Wayward Girls but Wicked Women?

Abstract

Wayward Girls and Wicked Women is the ironic title for a volume of short stories written by women, edited by Angela Carter, and published by Virago in 1986. The title, cover picture (sulky, seductive, tousled blond with pouting red lips, bare shoulders and plunging neckline) and editor’s name (a writer with a reputation for polemic) signify sexuality as the subject under scrutiny. The back cover blurb does nothing to dispel this impression. In her Introduction to the volume Angela Carter explains the irony: To be a wayward girl usually has something to do with premarital sex; to be a wicked woman has something to do with adultery. This means it is far easier for a woman to lead a blameless life than it is for a man; all she has to do is to avoid sexual intercourse like the plague. What hypocrisy! The majority of the stories, therefore, have little to do with sexuality per se and are about women facing their economic, social and sexual inequality with bravado, perseverance or at times perversity. The package promises something different from what it actually contains, and, though some of the stories are enjoyable, it is the cover, in what it reveals about the marketing practices of a feminist publishing house in relation to the supposed expectations of its readership, that is especially interesting. Sexy covers and titles sell books, even to women. Similarly, Angela Carter’s own writing has a surface gloss and shimmer. Recently dubbed ‘the high priestess of post-graduate porn,1 she has provocative ideas and a seductive style, but closer analysis reveals a dubious kind of sexuality for women.