The Masculine Woman in America, 1890-1935
"The Masculine Woman in America, 1890-1935 examines how the suffrage movement's efforts to secure social and political independence for women were translated by a fearful society into a movement of unnatural "masculinized" women and dangerous "female sexual inverts."" "Scrutinizing depictions of the masculine woman in literature and the popular press, Laura L. Behling explicates the literary, artistic, and rhetorical strategies used to eliminate the "sexually inverted" woman: punishing her by...
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"The Masculine Woman in America, 1890-1935 examines how the suffrage movement's efforts to secure social and political independence for women were translated by a fearful society into a movement of unnatural "masculinized" women and dangerous "female sexual inverts."" "Scrutinizing depictions of the masculine woman in literature and the popular press, Laura L. Behling explicates the literary, artistic, and rhetorical strategies used to eliminate the "sexually inverted" woman: punishing her by imprisonment or death; "rescuing" her into heterosexuality; subverting her through parody; or removing her from society to some remote or mystical place. Behling also shows how fictional same-sex relationships in the writings of Henry James, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Gertrude Stein, and others conformed to and ultimately reaffirmed heterosexual models." "The Masculine Woman in America, 1890-1935 demonstrates that the woman suffrage movement did not so much suggest alternatives to women's gender and sexual behavior as it offered men and women afraid of perceived changes a tangible movement on which to blame their fears. A biting commentary on the insubstantial but powerful ghosts stirred up by the media, this study shows how, though legally enfranchised, the "new woman" was systematically disenfranchised socially through scientific theory, popular press illustrations, and fictional predictions of impending sociobiological disaster."--BOOK JACKET.BooknewsFocuses on late 19th- and early 20th-century American society, where, the author says, "the beginnings of modern sexuality and psychology intersect with the foundations of modern womanhood...." Suffragettes demanding social and political independence were often transformed by literature and the popular press into "masculine women" and female sexual "inverts." While Judith Halberstam's (1998), say, focused on contemporary society and the idea of male masculinity, Behling (English, Gustavus Adolphus College) exclusively addresses an earlier time when sartorial and political masculinity in relation to the female body was often interpreted as a medical as well as political condition. Behling's documents include Gertrude Stein's early novel , Henry James' , Dr. William Lee Howard's novel , newspaper accounts, Hellen Hull's "Fire," Sherwood Anderson's , and the artwork that accompanied Djuna Barnes's satiric . Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
AcknowledgmentsIntroduction11Altered States: Envisioning the Masculine Woman112Unsightly Evidence: "Female Inversion" and the U.S. Woman Suffrage Movement313Aberrant Assumptions: Disenfranchising the "Most Aggravated Type"604Enticing Acts: The Sexuality of Seduction825Marketing Mockery: Original "Sins" and the Art of Parody1196Distant Relations: "Put Out of Town for Gettin' Too Int'mate"1587Mundus Reversus: Femininity Found190Works Cited201Index213
\ BooknewsFocuses on late 19th- and early 20th-century American society, where, the author says, "the beginnings of modern sexuality and psychology intersect with the foundations of modern womanhood...." Suffragettes demanding social and political independence were often transformed by literature and the popular press into "masculine women" and female sexual "inverts." While Judith Halberstam's (1998), say, focused on contemporary society and the idea of male masculinity, Behling (English, Gustavus Adolphus College) exclusively addresses an earlier time when sartorial and political masculinity in relation to the female body was often interpreted as a medical as well as political condition. Behling's documents include Gertrude Stein's early novel , Henry James' , Dr. William Lee Howard's novel , newspaper accounts, Hellen Hull's "Fire," Sherwood Anderson's , and the artwork that accompanied Djuna Barnes's satiric . Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)\ \
