Moral Guardians Research Articles

On Not Performing Madness.

On Not Performing Madness Rachel Fensham (bio) We should always remember that there are two ways of looking at madness; it can be observed from the outside or experienced from the inside. The difference between experience and observation is always passed over in silence and the hidden story of madness is never told. The pages which follow try to listen to that silence and to hear the stifled cries within it. —Yannick Ripa, Women and Madness (5) The double process Yannick Ripa describes, of listening and hearing in order to re-tell the hidden lives of “mad” and “bad” women, informed a performance project I undertook with a group of theatre students in 1994. The performance investigation was itself part of a larger museological project called Absence of Evidence that involved twenty women artists responding to the history of a site that had been a nineteenth-century asylum for the insane. 1 In her history of French asylums, Ripa considers the social formation of madness and its effect on women’s lives in the nineteenth century as the product of two convergent but different systems of containment: scientific discourses that needed to secure definitions about “normal” behavior and bourgeois discourses that sought to establish proper boundaries for women’s place in society. Both these discourses attempt to normalize understandings about the human condition and to regulate individual behaviors accordingly. In making a theatre piece, we wanted to observe the effects of these processes of “containment” upon the female patients during the Fremantle Asylum’s existence from 1857 to 1901 and as wel as to listen and to hear the silence and mutterings of those women who lived with the experience of being labeled or incarcerated as “mad.” The result of this work was a theatre show called The Worst Woman in the World, or The Case of Rebellious Susan, or the Girl Who Wrecked His Home (The Worst Woman in the World, for short.) 2 Fremantle in Perth, Western Australia was an isolated colonial outpost during the late nineteenth century; here most settlers were faced with the harshness of daily life in a land with limited resources (physical, emotional, monetary, intellectual) at a great distance from the moderating influences of [End Page 149] urban culture. In a community of few women, any female subjects belonged to men either as wives or servants, and as such they were often expected to act as the moral guardians of a fragile social structure. With nowhere to go and often no escape from desperate circumstances, a large number of women were locked away in the local asylum or nearby prison, both managed by the colonial authorities. In the leap of imagination we undertook in The Worst Woman in the World, these questions arose: what if the “sins” of a colonial morality are not forgotten? What if the sins are the product of social forces molding the female character? What if the madness of women could be located in the shape of these narratives of social constraint and condemnation? How was the project to proceed? The answers seemed to lie in the bodies of madwomen, both the historical subjects written into the records of the asylum and the counterversions of mad female characters in melodrama. In this article, I discuss how we approached the theatricalizing of madness in relation to the lived realities of women in this specific nineteenth-century institution through the contrast to female stereotypes of “madwomen” in melodrama. From the perspective of acting, both these forms of madness provided a corporeal sign-system that performers could use—not to reproduce or imitate madness, but as a way of “not performing” madness. The “Sensibility” of the Body During the initial research phase, the students and I read the archival material associated with the Fremantle Asylum and a recent thesis on the asylum’s history (Megahey, “Social Construction”). The daily records of the matron and her assistants revealed that the women in the asylum were continuously subject to scrutiny. In those records, corporeal signs—the fixing of facial expressions, bodily gestures that went too far, a reach of the body that cracked against a wall or another body, unexpected sudden movements, or sheer immobility...

Sperm and scrambled eggs

Sperm and scrambled eggs

Eros, Erato, Terpsichore and the Hearing of Music in Early Modern Spain

The act of hearing music was matter of concern to guardians of public morality and social decorum in late-sixteenthand early-seventeenthcentury Spain. We know about their concerns principally not through writings on music but through other kinds of documentation-police reports, letters among various sorts of officials and administrators, writings about antitheatrical controversy, texts of novels, poems, and plays, and so forth. All of those who describe or criticize songs and dances as publicly performed and heard music bring social class into their commentaries. Songs and dances were invested with social significance and could mark or label both performers and hearers. In particular, two categories of song were considered especially dangerous as heard music: satirical songs and erotic ones, although borders of these categories are permeable in Spanish culture of this period. The word erotic was itself Renaissance creation, first used in European languages in late sixteenth century. In French, erotique came into use in written sources in 1566; in English word erotic is noted first in 1630.1 In Spain, as far as is known, er6tico appeared in print in 1580 in Fernando de Herrera's learned edici6n comentada of classically inspired poetry of Garcilaso de la Vega, an extensive, high-minded work of literary criticism imbued with all justification of classical tradition. In his commentary to Garcilaso's first eclogue, Herrera pointed out ancient derivation of genre and used word erotic to denote poetic category. He wrote that the erotic poets are those who write about matters of [Corondbanse de laurel los poetas heroicos .. y de mirto los er6ticos, que son los que escriben cosas de amor].2 The word er6tico was included in Spanish dictionaries beginning in second decade of eighteenth century, where Herrera's phrase is cited in explanation of word's derivation from Greek Epms, meaning desire, and from Latin term Eros for Cupid, god of love.3 Erotic (er6tico) pertains to (amor), so that erotic poetry is love poetry, and writer who writes about erotic is a poet of lascivious.4 The word erotismo describes strong passion of and its effects, as in, Conquered by frenetic eroticism / an illness of love, or

