WOMEN'S BODIES AS A SOCIAL ISSUE

1.2.1. WOMEN WITH DEFINED ROLES.

In order to study female sexuality in the Renaissance drama it is important to reflect on what it was like to be a woman in that period. Firstly, it is important to separate the rich from the poor women as their notion of life, love and sexuality would not be the same in some ways. Yet, they had one thing in common: they could not choose for their own life no matter their social status, they had no possibility to make decisions for their lives no matter

44 Ibid, p.18.

45 Ibid.

46 Ibid, p.42.

47 Ibid, p.47.

48 M.B ROSE, op. cit., p.6.

49 Ibid, p.42.

50 G.A. SULLIVAN, P. CHENEY and A. HADFIELD, op.cit., p.276.

51 L. STONE, op.cit., p.306.

if they were nobles, servants or from the peasantry. As they were destined for marriages they had no other possibilities in the choice of career⁵². From birth to death they had to obey male power and "the training of the well-born girl was directed […] toward fitting her to become a wife"⁵³.

In the corpus of this dissertation we will see women in touch with marriage matters.

From the moment women are married, they tended to have duties towards their families.

First of all, it included that they should have children to perpetuate the lineage⁵⁴, preferably sons than daughters because girls could not inherit after the father's death. In the seventeenth century it was common for fathers to pay dowry to marry their daughters⁵⁵ which could cost a lot. Furthermore, women did not have power over the state matters and even little over domestic ones, as the society was still built on the concept of the nuclear family based around the father figure.

Moreover, from the male perspective, women who became widows had to be remarried with the consent of their family, for fathers, brothers or other male kin to control them. The term "control" indicates that widows had more power than married women⁵⁶ because they could inherit in case they did not have children. In the male perspective females were not considered as wise as males about their choices of partners. The male authority thought that the women could marry someone who would like to take advantage of their new fortune as rich widows, because they could be more valuable than single women⁵⁷. Yet, unmarried widows seemed to be "threatening figures in the [male] cultural imaginary"⁵⁸. In her self-published book Women in English Society 1500-1800, Mary Prior describes the female angle about remarriage. The fear of losing legal rights discouraged women from marrying again⁵⁹, because it meant that the money and other privileges gained when their husband died would immediately go to their new husband.

To speak in detail about the female sexuality we can say that women did not own their sexuality. Chastity was one of the conditions for young women who wanted to marry⁶⁰,

52 Ibid, p.127.

53 R. KELSO. Doctrine for the Lady of the Renaissance. First Edition edition, University of Illinois Press, 1996, p.78.

54 R. KELSO, op. cit., p.69.

55 Ibid, p.87.

56 G.A. SULLIVAN, P. CHENEY and A. HADFIELD, op. cit., p.276.

57 L. STONE, op. cit., p.72.

58 G.A. SULLIVAN, P. CHENEY and A. HADFIELD, op. cit., p.274.

59 M.PRIOR (ed.), Women in English Society 1500-1800. Repr., Routledge, 1996, p.79.

60 M.B ROSE, op. cit., p.17.

purity was one of the most appealing traits from a male perspective. It was due to the absence or rareness of sexual protection and the link with the duty for perpetuating a lineage. Purity could also prevent men from raising bastards without knowing it, which was something that could happened and was dishonourable for men.

1.2.2. RELIGIOUS TRADITION.

Nowadays, anthropology studies social issues such as the sexual behaviours and the gender studies which try to understand what were societies' behaviours towards women throughout the history⁶¹. Social construction can be seen through the place of women in a particular society and even though "Elizabethan and Jacobean period witnessed major transformations in the social construction of gender"⁶², controversy about the female sexuality was still predominant in that patriarchal system.

In Entre Affirmation et Répression, Aleksandra Kowalska reminds the readers that the Early modern Europe was influenced by Greco-Roman antiquity. This period had been rediscovered in the Renaissance era, but also through Christian beliefs and religious convictions, for which women were considered as inferior to men⁶³. This debate is experienced in the plays of the Renaissance period⁶⁴. Ruth Kelso, with Doctrine for the Lady of the Renaissance, investigates principles that the young ladies of the Renaissance period were supposed to follow in society. She deals with the religious and moral education for women which was an important part in the period as it "would keep her safely concerned only with [domestics affairs]"⁶⁵. This book shows that religious education for girls was not as profound as the boys'. Therefore, it was only another tool to teach women how to be obedient and good wives.

