Thomas, Jac Morfydd (2022) Analysing Expectations Around Sexual Agency for Women in England during the long Eighteenth Century. Masters thesis, York St John University.
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Abstract
The long eighteenth century has been called a sexual revolution due to a perceived change in practices and a loosening of conservative medieval ideals. However, when examining the guidance given to young women, recommendations were still traditional in their expectations of purity and reputational upholding. This thesis will examine society’s view of the ideal woman through conduct literature (along with pornography and some other published texts demonstrating real and fictive women) to analyse how much sexual agency women were expected to have during this time, to counter the idea that this period was the birth of a modern mindset of sexuality. In reality, expectations were that while sex was to be enjoyable, it was still a duty to a husband only to be performed by married women, and should be seen as a necessary rather than desirable task for reproduction or marital upkeep. Female sexual agency in this period was desired by society to be moderated carefully, through adolescence and even into choice of partner and the life of the marriage.
| Item Type: | Thesis (Masters) |
|---|---|
| Status: | Published |
| Subjects: | D History General and Old World > D History (General) |
| School/Department: | School of Humanities |
| URI: | https://ray.yorksj.ac.uk/id/eprint/7400 |
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