An Aristotelian paradox: Wollstonecraft and the implications of marriage as friendship

ABSTRACT

This essay argues that Mary Wollstonecraft interprets marriage in A Vindication of the Rights of Woman as a relationship reminiscent of Aristotelian higher friendship. This position presents an Aristotelian paradox: Wollstonecraft shows how marriage – an institution Aristotle explicitly viewed as a husband ruling a wife – can be the basis of the Aristotelian fulfilment political society structurally provides to the best men. Overall, Wollstonecraft suggests that marriage should be recognized as a concrete contract of friendship between two individuals as opposed to a male-female complementarity that ends in the propagation of the species through childbirth. Her work enables us to challenge ideas of marriage – from Aristotle to Rousseau to the new natural law tradition – that overlook how the structure of marriage dominates possibilities for partnerships. By thus dignifying marriage, Wollstonecraft both critiques eighteenth century marriage practices and broadens the scope of gender expression today.

Abbreviation: VRW - A Vindication of the Rights of Woman     

“abandoned women and bad characters”: prostitution in nineteenth-century Ireland

Abstract

This article examines the extent of prostitution in nineteenth-century Ireland. It centres on the problem of prostitution as one of visibility and the prostitute as a site of possible contagion, both physical and moral. The legal powers given to the police to control prostitution were used when prostitution became a particular problem and the focus of public and clerical condemnation. However, for the public prostitution was most acceptable when it was hidden from public view. Attempts to rescue and reform prostitutes came from lay and religious women in particular. The establishment of Magdalen Asylums offered the Irish public a place of confinement for their ‘wayward’ daughters, placing them away from the public gaze. Examining the registers of these asylums reveals that ‘fallen women’ were capable of using these institutions for their own ends, particularly in the nineteenth century. The decline in prostitution evident in Ireland from the 1870s owned much to the new ‘morality’ being imposed on the Irish people by the middle classes and the Catholic church.     

V.A.T., Taxation and Prostitution: Feminist Perspectives on Polok

Debates concerning the taxation of prostitution have occurred in taxation law and in feminist literature. This article will integrate the case of Polok v. C.E.C. [2002] E.W.H.C, 156; [2002] S.T.C. 361, within the feminist legal canon. The case is discussed in the context of the argument of the European doctrine of fiscal neutrality, which dictates that, regardless of legality as amongst member states, if an activity is levied to V.A.T. in one member state, V.A.T. should be levied on it in all member states. The doctrine of sovereignty accepts the possibility that the integrity of the V.A.T. system may be compromised by the levying of tax on illegal activities, in terms of the cooperation between tax and other aspects of the U.K.’s legal system. European law, feminist law, commodification and the marketplace are all considered within the context of these principles. The article also considers the place of Polok within standard feminist texts on prostitution. Different paradigms of prostitution define different aspects of prostitution as ‘problems’, and the article considers the implications within a feminist reconstruction of Polok of this. The article suggests that the challenge for a feminist analysis of Polok is to remain within the realm of European tax and competition law, and to render the perspective of the employees of the Polok taxpayers part of the substance of the deliberations of the case.     

‘Lovers of liberty’?Prostitution and the Politics of Choice in Emma Donoghue’s Slammerkin

This article explores the way in which Emma Donoghue’s novel Slammerkin (2000) reflects long-standing feminist debates surrounding prostitution. We argue that not only does Donoghue’s portrayal of prostitution resist the pro versus anti dichotomy in which feminist perspectives on sex work are so often narrowly situated, but Slammerkin also foregrounds the complexity with which the politics of choice intersects with women’s decision to sell their bodies.     

Misogyny in ‘post-war’ Afghanistan: the changing frames of sexual and gender-based violence

Abstract

Although the US and NATO invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 was ideologically justified under the banner of democracy and women’s rights, the latter issue has been completely forgotten within the public sphere since then. As the war has officially ended in Afghanistan, new forms of misogyny and sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) have arisen. The ‘post-war’ Afghan context presents an institutional normalization of violence, favouring a culture of rape and impunity. The changing frames of violence against women are widely related to the political situation of the country: while public attention is focused on peace agreements, women’s issues are relegated to banalities and depicted as ‘everyday’ news. Meanwhile, new frames of SGBV appear as body part mutilation within marriage, forced prostitution, and increasing domestic violence, partly due to the growing consumption of opium but also to the perpetuation of powerful warlords in state structures. This article draws on gender studies to analyse the current misogynist culture in ‘post-war’ Afghanistan, framing the new forms of violence induced by successive armed conflicts. It relies on interviews conducted in 2013 in Afghanistan; and on secondary sources, mostly taken from the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan and Human Rights Watch reports.     

