City Of Dreadful Delight: Article Analysis

Over the past 200 years sexual liberation and freedom have become topics of discussions prevalent within western culture and society. With the recent exploration of sexuality a new concept of sexual and gender identity has emerged and is being analyzed in various fields of study. The ideology behind what defines gender and how society explains sex beyond biology has changed at a rapid pace. In response various attempts to create specific and catch all definitions of growing gender and sexual minorities has been on going. This has resulted in the concept of gender becoming a multi- layered shifting hypothesis to which society is adapting. Since the 19th-century, philosophers and theorists have continued to scrutinize gender beyond biological and social interpretation. Margaret Atwood 's The Handmaid 's Tale captures the limitations and social implications forced upon a set gender based on societal expectations. Gender is a social construct that limits the individual to the restrictions and traditions of a society, or if it’s an individually formed self-identification of sex and sexuality that is formed autonomously. Evidence of gender establishment can be seen within literary works and supported by various schools of gender and sexuality theory.

By the year 2015, it has been long since brothels have lined the streets of well-known cities to the extent in which they did during the early 1900’s. While there are still a few legal brothels in Nevada and in some foreign countries, we usually find similar sorts in the forms of gentleman clubs or strip clubs nowadays. When examining the early 1900’s and our current modernity, there are, of course, both extreme and subtle similarities and differences. In Karen Abbott’s novel, Sin in the Second City: Madams, Ministers, Playboys and the Battle for America’s Soul, there is no pronounced comparison of our modern world with the one of the past, but we can insightfully see that we are not so different. Prostitution, sex trafficking, drugs,

Sexuality has an inherent connection to human nature. Yet, even in regards to something so natural, societies throughout times have imposed expectations and gender roles upon it. Ultimately, these come to oppress women, and confine them within the limits that the world has set for them. However, society is constantly evolving, and within the past 200 years, the role of women has changed. These changes in society can be seen within the intricacies of literature in each era. Specifically, through analyzing The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne and The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath, one can observe the dynamics of society in regards to the role of women through the lens of the theme of sexuality. In both novels, the confinement and oppression of women can be visibly seen as a result of these gender roles. Yet, from the time The Scarlet Letter was published to the time The Bell Jar was written, the place of women in society ultimately changed as well. Hence when evaluating the gender roles that are derived from sexuality, the difference between the portrayals of women’s oppression in each novel becomes apparent, and shows how the subjugation of women has evolved. The guiding question of this investigation is to what extent does the theme of sexuality reflect the expectations for women in society at the time each novel was written. The essay will explore how the literary elements that form each novel demonstrate each author’s independent vision which questions the

The nineteenth century is popularly known for its traditional view of gender roles, especially regarding women. The term “True Woman” refers to what society at that time thought to be the ideal woman, carrying qualities of “modesty, submissiveness, physical weakness, limited education, and complete devotion to husband and home” (White, 2009, p. 1). Women were restrained in terms of sexuality, dress, language, and economic decisions. In Amy Gilman Srebnick’s The Mysterious Death of Mary Rogers, Mary rebels against these standards by being a single women that is also sexually active, however, her actions are what seemingly lead to her demise. Similarly, Fanny Fern’s Ruth Hall also goes against gender norms. In her case, she earns her own economic independence through her writing and lives a more unconventional life as a mother, but faces repercussions from her family. Through the novels Ruth Hall and The Mysterious Death of Mary Rogers, the main female characters revolt against being “True Women” through their daily actions and behaviors, however they’re each punished with consequences for trying to deviate from society’s path.

128). Tanenbaum reports, “Initial press coverage focused on the defendants’ ethnicity, as if that had something to do with the rapes. In their anger and prejudice, neighbors made the victim a scapegoat and began to portray her as a prostitute, a charge that journalists eagerly repeated, unverified” (p. 127-128). Rumors spread that she was a terrible parent and they became believed as truth (p. 128). In portraying the victim as a bad girl, a promiscuous sex worker who did not care about her children, the media and the community did not care that she was a victim of sexual abuse. The false bad girl reputation was enough for them to hate her; they held protests and threatened her repeatedly (p. 128). In this victim’s case, and in many others, her supposed promiscuity got her the worst negative attention, as this made her unfeminine and therefore not ideal.

The aim of this comparison is to present how an author’s time period, rank in society, location, personal beliefs, and political opinions, affected his portrayal of gender, including men and women in his works. In the same ways, these works themselves also allow readers to peer into the way the societies of that time functioned

Feminist Fulfillment and the Ultimate Defiance Social paradigms are a societal construct. Survival does not depend on our ability to conform. In the Victorian era, conformity was valued above all else, especially concerning gender roles. Women were seen as objects of marriage and motherhood, nothing more. However, literary critic Katherine Thompson in an essay describes the Victorian era as the “essential beginnings of gender equity changes” (Thompson).

