Misogyny In Eighteenth-Century England

Misogyny is defined in the Oxford English Dictionary as the “hatred or dislike of, or prejudice against women” (2016). Eighteenth-century England was undoubtedly a misogynistic society where women were denied the same privileges and rights as men and often led limited lives. With the emergence of prose narrative and novels in the eighteenth-century as a literary form, a more nuanced portrayal of women also followed. In Daniel Defoe’s The Fortunes and Misfortunes of the Famous Moll Flanders, &c. (1722) and John Cleland’s Fanny Hill or Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure (1748-9), the texts feature the struggles of an unprotected, lower-class female protagonist against the hostile and misogynistic society of eighteenth-century England. This essay

will discuss if the texts continually reinforce misogyny by exploring the depiction of sexuality, marriage and consent.

Misogyny is an extreme hatred of women often associated with a fear of female sexuality. Sexuality here is employed to mean ‘sexual activity’, rather than the more specific sense of a person’s sexual orientation. With the rise of feminism, particularly in the late 1960’s and early 1970’s, “the personal is political” brought to public attention the acknowledgement that women can enjoy and take control of their sexuality.

Unfortunately, in eighteenth-century England, women were most definitely seen as objects of male desire. Until recently, any textual representation of female sexuality was non-existent and considered a taboo subject to speak of in public, so the acknowledgment of female sexuality by Cleland and Defoe is liberal and progressive in their time. In Moll Flanders, after Moll is tricked by the elder brother, her view of sex changes. Moll understands that “nothing but money now recommends a woman” and learns to transform her only asset, her body, into a commodity for monetary exchange (Defoe, 2011: 18). Mark Schorer (1950) argues that this depiction of sexuality reduces Moll and many of the other female characters to things to be bought and sold. Yet after her marriage to Robin, Moll never allows herself to be controlled. She chooses the men who satisfy her financially and manipulates them into marrying her. Her predatory and ruthless nature - traits typically associated with masculinity - transgresses her gender stereotypes. While the discourse of sexuality in Moll Flanders

becomes inextricably linked with the discourse of wealth, this does not reduce Moll to an object.

Moll cannot completely break free of the patriarchy but she cleverly uses her sexuality to benefit her during a time in which women in her position had little else. Similarly in Memoirs, Fanny is a female protagonist who enjoys sex and uses her sexualised female body as the source of her livelihood. In the eighteenth-century, female sexuality was a source of anxiety for men, which perpetuated the myth that female pleasure did not exist. The sex industry and pornography have always been a highly contentious issue in feminist debates. To certain feminists, prostitution is highly misogynistic as it objectifies women and by exchanging sex for money, it reinforces the misogynistic ideology that the male exploitation of the female body for sexual purposes is acceptable. However, this ignores the difference between free and forced prostitution. It also infantilizes sex workers as passive victims to be used by men, as opposed to adults capable of making their own choices. From a pro-sex feminist perspective, Cleland acknowledging that women have sexuality and can enjoy sex is not misogynistic at all. Fanny can be interpreted as a powerful, confident woman

using her sexuality to exploit the weakness of men and secure herself a fortune. However, Cleland’s acknowledgment of female sexuality and depiction of sex from a female perspective is not without problems. Cleland often expresses a clear misogynist and patriarchal attitude towards female sexuality. Any acknowledgement of female sexuality is an artificial construction aimed to produce sexual pleasure in male readers. It is ultimately unproductive for contemporary feminism as it provides neither an authentic representation of female sexuality nor an empowering articulation of a female voice. Furthermore, Memoirs is dominated by Cleland’s strong phallocentrism with regards to sexuality. There are always references to huge erect penises described by Cleland in extensive prose. Fanny and her friends are constantly dominated by their desire for the male genital organ. It "constantly inscribes a range of sexual practices only to thwart them in favor of vaginal intercourse between men and women.” (Weed, 1997, 11) The lesbian sex scenes were for male objectification, and were considered false and “rather the shadow than the substance of any pleasure” (Cleland, 1985: 71). Therefore, its championing of heterosexual sex embodies the ideal of a patriarchal society. If misogyny is an ideology that exists to legitimise male dominance and female subordination, then female sexuality as a tool for women to manipulate men and put themselves in the position of power undermines male dominance. However, while the representation of female sexuality is a step ahead of Cleland’s time, it is dangerous to ignore the other misogynistic elements in Memoirs, which is ultimately an oppressive male fantasy of female sexuality. Both Moll and Fanny are not immoral seducers but victims of circumstances. While Defoe and Cleland clearly celebrate their heroines’ intelligence and sexuality, it is Cleland who continuously undercuts any feminist sentiment with his misogynistic attitudes.