The Spinster in the Garden: Joy and Transcendence in Elizabeth von Arnim’s Father and Fräulein Schmidt and Mr Anstruther

Abstract

This article proposes an original reading of Father (1931) and Fräulein Schmidt and Mr Anstruther (1907), two texts by Elizabeth von Arnim that centre on a young single woman. It will examine how female autonomy is spatially imagined in the form of a garden and poses significant challenges to the patriarchal societies presented in the texts. Many scholars have detailed the recurring motif of the garden in Elizabeth and Her German Garden (1898) and The Solitary Summer (1899). The two texts this article addresses were published later than those that have been discussed in relation to the garden, and signal a move away from the married female towards an examination of the independent or single female. Significantly, they disrupt the traditional ‘marriage plot’ novel by tracing two single women’s movement into the garden as a retreat from the societies in which they live. In both texts, von Arnim presents a distinctively beautiful, transcendent garden experience for her female protagonists that contrasts with the oppressive expectations placed on them by urban society. These texts turn on dichotomies—city/country, built/organic environments, repression/freedom—to expose the central characters’ repression and their attempts to gain some degree of independence. Each central character experiences joy as a result of her interaction with the organic environment and the power the protagonist exercises over this space.     

Sexual Orientation, Partnership Formation, and Substance Use in the Transition to Adulthood

Evidence suggests that lesbian and gay young adults use substances more frequently than their heterosexual peers. Based on the life course perspective, we argue that this difference may be due to the unavailability of marriage as a turning point in the lives of lesbian/gay young adults. We use data from a nationally representative sample of youth (N = 13,581, 52.4% female, 68.6% white, ages 18—26) to examine sexual orientation differences in substance use and explore whether these differences vary by romantic partnership formation in young adulthood. We find that the formation of more serious partnerships (e.g., cohabitation, marriage) is associated with less frequent substance use among heterosexual young adults, though this pattern does not hold for lesbian and gay young adults. We conclude that the partnership options available to lesbians and gay men do not provide the same health-protective benefits that marriage does for heterosexuals.     

Marriage and the crisis of peasant society in Gujarat,India

ABSTRACT

This contribution takes marriage as the example of a crisis of production and reproduction in rural India. Through the juxtaposition of ethnography separated by six decades, we detail a shift away from land and agriculture as the primary markers of status among the Patidars of central Gujarat, western India, in favour of a hierarchical understanding of international migration. The paper discusses the disconnect between a cultural revolution in favour of migration, and the failure of many to live up to their own cultural standards. More broadly, we reflect on the forces that simultaneously strengthen and dissolve caste inequality in the context of India's uneven growth.     

Reconstructing War,Reconstructing the Self: Uses of Autobiography in Tomiko Higa s Girl with the White Flag

In reviewing a number of marriage and family textbooks, published in the years 1958 through 1970, it was found that the theoretical orientation toward sex roles was generally normative, and that typically sex roles were bifurcated into artificial classificatory types, with highly polarized role properties. The ideological message implicit in such a value context was conservative, strongly urging conformity to status quo sex roles within a rigid family system.     

Building shared power: the Trans-Arabian Pipeline and the technopolitics of anti-sectarian labor mobilization in Lebanon, 1950–1964

ABSTRACT

This article examines anti-sectarianism and the technopolitics of labor mobilization at the facilities of the Trans-Arabian Pipeline (Tapline) company in Lebanon between 1950 and 1964. It argues that although Tapline helped sustain a Lebanese elite strategy of cross-sectarian power-sharing, it also unintentionally fostered specifically anti-sectarian labor mobilization. Pursuing a line of inquiry into the technopolitics of worker mobilization around oil infrastructure opened by Timothy Mitchell’s Carbon Democracy, this article specifically examines how Lebanese Tapline workers construed their actions, and did so in anti-sectarian terms. It also proposes that similar studies of labor and the technopolitics of infrastructure could offer productive avenues for inquiry into the origins of anti-sectarian politics in Lebanon.     

