The Revolt of Daughter : Discourses on ‘Feminineness’ in the Late Victorian Age (by Lee, Young-Suk)
It was in the 1890's that English intellectuals began to reflect women's social role or maternity in the new perspective. At that time new language ...
The Revolt of Daughter : Discourses on ‘Feminineness’ in the Late Victorian Age (by Lee, Young-Suk)
It was in the 1890's that English intellectuals began to reflect women's social role or maternity in the new perspective. At that time new languages on feminism and women's role appeared among some magazines and periodicals. What was the most representative on these new languages was the term 'new women' in the late victorian age. New women rose themselves to society with the expansion of middle education for girls. Who were they' They were young women who took eagerly taken part in philanthropic social activities, could earn their own living, and had progressive views.
There, of cause, were other languages related to the change of femininity besides 'new women'. We can find new languages about femininity such as 'wild women' or 'the revolt of daughters' in some periodicals published in the early 1890's. It seems that these words competed each other, and then were converged on 'new women'.
These languages used to represent some conflicts between men and women, or generation gab among women. There were hot debates around the languages in many periodicals in the 1890's. The debates were developed along various issues such as marriage, home, delivery, child-care, maternity or women's work. In this paper I am going to be interested in the expressions such as 'wild women' and 'revolts of daughters' rather than in 'new women', and try to take focus to social factors affecting to the rise of new languages. A liberal Journal, the Nineteenth Century carried several essays on wild women and daughters' revolts in the early 1890's. This paper analyses these essays chiefly.
First, the word 'wild women' was originated from the critiques for women's attempts to grow out of the image of 'an angel in the house'. The critics emphasized that the nature of femininity should protect maternity from outer-world, and that the protection was a tradition of civilization. In contrast to critics, supporters of wild women were cynical to marriage system, and regarded it as purchase of femininity. According to them, 'wild women were embodiments of courage trying to transcend the tradition.
Second, daughters' revolts represent conflicts between the generations. The conflicts stemmed from different perspectives for women's role between educated young women and their mothers. According to essays supporting daughters' views, daughters refused to follow their mothers' life quietly, because they could not find any vision of the future through their mothers' life. The essays emphasize that understanding daughters' emotion would be very important.
New languages in the 1890's were related not only to changes of women conscious, but also to changes of social conditions around their life. Because language affects society, but at the same time it is influenced from society itself. There were three social factors related to appearance of new languages in late Victorian England. One was unbalanced ratio between men and women. The number of women exceeded that of men expecially in great cities. This seems to be related to the expansion of the British empire. The other was the extension of women education. Lastly, we can point out the suffragist movement. In short, these languages were hotbeds for new femininity, which had been made for the purpose of more various feminist ideologies