Between Women

Friendship, Desire, and Marriage in Victorian England

Bibliographic Data

ID23389288
AuthorsSharon Marcus (corresponding author)
Year2007
Pages368
Publication date2007-12-31
Open AccessNo
TypeBOOK
VenueBetween Women (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherPrinceton University Press (PUBLISHER • US)
DOI10.1515/9781400830855
OpenAlexW4244993598
Open LibraryOL28997170M
ISBN9781400830855
LanguageEN
Citations received97

Women in Victorian England wore jewelry made from each other's hair and wrote poems celebrating decades of friendship. They pored over magazines that described the dangerous pleasures of corporal punishment. A few had sexual relationships with each other, exchanged rings and vows, willed each other property, and lived together in long-term partnerships described as marriages. But, as Sharon Marcus shows, these women were not seen as gender outlaws. Their desires were fanned by consumer culture, and their friendships and unions were accepted and even encouraged by family, society, and church. Far from being sexless angels defined only by male desires, Victorian women openly enjoyed looking at and even dominating other women. Their friendships helped realize the ideal of companionate love between men and women celebrated by novels, and their unions influenced politicians and social thinkers to reform marriage law. Through a close examination of literature, memoirs, letters, domestic magazines, and political debates, Marcus reveals how relationships between women were a crucial component of femininity. Deeply researched, powerfully argued, and filled with original readings of familiar and surprising sources, Between Women overturns everything we thought we knew about Victorian women and the history of marriage and family life. It offers a new paradigm for theorizing gender and sexuality--not just in the Victorian period, but in our own.

Aesthetics · Art · Femininity · Friendship · Human sexuality · Ideal (ethics) · Literature · Masculinity · Memoir · Period (music) · Poetry · Political science · Politics · Social science · Sociology · Gender Studies · Gender, Feminism, and Media · Historical Gender and Feminism Studies · Historical Studies on Reproduction, Gender, Health, and Societal Changes · Law · 306.84/8094209034 · Amitié féminine · collection:judy_grahn_award=finalist · England · Female friendship · Femmes dans la littérature · Gay & Lesbian · Great britain · Groupes de femmes · Historia · History · Hq1599.e5 m37 2007 · Huwelijk · Kvinnlig va nskap · Kvinnor · Kvinnor i litteraturen · Lambda Literary Award Winner · Lambda Literary Awards · Lesbians · Lesbiennes · Lesbiska kvinnor · LGBTQ history · Literary Criticism · Marriage & Family · Seksualiteit · Social networks · Sociala nätverk · Victoriaanse tijd · Vriendschap · Vrouwen · Women · Women in literature

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