of female sexuality and desire. Which in turn relates to women's bodies and the regulation of them. Regulating female sexual and reproductive behavior is as old a debate as any and still in relevant today with the controversies of abortion and a woman's right to choose, slut shaming, and victim blaming because women's bodies are seen as moral and righteous areas consigned to showcase society's own purity. It also plays in to the theory of the Madonna/Whore complex, and of course points out the double standard that all women come to know. Be sexually available, but don't be a whore, be the goddess of the household, don't go out at night. If you step outside these boundaries, there is something wrong with you.

Leonara Sansay

“Yet Clara never deceived him. There is in her character a proud frankness which renders her averse to, and unfit for intrigue. When at the Cape, she was not dazzles by the splendour, though it courted her acceptance; nor could the ill-treatment of her husband force her to seek refuge from it in the arms of a lover who had the means of protecting her. At St. Jago his conduct became more unsupportable, and when at length she fled from his house, alone and friendless, she was unseduced by love, but impelled by a repugnance for her husband which had reached its height, and could no longer be resisted.” -Leonara Sansay Secret History; or, The Horrors of St. Domingo

This passage infers several things about women's sexuality and women's desire. The author, in the voice of the character Mary, explores how the Mary's sister, Clara, can be excused for her abandoning her husband. The whole matter seems to rely on Clara not falling in love and not falling to seduction.

The fact that her husband raped and beat her still does not fully excuse her behavior for running away, and it is only understandable and allowed because she did it independently from any man. Therefore, women's sexuality is demonized, and if one gives in to one's desires, one is at fault for their own victimization, and furthermore, their morals and purity are cast in to doubt. All of the temptations laid before Clara are clearly defined as her own obstacles that she must deal with, the men who lay those obstacles in her way are not even mentioned, as it is given that there would be men to try and impede Clara's moral character.

This relates back to feminist theory and sex-positivism. Feminism asserts that sexual freedom and choice is an essential part of women's equality, precisely because patriarchy sifts in to our every day lives and creates a heteronormative atmosphere that leaves little room for questioning or exploration. The reality is that sexuality and desire are very fluid things, and don't in general fall in to the rigid categories that society imposes upon people. Being feminine and being masculine are very much ingrained in to how society teaches us to be men and women. But being human, there is a lot more flexibility in what one does and how one acts in society.

Eliza Haywood

“Her Tears, however, and the Destraction she appeared in, after the ruinous Extasy was past, as it heighten'd his Wonder, so it abated his Satisfaction:---He could not imagine for what Reason a Woman, who, if she intended not to be a Mistress, had counterfeited the Part of one, and taken so much Pains to engage him, should lament a Consequence which she could not but expect, and till the last Test, seem'd inclinable to grant; and was both surpris'd and troubled at the Mystery.” -Eliza Haywood Fantomina, or Love in a Maze

This passage is another piece that infers things about women's sexuality and desire, and also infers the ways that women's sexuality is restricted. Beauplasir is astonished that Fantomina would pretend to be a woman of loose morals and engage with men. It is more than just his astonishment we read here though, it is also his inability to understand why she would do such a thing, as well as his confusion over why she should expected him to act any differently under the circumstances. As a genteel woman, Fantomina did not get to exercise her individual feelings of freedom, and by playing the part of a prostitute, she can enjoy a kind of liberty. Even the farce of a sexual liberty and the explorations of such is far beyond what she had been able to experience before.

This relates back to feminist theory in that Fantomina's exploration of her own sexual desires and power relates back to the sex positive notions I mentioned earlier, as well as illustrates the way in which society restricts the sexual exploration and desires of women. Because Fantomina is of the upper class, she cannot explore her yearnings of emotional as well as physcial connections to men. She is expected to safeguard her honor and her virtue. She does try to do this in the beginning, under the guise of curiosity and flirtation. It is only after Beauplasir forces her that she pursues him so much more ardently than before and creates multiple personas in order to do so. In today's society, women are still expected to be heterosexual, and to not have sex, or at least not have too many sexual partners. The more a woman expresses her desire to have sex, the more she is aligned with deviance. The double standard of the man being a player and the woman being a slut is still a perpetuated image and reflects the problems that come with exploring sexuality.