By the early nineteenth century, newspapers were an integral part of daily life for both men and women. Both sexes would have read about Thornton’s story in the newspaper. While it is clear that women read newspapers, ‘the size of the female readership remains extremely unclear’. It was this female readership that the articulators of ‘separate spheres’ ideology were concerned with reaching. The basic premise of the ‘separate spheres’ was that the public sphere of political life and employment was naturally the space of men and the domestic sphere of the home was the realm of women. The conscious articulation of this idea in the media of the nineteenth century was the product of fears of societal instability, of which ‘the breakdown of familial and sexual order became a striking metaphor’. Domestic magazines and newspapers worked to create and proliferate a baseline of acceptable behaviour for women and offered definitions of what would be tolerated. The attempts in the print media to reflect the model behaviour for the sexes is apparent the representations and phrasing of Thornton’s appearances, as seen in Chapter

Throughout the course of the quarter we read various novels in which the issue of gender arose significantly, whether it was opposing or accepting gender normalities, cross dressing, or a patriarchal society, the topic was present. In William Shakespeare’s, Twelfth Night, gender is presented in two ways: the first way is Viola, who cross-dresses as a man to hide her identity and wealth and the second, is when the women in the play go after what they desire, even if it goes against the normalities of gender in the Elizabethan Era. In Frances Burney’s, Evelina, women give into the expected subordination towards men as it expected in the novel’s patriarchal society. But in Virginia Woolf’s novel, To the Lighthouse, we see a shift in that Lily

Melia’s ostracized life is demonstrated through the depiction of language and Victorian morality views; the relationship between labelling and Melia’s ‘ruined’ self is established within the time that the poem was published. Thomas Hardy being a late Victorian poet furthers this ideology of ostracized women in the Victorian era with the use of his inscription. In the Victorian era, it was considered socially acceptable to have women who had premarital sex publically shamed by wearing certain garments and acting a certain way on the streets (Prostitution of Young Females in London). People who behaved toward the act and semblance of prostitution were then scorned because it was a symbol of impurity and tainted life (Prostitution of Young Females in London). Premarital sex was one of the worst things that a woman could do because they would ‘ruin’ their chances of achieving a normal life.

Judith R. Walkowitz wrote the novel City of Dreadful Delight that took place in London in the nineteenth century. During this time there was a large wealth-gap between the rich and poor citizens, creating the imaginary landscape because of how the upper and middle classes viewed the city of London and how the citizens liked to focus on others problems to forget about there own. The author also compares how upper and middle class writers and reformers viewed East and West London.

Raymond argues that sex work is essentially sexual exploitation, and that legalizing and/or decriminalizing the systems set in place for sex work promotes sex trafficking, expands the sex industry, and invites organized crime. Raymond further argues that legalized prostitution in the Netherlands, Germany, Australia, and Nevada worsens crime and endangers women. In addition, she argues that when governments try to prevent sex work by prosecuting pimps, brothels, and clients like in Norway, Sweden, and Iceland, trafficking does not increase, women are better protected, and fewer men buy sex. This book is significant as it clearly expresses the view that many feminists hold that sex work is actually detrimental to women, and that decriminalization

1.Indeed, for all of the recent claims that terms like 'sex work' and 'child prostitute' mask conditions of exploitation assumed to undergird all commercial, transactional, and survival sexual arrangements, it is striking that a commensurate degree of public outcry has not been lodged against the fraught term 'trafficking.' Equally troubling is that collective concerns haven't been raised about anti-sex trafficking campaigns' attachment to carceral feminist sensibilities, or about the uneven and sometimes punitive effects that anti-sex trafficking efforts have on migrants, voluntary sex workers, and now domestic youth and adults in the United

In the Victorian era, the status of women in society was extremely oppressive and, by modern standards, atrocious. Women had few rights, in or outside of the home. Married women in this period relied on men almost completely as they had few rights or independence. With this mindset in focus,

Mariana Popa was stabbed to death on October 29, 2013 six weeks pregnant. She was a sex worker and a mother of one. A recent law enforcement crackdown targeting sex workers led Mariana to work alone that night, rather than as usual with other women, to avoid arrest. She was also allegedly working late to pay a fine she had received for soliciting. Mariana’s tragedy is not uncommon. Sex workers are 400 times more likely to become a victim of homicide than the average worker. Current legislation regarding prostitution in the United States works directly against sex workers, the population these laws often claim to protect. The archaic and oftentimes nonsensical laws arose from the insidious problem of puritanical sex negativity within the United States. This systemic oppression of sex workers leads to high levels of violence and disease within their populations.