Heterosexuality, feminism and the freewoman journal in early twentieth-century england

Women's History Review

Volumn 4, Issue 1, 1995, Pages 5-23

  Bland1, Lucy ^a  

^a LONDON METROPOLITAN UNIVERSITY   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

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EID: 78449262788     PISSN: 09612025     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/09612029500200074     Document Type: Article

References (72)

1. A greatly extended version of this article appears as chapter 7 of Lucy Bland (1995) Banishing the Beast: English feminism and sexual morality, 1885-1914 (London: Penguin). Many thanks to Judy Greenway, Frank Mort, Helen Crowley and Martin Durham for their helpful comments and to Hilary Frances for sharing some of her research on Edith Watson.
2. S. Skelhorn, The Freewoman, 28 March 1912, p. 376
3. R.C. Fletcher Woods, The Freewoman, 4 July 1912, p. 132 and
4. Coralie Boord, The Freewoman, 14 March 1912, p. 331.
5. Dora Marsden, The Freewoman, 14 March 1912, p. 332.
6. M. Vicinus (1985) Independent Women (London, Virago).
7. In 1885 Karl Pearson coined the word 'sexualogy', meaning the science of sexual relations, but the word was replaced in the early twentieth century by the American 'sexology'. J.A. Simpson and E.S.C. Weiner (1989) The Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd edn (Oxford: Clarendon Press) cite sexology as first used in 1902. I have found a reference to 'sexology' in The Adult for 1897, but the meaning appears to be different from what became the accepted meaning: Leighton Pagan, The Adult, Vol. 1 No. 4, November 1897, p. 59: “It appears to me that the ban should be taken away from non-conformists in sexology…” The term 'sexology' was barely used in Britain before the First World War; the preferred term was 'sex psychology'
8. There is evidence, of course, that there were women who did enjoy sexual intercourse.
9. P. Gay (1984) The Bourgeios Experience, Vol. 1: education of the senses (Oxford: Oxford University Press)
10. M. Mason (1994) The Making of Victorian Sexuality (Oxford: Oxford University Press). I am indebted to Judy Greenway for enlightening me on the relationship between feminism and anarchism.
11. Susan Kingsley Kent (1987) Sex and Suffrage in Britain, 1860-1914 (Princeton: Princeton University Press)
12. Linda Gordon (1977) Woman’s Body, Woman’s Right, 75-109 (London: Penguin)
13. Lucy Bland (1995) Banishing the Beast: English feminism and sexual morality, 1885-1914 (London: Penguin).
14. Michel Foucault (1979) The History of Sexuality, Volume 1: an introduction (London: Allen Lane).
15. Havelock Ellis's Sexual Inversion, for example, was banned in 1898, only shortly after its publication.
16. Sheila Rowbotham and Jeffrey Weeks (1977) Socialism and the New Life: the personal and sexual politics of Edward Carpenter and Havelock Ellis (London: Pluto Press). Many sexological works in bookshops and libraries were only available to members of the medical and legal professions.
17. Carroll Smith-Rosenberg (1985) The new woman as androgyne: social disorder and gender crisis, 1870-1936, in Disorderly Conduct: visions of gender in Victorian America, 265-266 (Oxford: Oxford University Press).
18. Havelock Ellis, Iwan Bloch and August Forel were three of the main sexologists being read in Britain in the Edwardian period. For differences between them see Bland (1995) Banishing the Beast, Chapter 7.
19. See Liz Stanley (1992) The Auto/biographical I, Chapter 8 (Manchester: Manchester University Press)
20. Alison Hennegan, Introduction to Radclyffe Hall (1982) The Well of Loneliness, 11-10 (London: Virago).
21. Les Garner (1990) A Brave and Beautiful Spirit: Dora Marsden, 1882-1960, 71-72 (Aldershot: Avebury).
22. Rebecca West, 'The Freewoman', p. 63.
23. Garner (1990) A Brave and Beautiful Spirit. (Aldershot: Avebury).
24. Doris Nield Chew (1982) The Life and Writings of Ada Nield Chew (London: Virago) Ada Nield Chew to The Freewoman, 13 April and 18 April 1912, reprinted in The Life and Writings of Ada Nield Chew, 235-238. Realising that “The Freewoman is too poor to pay”, she offered her work for free. (Garner[1990] A Brave and Beautiful Spirit, p. 76 [Aldershot, Avebury]).