Susanna Rowson

“I do wish some dear, sweet, Christian man, would fall in love with me, break open the garden gates, and carry me off.” -Susanna Rowson “Slaves in Algiers; or, A Struggle for Freedom”

This quote, said by the character Fetnah, can be interpreted several different ways. First, the inference that she can only be free through the love of a man, and furthermore, a Christian man. Second, that she is unable to attain freedom for herself. Lastly, Fetnah as a charcter can be interpreted as a Moriscan woman, though she herself denies such claims, or as a Jewish woman, as the daughter of Ben Hassan, however it is with the American ideal of revolution and freedom she aligns herself with. Fetnah is also not averse to using her physical beauty to capture the attention of a Christian man to free her. She does not seem to care so much about the man himself, but more she cares what that man represents to her, and what he can do for her. Christianity is also posited as freedom from oppression in this way.

This relates back to feminist theory in the ways in which female desire is aligned to follow men's desire. That the woman be submissive to him and all that he represents. In this case, that Fetnah is longing for freedom, only makes it that much more complicit in that she needs a man to attain it. Through many of these excerpts and quotes that I've written about, I've noticed a way in which women have appealed to men and men's egos, sensibilities, and desires in order to further their own causes. Fetnah has no problem with using the love and desire of a man, and performing her own desire to get his attention. In some ways, her sexual desire is less important than that of her desire for freedom. Freedom and liberty, on a personal level is another rhetoric of our society, and deeply buried in to discourses and hierarchical structures that perpetuate oppressions. 

Crosslisted Entries with Sexuality and Desire

 -Anonymous "Petiton of Women of the Third Estate to the King"(1789)

Spirituality

Why Spirituality?

I chose the word Spirituality instead of Religion for the intent of illustrating the various way in which a sense of the divine influenced the writers of the following passages and quotes. Christianity may have been the dominant religion that was spread throughout the regions these writers were occupying, but there are different branches of Christianity, as with any religion, and the thing they have in common is a connection to the divine through personal morality and understandings spirituality. I chose to place the entries that follow in this category because I think that a kind of spirituality was what was driving these women and was also embodied by their writing. The various pictures that I chose, I did so with purposeful intent to illustrate the affects of what I cannot articulate as I did with the Sexuality and Desire topos.

Phillis Wheatley

“God grant deliverance in his own way and time, and get him honour upon all those whose avarice impels them to countenance and help forward the calamities of their fellow creatures. This I desire not for their hurt, but to convince them of the strange absurdity of their conduct, whose words and actions are so diametrically opposite. How well the cry for liberty, and reverse disposition for the exercise of oppressive power over others to agree-I humbly think not require the penetration of a philosopher to determine.” -Phillis Wheatley “Letter to Samson Occam”

In this letter Phillis Wheatley describes herself as being deeply attached to discourses of freedom and of personal religious liberty as well as liberty from slavery. She writes of how ironic it is that she is around people who believe in such things in the time of the American Revolution, and yet still keep slaves and tolerate the enslavement of so many people. The irony is in her final statement that no philosopher is needed to see the situation she and many others are in. Wheatley wants to point out how ridiculous it is to her that their words do not match their actions. She also invokes a sense of spiritual enlightenment and understanding through her relationship to God with her first sentence. This is important in that spirituality was a good are in which to explore ideas of freedom and liberty.

This relates back to feminist theory in that it is through her interactions with white men that Wheatley's poetry and writings flourished, being raised in the Wheatley home and taught to read and white as well as the encouragement from the Earl of Dartmouth must have impacted how she viewed herself and her circumstances. In writing this, she used her connections with the Wheatley family to write about slavery and criticize a nation that concerned itself with liberty from tyranny, but hypocritically had slaves. She engages in a discourse that not many could and becomes a cultural mediator between slavery and the American Revolution. Within a society where Wheatley had little to no legal legitimacy, she found a way in which to assert who own agency, and was helped along the way by the men in her life who acted as mentors and advocates.

Hannah Dustan

“...Hannah Dustan as fashioned by Mather was the model of the captive woman as victor since she proved herself physically, intellectually, and spiritually superior by killing, outwitting, and exemplifying Puritanism's power over the Indians” - Kathryn Zabelle Derounian-Stodola “Women's Indian Captivity Narratives”

Zabelle's words remind us of how women's strength and women's agency was viewed not all that long ago. In Hannah Dustan's “A Notable Exploit” the author writes about a raid by the Abenaki Indians upon Hannah Dustan's home and town and how she and a few others were captured and carried away. They remained captive for some time and then turned upon and killed most of their captors after hearing that they would be put through the Gauntlet. After killing the Abenakis, they scalped them, and returned with their trophies and received money and praise for winning their freedom. Dustan's narrative is told in a way that exemplifies her role in the story as a victor over savagery.

