Introduction
The focus of this historical analysis will be on the book written in by Marie Carmichael Stopes titled “Married Love or Love in Marriage”. Married love is a short book of about 170 pages, “dedicated to young husbands, and all those who are betrothed in love”, as stated by the author in the front page. The analysis will proceed by introducing the author and highlighting some aspects of her life and activity, then moving to the description of some general features of Married Love. Subsequently, the focus will be on the context and on her connections with international and national movement, to have a better understanding of the contribution of the book to the existing trend. In the end, the scientific knowledge introduced in the …show more content…
She displays a context where women sexual desire was not taken into account by both men and women themselves, additionally pointing out how experts of the medical field consider such desires as abnormal when present in women especially of high status. In Chapter IV, with the allusive title “The fundamental pulse”, she writes indeed: “So widespread in Anglo-Saxon countries is the view that it is only depraved women who have such feelings (especially before marriage) that most women would rather die than acknowledge that they do at times feel a physical yearning indescribable, but as profound as hunger for food (p. 14)”. Marie Stopes is unique for she uses a language that, at the time she wrote the book, was prohibited and disgraceful: she describes the importance of female orgasm, she mentions the clitoris without any shame, assimilating it to the male’s penis. Married Love is undoubtedly a revolutionary book, if one considers that during the Victorian era sex-life was a taboo argument and the act of having sex was to be considered as something to be ashamed of, especially for a middle-class woman and that this conception was still rather widespread at the time Marie Stopes wrote her book. Stopes refuses to subjugate to the moralism of the so-called Victorians, she refuses the idea that sex is equal to repugnance, dishonour and shame. She …show more content…
The puritanism characterizing the society in which Marie Stopes lived needed the contribution of a woman who was thirsty of knowledge and who was willing to reshape an environment filled with taboos and fear towards sexual questions. One should read Stopes’ writing by immerging in the context she was born and operated to understand how incredible her work and commitment has been for women sexual liberation and for the advancement of scientific research in the general field of physiology and sexuality. Nevertheless, she is also a woman of her times: she represents the birth control movement and she supports the Eugenic ideologies, even though this last aspect does not emerge vividly in Married Love. To sum up, Married Love anticipated the radical changes characterizing the sexual and feminist debate in the twentieth century and it also gave an input to perpetuate Stopes devoted activism in promoting women’s rights and improving their
The focus of this historical analysis will be on the book written in by Marie Carmichael Stopes titled “Married Love or Love in Marriage”. Married love is a short book of about 170 pages, “dedicated to young husbands, and all those who are betrothed in love”, as stated by the author in the front page. The analysis will proceed by introducing the author and highlighting some aspects of her life and activity, then moving to the description of some general features of Married Love. Subsequently, the focus will be on the context and on her connections with international and national movement, to have a better understanding of the contribution of the book to the existing trend. In the end, the scientific knowledge introduced in the …show more content…
She displays a context where women sexual desire was not taken into account by both men and women themselves, additionally pointing out how experts of the medical field consider such desires as abnormal when present in women especially of high status. In Chapter IV, with the allusive title “The fundamental pulse”, she writes indeed: “So widespread in Anglo-Saxon countries is the view that it is only depraved women who have such feelings (especially before marriage) that most women would rather die than acknowledge that they do at times feel a physical yearning indescribable, but as profound as hunger for food (p. 14)”. Marie Stopes is unique for she uses a language that, at the time she wrote the book, was prohibited and disgraceful: she describes the importance of female orgasm, she mentions the clitoris without any shame, assimilating it to the male’s penis. Married Love is undoubtedly a revolutionary book, if one considers that during the Victorian era sex-life was a taboo argument and the act of having sex was to be considered as something to be ashamed of, especially for a middle-class woman and that this conception was still rather widespread at the time Marie Stopes wrote her book. Stopes refuses to subjugate to the moralism of the so-called Victorians, she refuses the idea that sex is equal to repugnance, dishonour and shame. She …show more content…
The puritanism characterizing the society in which Marie Stopes lived needed the contribution of a woman who was thirsty of knowledge and who was willing to reshape an environment filled with taboos and fear towards sexual questions. One should read Stopes’ writing by immerging in the context she was born and operated to understand how incredible her work and commitment has been for women sexual liberation and for the advancement of scientific research in the general field of physiology and sexuality. Nevertheless, she is also a woman of her times: she represents the birth control movement and she supports the Eugenic ideologies, even though this last aspect does not emerge vividly in Married Love. To sum up, Married Love anticipated the radical changes characterizing the sexual and feminist debate in the twentieth century and it also gave an input to perpetuate Stopes devoted activism in promoting women’s rights and improving their