Abstract
In fiction by men this century, representations of heterosexual behaviour have often been nothing more than an increasingly detailed vulgarisation of entrenched beliefs and prejudices about women’s sexual roles as servicer and victim of men. In Sexual Politics, Kate Millett’s analyses of fiction by Henry Miller, Norman Mailer and D. H. Lawrence reveal in their work a consistent dehumanising of women in men’s sexual behaviour towards them.1 Their fiction could be said to act as a partial mirror of life which is tarnished by bias and prejudice. Gaps and blind spots, which feminists such as Millett have tried to expose, abound in their work. Yet, although women this century have become increasingly free to write openly in fiction about sexual relations, not many have used this possibility to advantage in order to reveal the inequality of women’s sexual roles vis-à-vis those of men.
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Notes and References
Kate Millett, Sexual Politics, Virago, 1977, pp. 237–335.
Rosamond Lehmann, The Weather in the Streets (London: Wm. Collins, 1936); reprinted Virago, 1981, p. 383.
Elizabeth Bowen, The House in Paris (London: Gollancz, 1935); reprinted Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1946, reissued 1983, p. 69.
Margaret Drabble, The Middle Ground (London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1980); reprinted Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1981, pp. 269–70.
Kate Chopin, The Awakening (USA: Herbert S. Stone & Co., 1899); London: The Women’s Press, 1978, p. 7.
Miles Franklin, My Brilliant Career (Edinburgh: Blackwoods, 1901); reprinted London, Virago, 1980, pp. 222–3.
Christina Stead, The Beauties and the Furies (London: Peter Davies, 1936); reprinted Virago, 1982, pp. 131–2.
Christina Stead, For Love Alone (London: Peter Davies, 1945); reprinted Virago, 1978, p. 464.
Christina Stead, Letty Fox: Her Luck (London: Peter Davies, 1947); reprinted Virago, 1978, p. 492.
Jean Rhys, After Leaving Mr Mackenzie (London: Jonathan Cape, 1930); reprinted Harmondsworth: Penguin, 1971, p. 17.
Margaret Atwood, Life Before Man (Toronto: McClelland & Stewart Ltd, 1979); reprinted London: Virago, 1982, p. 308.
Fay Weldon, The Heart of the Country (London: Hutchinson, 1987; Arrow, 1987) p. 198.
Grace Bartram, Peeling ( London: The Women’s Press, 1986 ) p. 48.
Lisa Alther, Original Sins (New York: Alfred A. Knopf; London, The Women’s Press, 1981 ) p. 470–1.
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© 1990 Jennifer Breen
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Breen, J. (1990). Sexuality and marriage. In: In Her Own Write. Women in Society. Palgrave, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-20965-1_2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-20965-1_2
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