Mona Caird (1854-1932): wild woman,new woman,and early radical feminist critic of marriage and motherhood1

Abstract

This paper, which makes available previously unknown pictures and personal information drawn from interviews, introduces aspects of the life and work of a neglected First Wave feminist writer. In particular, it examines Caird's analysis of the social construction of marriage and motherhood and the dynamics of mother-daughter relationships. The conceptual framework within which Caird wrote, while being embedded in its historical context, bears striking resemblance to some theories within Second Wave thought, especially those of Carol Gilligan and Adrienne Rich. The paper addresses the problem of how to negotiate the danger of ahistoricism when establishing ideological and conceptual links between feminists of different historical periods, and argues for regarding Caird as a radical feminist in the making.     

Heterosexuality and Race in the Australian Same-Sex Marriage Postal Survey

ABSTRACT

This article argues that race and class are central aspects of sexual citizenship in a Australia. It does so by investigating representations of heterosexuality that were produced and circulated during the 2017 same-sex marriage postal survey. Engaging with feminist and critical race theorists, we position same-sex marriage as not exceptional but part of a wider distribution of sexual citizenship within Australia's ongoing settler colonial history. We do so by introducing a number of illustrative examples of representations of heterosexuality produced during the survey. These representations reveal how same-sex marriage perpetuated heterosexual authority by asserting claims to authenticity and the occupation of space. We observe how heterosexuality in the survey material reproduced fantasies linking these three themes, for example, in an authentic white heterosexual family who speaks from their suburban backyard. It reveals that ceding to a bifurcated view of either progressive or conservative voices forestalls rather than advances other visions which may exceed the limited imaginings of sexual citizenship offered by the white liberal settler colonial state.     

The perils of mrs pooter: satire,modernity and motherhood in the lower middle class in England, 1870-1920

Abstract

This article examines some contrasting representations of lower middle-class women, marriage and motherhood in late Victorian and Edwardian England. Alongside traditional cutting images of white-collar men were misogynist criticisms of suburban women as obsessive consumers and irresponsible child-rearers who lowered racial and cultural quality. By contrast, the women who wrote about themselves in an 1898 Daily Telegraph series on working wives focused on practical problems faced by working mothers, traversing the same themes of the double burden, adjusting employment to childcare imperatives, and ‘quality time’ with children, which remain symptomatic of the problems of ‘modern’ motherhood     

Coercion, Consent and the Forced Marriage Debate in the UK

An examination of case law on forced marriage reveals that in addition to physical force, the role of emotional pressure is now taken into consideration. However, in both legal and policy discourse, the difference between arranged and forced marriage continues to be framed in binary terms and hinges on the concept of consent: the context in which consent is constructed largely remains unexplored. By examining the socio-cultural construction of personhood, especially womanhood, and the intersecting structural inequalities that constrain particular groups of South Asian women in the UK, we argue that consent and coercion in relation to marriage can be better understood as two ends of a continuum, between which lie degrees of socio-cultural expectation, control, persuasion, pressure, threat and force. Women who face these constraints exercise their agency in complex and contradictory ways that are not always recognised by the existing exit-centred state initiatives designed to tackle this problem.

A Prospective Examination of the Path from Child Abuse and Neglect to Illicit Drug Use in Middle Adulthood: The Potential Mediating Role of Four Risk Factors

This study examines prostitution, homelessness, delinquency and crime, and school problems as potential mediators of the relationship between childhood abuse and neglect (CAN) and illicit drug use in middle adulthood. Children with documented cases of physical and sexual abuse and neglect (ages 0–11) during 1967–1971 were matched with non-maltreated children and followed into middle adulthood (approximate age 39). Mediators were assessed in young adulthood (approximate age 29) through in-person interviews between 1989 and 1995 and official arrest records through 1994 (N = 1,196). Drug use was assessed via self-reports of past year use of marijuana, psychedelics, cocaine, and/or heroin during 2000–2002 (N = 896). Latent variable structural equation modeling (SEM) was used to test: (1) a four-factor model with separate pathways from CAN to illicit drug use through each of the mediating risk factors and (2) a second-order model with a single mediating risk factor comprised of prostitution, homelessness, delinquency and crime, and poor school performance. Analyses were performed separately for women and men, controlling for race/ethnicity and early drug use. In the four-factor model for both men and women, CAN was significantly related to each of the mediators, but no paths from the mediators to drug use were significant. For women, the second-order risk factor mediated the relationship between CAN and illicit drug use in middle adulthood. For men, neither child abuse and neglect nor the second-order risk factor predicted drug use in middle adulthood. These results suggest that for women, the path from CAN to middle adulthood drug use is part of a general “problem behavior syndrome” evident earlier in life.

The Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey and the Limitations of Vulnerability-based Politics

ABSTRACT

This article investigates opposition to the Australian Marriage Law Postal Survey, which surveyed Australians on their position on marriage equality from September to November 2017. Opposition to the hosting of a public vote on marriage equality was based in a perceived vulnerability of LGBTIQ Australians, with marriage equality advocates taking what Tietze (2016) described as a ‘dark view of the voting public’. While acknowledging the high levels of homophobic rhetoric that occurred during the postal survey, and the impacts that public votes can have on the mental health of LGBTIQ people, the article argues this ‘dark view’ was overstated. This article argues that opposition to the survey reinforced vulnerability within LGBTIQ Australians, promoting an increased reliance on the state for protection and recognition. Opposition ignored the democratic potential of the survey, particularly as an opportunity to further debate on LGBTIQ issues and to reduce broader societal homophobia. Despite the eventual yes vote therefore, approaches to the postal survey missed a political opportunity, likely leaving LGBTIQ Australians and the Australian queer movement in a weaker position than previously.     

Sacred year or broken reed? The Sex Disqualification (Removal) Act 1919

ABSTRACT

The Sex Disqualification (Removal Act 1919) enabled women to enter some professions including law for the first time. Virginia Woolf calls 1919 a ‘sacred year’ because of this Act in her later essay ‘Three Guineas’. However, the historical literature largely considers the act to be a ‘broken reed’, focussing on its failure to equalise the franchise, remove the marriage bar or to enable women to sit in the House of Lords. This article argues that such negative verdicts fail to take into account the political and Parliamentary situation in 1919 and overlooks the genuine achievements of the Act.     

Sir Mark Potter And The Protection Of The Traditional Family: Why Same Sex Marriage Is (Still) A Feminist Issue

In Wilkinson v. Kitzinger, the petitioner (Susan Wilkinson) sought a declaration of her marital status, following her marriage to Celia Kitzinger in British Columbia, Canada in August 2003. The High Court refused the application, finding that their valid Canadian marriage is, in United Kingdom law, a civil partnership. In this note, I focus on Sir Mark Potter’s adjudication of the human rights issues under Articles 8, 12 and 14 of the European Convention on Human Rights (E.C.H.R.), highlighting his restatement of the ideology of the ‹traditional’ family as natural, normative and desirable. I argue that this case shows that the exclusion of same sex couples from marriage is a feminist issue, because denying same sex couples access to marriage works to sediment patriarchal ideas and re-inscribe gender roles within the family. Wilkinson v. Kitzinger [2006] E.W.H.C. (Fam.) 2022; [2006] H.R.L.R 36     

‘It wasn't like that at all’: memory,identity and legacy in Jessie Kenney's The Flame and The Flood

ABSTRACT

This article uses Jessie Kenney's unpublished and fragmentary autobiography The Flame and the Flood to show how suffragettes reacted to, and tried to re-write, the emerging historical narratives on militant suffrage. As June Purvis and Sandra Stanley Holton have shown, Sylvia Pankhurst's The Suffragette Movement became the dominant frame through which the suffragette movement was understood. Yet Krista Cowman's revealing study of Mary Gawthorpe also demonstrates that many suffragettes were distressed at the way this narrative became cemented in popular and academic understandings of the movement. Developing this understanding by showing how suffragettes resisted Pankhurst's account to offer an alternative account of suffrage history, this article offers new insights into suffrage life-writing in the later twentieth century. It conceptualises The Flame and the Flood not as a monologue focused on Kenney's own experience, but as a dialogue with existing cultural narratives, and demonstrates the interaction between collective and individual identity in suffrage autobiography.     

Close Encounters: Solidarity,Servitude and Postcolonial Feminist Affects and Affiliations

Abstract

This essay offers close readings of three texts that in different ways foreground the problems, possibilities and struggle involved in forging affective connections across difference between women: Kate Clanchy, What is She Doing Here? 2008, Jamaica Kincaid, Lucy, 1991a and Marlene Van Niekerk, ‘Labour’, 2004. The author argues that the incomplete and partial nature of affective moments represented in these texts signals possibilities for a cautiously redefined idea of affective feminist solidarity as it is mobilized in the intimacy of domestic spaces.