The Spinster and Her Enemies

The Spinster and Her Enemies: Feminism and Sexuality 1880-1930
Author Sheila Jeffreys
Country United Kingdom
Language English
Genre History
Published 1985 (Pandora)
Media type Print
Pages 232
ISBN 0-86358-050-5

The Spinster and Her Enemies: Feminism and Sexuality 1880-1930 is a 1985 book about feminist involvement in the Social Purity movement by Sheila Jeffreys.[1]

Summary

Jeffreys examines feminist involvement in the Social Purity movement at the turn of the 19th century. She argues that the women involved were developing a critique of male sexual abuse of women and children which included a call for feminists to abstain from sex with men. She writes that they were politically defeated by the ascendency of sexology and the birth-control movement, both of which attacked spinsterhood and sought to recruit women back into heterosexuality. She warns feminists against what she sees as the dangers which sexual libertarianism poses to feminist goals.[2]

Scholarly reception

Feminist Rene Denfeld criticized The Spinster and Her Enemies for being part of a repressive, anti-sexual trend within contemporary feminism.[3]

References

Footnotes

  1. ↑ Egerton 1993. p. 132.
  2. ↑ Egerton 1993. pp. 132-133.
  3. ↑ Denfeld 1995. p. 241.

Bibliography

Books
  • Denfeld, Rene (1995). The New Victorians: A Young Woman's Challenge to the Old Feminist Order. New York: Allen & Unwin. ISBN 1-86373-789-8.
  • Egerton, Jane (1993). Gilbert, Harriett, ed. The Sexual Imagination from Acker to Zola: A Feminist Companion. London: Jonathan Cape. ISBN 0-224-03535-5.