In the Renaissance period, women seemed to have a different role and approach regarding the sexual behaviour, they were more likely to be punished for fornication and as sexual sinners⁶⁶. They also were not likely to have lovers, unlike their husband. Coppélia Kahn states that "Only a husband can be cuckolded"⁶⁷ which means that men who cheated

61 J-F CHAPPUIT, Measure for measure, Shakespeare. ed. Atlante, 2012, p.358.

62 M.B ROSE, op. cit., p.2.

63 A. KOWALSKA, op.cit., p.15.

64 Ibid. p.2.

65 R. KELSO, op. cit., p.4.

66A. KOWALSKA. op.cit., p.62.

67 In D. KEHLER and S. BAKER, op. cit., p.251.

on their wives were not considered to actually be unfaithful, whereas women would be accused of fornication outside marriage. Moreover, in the religious model of Christianity, but also in Puritanism, the patriarchy could not be challenged⁶⁸. Even in sexual discourse, men dominated the tone as Lawrence Stone writes:

"sexual activity in the Early Modern Period has been described as 'man on top, women on bottom, little foreplay, rapid ejaculation, masculine unconcern for feminine orgasm'. As such it was a mirror of prevailing social relationships, where the patriarchal power of the husband for long remained in full force"⁶⁹.

The submission of women in society as well as in the privacy of the bedroom is well shown in this passage. At this period female sexuality could only be associated with male sexuality⁷⁰ because of the great emerging influence of Protestantism and more precisely of the idealisation that Puritans had towards holy matrimony⁷¹ which replaced Christians' praise of virginity.

Furthermore, through scholastic tradition came the inevitable antifeminists against feminists issue which was not as widespread as nowadays. Though, it put women as part of men's bodies through the story of Adam and the birth of Eve with one of Adam's ribs.

Because of it, women stayed inferior to male, they are the "imperfect version of man"⁷². 1.2.3. SEXUALITY AND POLITICS IN ENGLISH SOCIETY.

Women's bodies were still part of the political debate and could be viewed as a social issue on its own in this period although the patriarchal system tended to define women from the male perspective, which is an issue we will study later in this dissertation.

Sexuality was also part of the political matters, especially when we talk about the 'body politic', which was a term used in the medieval time to speak about the King, or Queen which united the nation through his/her immortal political power, in opposition with the body natural or private which was the real body of the ruler, the one who lived and died⁷³. For instance, Queen Elizabeth I had been criticised by antifeminist thinkers such as John

68 L. STONE, op. cit., p.109.

69 Ibid, p.307.

70 A. KOWALSKA, op.cit., p.24.

71 M.B ROSE, op. cit., p.4.

72 D. KEHLER, and S. BAKER, op. cit., p.83.

73 ‘The King’s Two Bodies’. Shakespeare’s Henriad and the Archives, http://shakespeareshenriad.weebly.com/the-kings-two-bodies.html. Accessed 21 Mar. 2019.

Knox or Joseph Swetnam because they did not accept to be ruled by a woman. She also had been criticised over her refusal to marry, and because of this she remains, in the popular culture, the Virgin Queen. Her accession to the throne had been possible thanks to the law of primogeniture (from the latin primo "first" and genitura, gignere "engender"), also called birth-right, which was applied in all stratums of society. It primarily concerned only the firstborn male heir, but then was implicitly changed for allowing firstborn female heir to inherit, until the Succession to the Crown Act 2013 which replaced male-preference primogeniture with absolute primogeniture.

Furthermore, if we focus on nobility or higher stratum of society, controlling marriage was also controlling sexuality and union between different families which was also a political issue. In an arranged marriage both men and women had nothing to say because it was a "collective decision of family and kin"⁷⁴. It firstly concerned social order⁷⁵ and sexuality was considered only as a social function, separated from love⁷⁶ because it did not have to concern self-fulfilment but the continuity of two families. Because of that way of thinking, women of higher sphere who remarry beneath their condition can be accused of

"gross sexual appetite"⁷⁷ because love was not considered as a reasonable condition for marriage in the Renaissance nobility and was highly disapproved of.

1.3. BIASED REPRESENTATIONS OF WOMEN'S SEXUALITY