Desperate Deeds, Desperate Men: Gender, Race, and Rape in Silent Feature Films, 1915–1927

Many of the top-grossing feature films spanning from 1915–1927 utilized rape as a device for defining manhood and thereby establishing power relationships. The images of rape in these silent films idealized the power of respectable white men over the men and women of other classes and races and subordinated the women from their own social station. These movies constructed white men as heroes and guardians of morality and civilization, white women as frail but morally superior figures, and African-American and immigrant men and women as uncontrollable sexual deviants who threatened civilization. These films reflected the fears of the white middle class that massive immigration, waves of black migration to the North, and the increasingly public role of women were irrevocably changing American society and threatening the power of the traditional dominant group in the United States: white middle- and upper-class men.

Ethnic history, nationalism and transnationalism in Argentine Arab and Jewish cultures

The role of ethnic histories of Arab and Jewish Argentines, the turcos and rusos, is explored here in the context of a strongly assimilationist Argentine state. In Argentina assimilation meant embourgeoisement, and concern over ethnic respectability led both communities to assume the role of moral guardians and cultural brokers policing their ‘own’. The evolution of Argentine Arab and Jewish ethnic identities highlights the ambiguity of ethnic categories in the context of increasingly polarized class politics. Ethnic history has been written and forged by the successful in the context of exclusionary discourses which never permitted Arab and Jewish Argentines to pursue pluralist politics.

In pursuit of true Anglican Womanhood in Victoria, 1880-1914

Abstract As colonial women sought to extend their sphere of moral influence they encountered opposition from the Churches, which saw themselves as the proper guardians of public morality. This paper examines the attitudes of the Anglican Church at the turn of the century in regard to the ‘woman question‘, and argues that the Church acted to contain the threat posed by women's expanding sphere while continuing to benefit from, and indeed depend upon, women's fund-raising and administrative activities.

In pursuit of true anglican womanhood in victoria, 1880-1914

Abstract As colonial women sought to extend their sphere of moral influence they encountered opposition from the Churches, which saw themselves as the proper guardians of public morality. This paper examines the attitudes of the Anglican Church at the turn of the century in regard to the ‘woman question‘, and argues that the Church acted to contain the threat posed by women's expanding sphere while continuing to benefit from, and indeed depend upon, women's fund-raising and administrative activities.

Old traditions die hard: The influence of nationalism and the European community on women's rights in France, the United Kingdom and Germany

For over two hundred years, the nation-state has been one of the organising concepts of social and political interaction between individuals and societies. Nationalism has justified social behavior both within the nation-state and in its external dealings with other societies. A great body of literature on nationalism and the development of the nation-state describes these issues.’ Masculinity provided a norm for most nations, and historically men were the principal actors with presumed reasoning ability and dynamic character. Early nationalism glorified women only in their passive roles as reproducers of the nation and as guardians of tradition and morality. Even women who were symbols of their nations such as Germania and Marianne were usually pictured seated to indicate stability and passivity. In Western Europe today national borders are fading and the state’s preeminence is eroding.* The concept of nationalism has broadened to include loyalties other than to the nation. International organisations and multi-national corporations expose the nation-state to new ideas and activities. With the decline of the traditional masculine concept of nationalism, other masculine notions are also changing and women are gaining power and influence. Their contributions now include more than their ability to reproduce.3 This paper will explore how the European Community in its capacity as a supranational organisation has worked to achieve greater equality for women by taking advanced positions and then serving as a model for individual nationstates to follow. Often national traditions complicate and slow the process of change. We will look at directives taken in the European Community to promote women’s equality and see how they impact policies in France, the U.K. and Germany. We will concentrate on three areas of development; politics, work place and social issues to show how national traditions can slow progress and how the EC has dealt with these constraints and helped accelerate progress.

Women'S History and the History of Women Teachers

The social history of teaching has attracted much interest in recent years.1 In particular, scholars have sought to analyze transformation of teaching into over course of 19th century. As is well known, already by mid-century, teaching in United States was coming to be seen as work for women; by end of century teaching force nationwide was overwhelmingly female. Historians thus far have begun to explore this development in mid-19th century by looking at ways in which the cult of true womanhood and idea that women were nurturant moral guardians underlay movement to employ women teachers (Hoffman, 1979; Kaufman, 1984; Sklar, 1973). More recently, quantitative studies of midand late-19th century have been undertaken to investigate economic conditions underlying hiring of women teachers. These studies have tested generalizations about male-female wage differentials and length of women's teaching careers by examining census and school records (Bernard & Vinovskis, 1977; Carter, 1986; Danylewycz & Prentice, 1984, 1986; Prentice, 1975; Rury, 1984; Richardson & Hatcher, 1983; Strober & Gordon, 1986). Other historians have used teachers' accounts of their own lives and teaching to consider ways in which teaching may have been a liberating experience for women teachers (Clifford, 1981, 1982). These studies have begun to clarify our understanding of teachers' careers and have raised important areas for future investigation. In this paper, I want to consider history of women teachers from a different vantage point one that makes use of feminist theory and feminist historiography. I focus on woman schoolteacher as an ideological construct, a term whose meaning was struggled over by different groups with varying interests. In order to examine this process, I turn to recent work in both feminist theory and women's history. I first examine work of recent feminist theorists in philosophy and politics who are creating new epistemologica! and theoretical approaches; I then examine ways in which these theoretical approaches have been applied to women's history, in particular