25. Jane Craig, The Freewoman, 25 January 1912, p. 192; In the same issue of the paper, Mrs Sherwen reflected that “surely the ideal should be that sex relationship and sex organs should be held absolutely sacred to the production of children, and never be degraded to minister to a lustful pleasure”, The Freewoman, 25 January 1912, p. 192.
26. Isabel Leatham, The Freewoman, 11 January 1912, p. 151; and see the response of 'A.B.' to Mrs Sherwen's letter: “the sex instinct flows into aesthetic expression which is by no means connected with the production of children” The Freewoman, 1 February 1912, p. 213.
27. A Grandmother, The Freewoman, 22 February 1912, p. 270.
28. Stella Browne, 'The sexual variety and variability among women and their bearing upon social reconstruction', given to the British Society for the Study of Sex Psychology in 1915, reprinted in Sheila Rowbotham (1977) A New World for Women: Stella Browne socialist feminist, 103-104 (London: Pluto Press).
29. Nora Kiernan, The Freewoman, 20 June 1912, p. 99.
30. James A.H. Murray (Ed.) A New English Dictionary on Historical Principles (1884-1933) (Oxford: Clarendon Press).
31. Karl Kertbeny (pseudonym for Benkert) coined the terms. See Jonathan Katz (February 1990) The invention of heterosexuality, Socialist Review, 21(1).
32. Nora Kiernan, The Freewoman, 20 June 1912, p. 99.
33. James A.H. Murray (Ed.) (1909) A New English Dictionary Vol. 7. Dora Marsden, The Freewoman, 28 December 1911, p. 102.
34. Linda Gordon and Ellen DuBois (1983) Seeking ecstasy on the battlefield: danger and pleasure in nineteenth century feminist sexual thought, Feminist Review, 13, Spring, 42-54.
35. Sheila Jeffreys (1985) The Spinster and her Enemies, p. 51 (London: Pandora).
36. A Would-be Freewoman, The Freewoman, 21 March 1912, p. 353.
37. 'A New Subscriber', The Freewoman, 22 February 1912, p. 270, and see Stella Browne (1915) in Rowbotham (1977) A New World for Women, 100-101 (London: Pluto Press).
38. Dr Wrench, Shall the Yoshiwara be rebuilt?, The Freewoman, 30 May 1912, 25-26.
39. E.M. Watson, The Freewoman, 20 June 1912, p. 95.
40. E.M. Watson, The Freewoman, 4 July 1912, p. 139
41. Watson A.B., The Freewoman, 18 July 1912, p. 177.
42. Dora Marsden, The Freewoman, 4 January 1912, p. 121.
43. Upton Sinclair, The Freewoman, 18 January 1912, p. 165
44. Margaret Hill, The Freewoman, 30 November 1911, p. 31
45. E.M. Watson, The Freewoman, 8 February 1912, p. 231.
46. Kathlyn Oliver, The Freewoman, 15 February 1912, p. 252.
47. A New Subscriber, The Freewoman, 22 February 1912, p. 270.
48. Kathlyn Oliver, The Freewoman, 29 February 1912, p. 290.
49. A New Subscriber, The Freewoman, 7 March 1912, p. 313.
50. A New Subscriber, The Freewoman, 18 April 1912, p. 437.
51. Cicely Hamilton (1909; 1981) Marriage as a Trade (London: The Women's Press)
52. Christabel Pankhurst (1913) The Great Scourge and How to End It (London: E. Pankhurst).
53. E. M. Watson, The Freewoman, 8 February 1912, p. 231.
54. Kathlyn Oliver, The Freewoman, 15 February 1912, p. 252.
55. Isabel Leatham, The Freewoman, 11 January 1912, p. 151
56. Jane Craig, The Freewoman, 25 January 1912, p. 192.
57. Mrs Sherwen, The Freewoman, 25 January 1912, p. 192.
58. E. M. Watson, The Freewoman, 8 February 1912, p. 231.
59. Isabel Leatham, The Freewoman, 7 December 1912, 51-52.
60. See Linda Gordon (1977) Woman’s Body, Woman’s Right, p. 85 (London: Penguin).
61. Alice B. Stockham (1896) Karezza: ethics of marriage, 22-23, 67 (Chicago)
62. George Noyes Miller (1891) The Strike of a Sex: a novel (London: W.H. Reynold)
63. Mary, M and Stanley Randolph, The Freewoman, 13 June 1912, p. 79;
64. Mary, M and Stanley Randolph The Freewoman, 27 June 1912, p. 118.
65. Gordon, M (1977) Woman’s Body, Woman’s Right, p. 62 (London: Penguin).
66. Dora Marsden, New Freewoman, 1 August 1913, p. 64.
67. Dora Marsden, The Freewoman, 28 December 1911. p. 102.
68. Dora Marsden, The Freewoman, 9 May 1912, p. 482.
69. Dora Marsden, The Freewoman, 2 May 1912, p. 461.
70. Stella Browne, 1915, in Rowbotham, A New World for Women, p. 101.
71. A New Subscriber, Freewoman, 21 March 1912, p. 354.
72. Stella Browne, 1915, in Rowbotham (1977) A New World for Women, p. 96 (London: Pluto Press).