The aspects of Dustan's narrative that I found to be the most interesting in relation to feminist theory were how both of the women had similar stories, and also how their stories were transcribed and used in ways that made them become models for a type of woman that was desired by their communities. We rely heavily, as people, on race, gender, class, and nation to categorize people. There is a need underlining human nature to have these categories in place to answer the question of where one falls in the scheme of things. Order is kept by keeping these in place, but it is an order made through the oppression of some peoples and the betterment of others. Women in particular have their bodies used as symbols to keep people in their place, and Dustan's body was literally used in the depiction of her in two different statues where she is represented as a pioneer woman, strong and able to free herself from savagery, and using the righteous wrath of God to correct injustice. Spirituality is invoked heavily here in implying that Dustan was the perfect model of womanly liberty, as posited by the men who wrote down her account. Her sense of superiority over the native peoples is proved through her relationship to God.

Judith Sargent Murray

“And by the lordly sex to us consign'd;

They rob us of the power t'improve,

And then declare we only trifles love;

Yet haste the era, when the world shall know,

That such distinctions only dwell below;

The soul unfetter'd, to no sex confin'd,

Was for the abodes of cloudless day design'd.”

-Judith Sargent Murray “On the Equality of the Sexes”

Sargent Murray's writing is drawing from the discussions from her time period about the soul and gender. We can read her work as the “lordly sex” being male, and given divine rights and superiority by god. Men, she writes, then look down upon women for not being intelligent, and only caring for trifles, perhaps novels, romance, and beauty. Her next words envisage a world where women are seen as the equals of men, because their souls are not denied the right to enlightenment and their oppressions only happen on earth. In this way, she illustrates how ridiculous it is, when in death, are are equal, but in life, women do not get even half a chance to improve themselves.

The aspect of Murray's works that I found to be the most interesting were how the education women receive did not best serve them in life. I would argue that this is still a relevant subject in Feminism today. Education for the sexes is now mandatory up to a certain age in this country, and is supposedly equal in terms of who receives the most attention. This is true in regards to laws and rules set by institutions, if not in practice. Women are far more likely to be interrupted and ignored than men in a group of people, and men are far more likely to be called upon to talk in a formal setting and listened to seriously. Furthermore, women are still encouraged towards the more creative side of education, and men encouraged in math and science. In addition to these subtle prejudices, there are other forms of

education that take place outside of the formal classroom setting. Pop culture and the media, not to mention heteronormative family dynamics and structures, all encourage women to be wives, mothers, and to fall in love with love. Women are also encouraged to mind their appearance far more than men, and are judged to such an extent by societal norms that women themselves become their own cruelest critics. Not to mention the hypocrisy of living in a so called “age of equality” when women are not evenly represented throughout government, the business sector, and academia, despite women making up over half of the total population. 

Crosslisted Entries with Spirituality

-Sor Juana Ines De La Cruz “ A Philosophical Satire: She proves the inconsistency of the caprice and criticism of men who accuse women of what they cause”

-Susanna Rowson “Slaves in Algiers; or, A Struggle for Freedom”

Feminisms

Why Feminisms?

I chose Feminisms as another topos because in almost all of the quotes and passages for my common place book, I understood and took away feelings of resistance, revolution, and critical evaluations from what I was reading. Feminisms, as I am using it, means literally, the many different ways in which the struggle to end sexist oppression takes place. As an example, the explorations of sexuality and sexual desire as a form of resistance or critique, even in the form of satire, can be considered a type of feminism, just as directly writing petitions to challenge the status quo of patriarchy and advocate for women's education is another feminism. Since not all women were in a place, politically, legitimately, legally to embody notions of contemporary feminism, there is a particular way in which to understand these following quotes and passages as illustrating and challenging the struggles of sexist oppression, which is why I chose them. The various pictures and video that I chose, I did so with purposeful intent to illustrate the affects of what I cannot articulate as I did with previous two topoi.