Sex, sexism, and the preparation of educators

Separation of sex and school has been an important assumption in the history of education. In the past, the image of the teacher was that of a know-nothing when it came to sexual matters. As Rury makes clear in this issue, coeducation caused concern about the purity and moral development of young women, and so the desexualized school emerged with educators designated as its moral guardians. In the 1920s, the lack of sexual knowledge was a criterion for hiring and retention. Contracts often specified that teachers (read only women apply) not to keep company with men and that their employment would be terminated if they should marry. Later, marriage became acceptable, but pregnancy could cause dismissal. In many districts, especially during the 1950s, divorced teachers were seen as inappropriate role models for the youth of the nation. Recently court cases have surrounded efforts to remove homosexual teachers from the classroom.

Religious Scruples in Ancient Warfare

M. I. Finley in his Politics in the Ancient World (Cambridge, 1983), 92–6 has recently cast doubt on the extent to which religious phenomena were taken seriously in ancient times. We believe that in stressing the reasons for scepticism he has overlooked much positive evidence for the impact of religious scruples on political behaviour and that in generalising he has undervalued the differences in this respect between ancient societies. The significance of some of this positive evidence is admittedly uncertain since in civilian life scruples might be easy to observe without great suffering. The acid test is in time of war, so that is the concern of our present enquiry. That attitudes varied can be shown only by comparing societies. We have here limited our discussion to three for which the evidence is well preserved: the world of the Greek city before Alexander the Great, Rome before Constantine, and the Jews in the Hellenistic and Roman period. Elucidation of the reasons for their distinct attitudes would reveal much about each of these societies and its religious practices and conceptions, but there will be space here only to show that considerable variety did indeed exist.Most ancient peoples assumed that their gods approved of war; the pacifism of some pre-Constantinian Christians was exceptional. Nor did such rules in combat as were observed necessarily have a religious foundation. Ancient like modern scruples were often based on moral and humanitarian grounds, as in the treatment of corpses and civilians; the gods, as the guardians of general morality, might be involved in such matters, but only at a remove.

Toynbee Hall, 1884-1914

Toynbee Hall, the first settlement house, was widely imitated in both England and the United States. This article explains the tremendous appeal that the institution held for a generation of social reformers and traces its development during a thirty-year period. Samuel Barnett, the founder and first warden of the settlement, had a vision of the role of settlement residents in working-class areas that bore a striking resemblance to the popular ideal of a woman's function in society. Many of the first residents shared his goals and ideals, viewing themselves as moral guardians of the poor and organizing uplifting educational activities. After 1900, however, many of the residents gained an understanding of the nature and extent of poverty in an urban-industrial society, and they placed less faith in personal relationships and private philanthropy. Although retaining the elitest assumptions that had shaped the settlement since its foundation, they shifted their focus from elevating the poor to social inv...

The Legend of the Devil-haunted Card Players in Northern Europe

MORALISTS in the Christian civilization have in all times looked askance at gambling. Chaucer's Pardoner's eloquent, if hypocritical, denunciation of its evils is by no means an isolated phenomenon. And that the precepts and prejudices of moralists are borne out by myth and tradition is far from uncommon in folklore, nor, of course, altogether coincidental; while it must not be assumed that legends illustrating the dire consequences of sin are generally deliberately launched by guardians of morality to frighten people into 'good behaviour', it is often admittedly their influence on popular thought and fantasy that is responsible for sparking traditions of this nature, such as that of the devil-haunted card players, which I want to examine in this paper. The belief that the devil is attracted, in hope of gain, to wherever sin is committed is, of course, as old as Christian demonology. In medieval legend he sits on church windowsills, writing up the names (for purposes too obvious to mention) of those who laugh and talk in church; in Marlowe's Doctor Faustus Mephostophilis explains why devils appear when Christ's name is 'racked' and 'anagrammatized' they hope to gain power over the soul of the offender. In the widespread legend of the devil-haunted dancers the Evil One turns up as an incubus at dance parties, sometimes torturing, or dancing to death, women too fond of the art which, according to strict moralists, caters to vanity and 'kindles and blows the fires of lechery'. Small wonder, then, that the fiend also shows up at card games, especially when these take place on Sundays or other holidays or when accompanied by drinking and swearing. In Lancashire Folklore it is told as follows: