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The Spinster and Her Enemies: Feminism and Sexuality 1880-1930
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Sheila Jeffreys examines the activities of feminist campaigners around such issues as child abuse and prostitution and how these campaigns shaped social purity in the 1880s and 1890s. She demonstrates how the thriving and militant feminism of late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries was undermined, and asserts that the decline of this feminism was due largely to the p
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Paperback, 237 pages
Published
October 28th 1997
by Spinifex Press
(first published 1986)
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Mar 22, 2009
Jude
rated it
really liked it
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review of another edition
Shelves:
the-f-word,
class-work
Jeffreys takes on the pedigree of a pseudo-conflict that had long made me itch - the apparent tension between loving women and loving sex that is still fanning the a-historical rant contingent of the "pro-sex" discourse, was a thorn-in-the-side of some periods of second-wave feminism, is being addressed with much more nuance by the third, but that is rarely considered when assessing the first wave.
Most of my formative feminist reading was done around the time of this book's publication - 1985 ...more
Most of my formative feminist reading was done around the time of this book's publication - 1985 ...more
Feb 07, 2010
Tobi
marked it as to-read
"The Invention of the Frigid Woman"
I Love the Word Spinster
Sheila Jeffreys is, I'm led to understand, a polarizing figure in modern debates on feminism and gender issues. So I'd meant to read her, and a book with spinster in the title sealed the deal.
This book is essentially a history of how spinsters were viewed from 1880 to 1930 in England (and consequently most of the western world). In a nutshell, the number of spinsters grew in the late Victorian era, and crusaded for women's rights. A large part of this struggl ...more
Sheila Jeffreys is, I'm led to understand, a polarizing figure in modern debates on feminism and gender issues. So I'd meant to read her, and a book with spinster in the title sealed the deal.
This book is essentially a history of how spinsters were viewed from 1880 to 1930 in England (and consequently most of the western world). In a nutshell, the number of spinsters grew in the late Victorian era, and crusaded for women's rights. A large part of this struggl ...more
genius genius genius
Excellent book, and vital to the understanding of the history of feminism. It aged extremely well and is arguably more pertinent now than at the time when it was written (if you need any more proof that history repeats itself, read this book).
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Sheila Jeffreys writes and teaches in the areas of sexual politics, international gender politics, and lesbian and gay politics. She has written six books on the history and politics of sexuality. Originally from the UK, Sheila moved to Melbourne in 1991 to take up a position at the University of Melbourne. She has been actively involved in feminist and lesbian feminist politics, particularly arou
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