Bell Hooks

“The foundation of future feminist struggle must be solidly based on a recognition of the need to eradicate the underlying cultural basis and causes of sexism and other forms of oppression. Without challenging and changing these philosophical structures, no feminist reforms will have a long range impact. Consequently, it is now necessary for advocates of feminism to collectively acknowledge that our struggle cannot be defined as a movement to gain social equality with men; that terms like 'liberal feminist' and 'bourgeois feminist' represent contradictions that must be resolved so that feminism will not be continually co-opted to serve opportunistic ends of special interest groups.” -Bell Hooks “Feminism: A Movement to End Sexist Oppression”

Hooks' work is a clear call to change the way feminism is done and a way to gather all feminists under

one banner and not continue to be divided. When she writes about the foundation of feminist struggle, she is calling to mind with her terminology the very real struggles and oppressions experienced by all kinds of people everywhere. Instead of thinking in terms of being equal with men, women, she argues, should be working to change the structures that hold oppression in place, including but not limited to sexism.

This relates back to feminist theory as a way of reminding those who engage in feminism that there isn't just one type of Feminism, but rather many types of feminisms. Even though there are many different types, there is still the common goal of ending sexist oppression in its many forms and flavors. Feminisms may be more recognizable when taken in their own contexts, and understanding the struggle people live through.

Clara Sue Kidwell

“While men made treaties and carried on negotiations and waged war, Indian women lived with white men, translated their words, and bore their children. Theirs was the more sustained and enduring contact with new cultural ways, and they gave their men an entree into the cultures and communities of their own people. In this way, Indian women were the first important mediators of meaning between the cultures of two worlds.” -Clara Sue Kidwell “Indian Women as Cultural Mediators”

Kidwell's words are a reminder about history and historical context as well as about the roles women played and still play in many ways. Indian women as cultural interpreters and mediators would have played a very important role in the politics of colonialism when european men met native cultures in the

'new world'. By living by them and with them, Indian women would gain a different perspective about their culture as well as that of the white man's, and would have had considerable personal interest in mediating encounters between their people and that of the white men they took an interest in or were bound to in some way.

Relating this back to Feminist theory, we have to remind ourselves of what different types of feminisms are and what they may have looked like at different times and different places as well as different cultural backgrounds. Just because the men recording history wrote about the women and their motives one way, doesn't mean that that is the whole story, or even the correct one. However, understanding how the truth about history is perceived is very important, as cultural and social understandings of a time can shape actions and decisions, regardless of the real facts and what actually happened.

Anonymous

“We ask to be enlightened, to have work, not in order to usurp men's authority, but in order to be better esteemed by them, so that we might have the means of living out of the way of misfortune and so that poverty does not force the weakest among us, who are blinded by luxury and swept along by example, to join the crowd of unfortunate beings who overpopulate the streets and whose debauched audacity is a disgrace to our sex and to the men who keep them company.” -Anonymous “Petition of Women of the Third Estate to the King” (1789)

This petition is interesting in many ways in that the women writing is assert their rights to live a wholesome and moral life, and also assert that to do so the government must supply them with the means. By framing their plight in a moral way, they address the well being of their whole society, and by addressing the King, they appeal to his duty to care for his people and his country's well being. The kind of feminism these women display is in the assertion of their rights to be better esteemed by men, and to be their moral equals at the least and to be able to have the means and protections to do so. They want a legitimate way to enter in to the public sphere and work that does not cast them as whores and prostitutes.

The aspects of this petition that I find to be the most interesting and to relate back to feminist theory is the way in which women asserted their undeniable presence within society, but were unable to act in the public sphere. As every person is born originally of a woman, and women are the guardians of morality and religious purity, the sex is often seen as one to be defended and placed away from the public view. Women who enter in to the public arena for one reason or another are cast as morally loose and even evil.Women make up roughly over one half of the population, and yet are still vastly underrepresented in the highest stations of power, whether in government and politics, or in CEO’s and upper level management positions in the business sector. In some ways, women still do not have full rights of independence over their own bodies, one such example being the controversies over abortion, right to birth control, and other women’s health issues. However, women are not completely unable to defend and assert their own abilities and rights. Without representation, women often invent ways to get around stifling conventions and regulations. In the cases of the petition to the King of France, allying themselves with morality and addressing their concerns to the King, women assert that change must happen.

Crosslisted Entries with Feminisms

-Sor Juana Ines De La Cruz “ A Philosophical Satire: She proves the inconsistency of the caprice and criticism of men who accuse women of what they cause”
-Leonara Sansay Secret History; or, The Horrors of St. Domingo

-Eliza Haywood Fantomina, or Love in a Maze
-Phillis Wheatley “Letter to Samson Occam”