tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-630346294397505634.post5628087311195918414..comments2024-03-28T07:00:12.226-04:00Comments on Romance Novels for Feminists: Making the Past Harder for Women? Mary Balogh's LONGINGJackie C. Hornehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04146684628443152376noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-630346294397505634.post-78206534677912762892015-11-05T14:24:30.458-05:002015-11-05T14:24:30.458-05:00Thanks, enrage-femme, for your historically-inform...Thanks, enrage-femme, for your historically-informed commentary!<br /><br />I don't think for me it's a matter of blaming or forgiving Balogh. I really like this novel from an emotional standpoint. And she does great work not demonizing either side in the conflict. I'm more just interested in how gender and class issues are often set in opposition to one another in romance, as opposed to what happened in reality (as your examples above so clearly point out). Jackie C. Hornehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04146684628443152376noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-630346294397505634.post-59656521226869255132015-11-04T18:40:25.063-05:002015-11-04T18:40:25.063-05:00This comment has been removed by the author.enrage_femmehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08519083598367295017noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-630346294397505634.post-27485621335623625322015-11-04T18:38:51.349-05:002015-11-04T18:38:51.349-05:00Years ago, I decided that women’s participation in...Years ago, I decided that women’s participation in the French Revolution gave rise to the modern women’s movement. Women were active participants and many gravitated toward the most radical elements around Marat who called themselves the ‘enrage’—hence my screen name. The women organized and led a march to Versailles to force Louis back to Paris to be held accountable for the starvation of children among other things. This was an important event of the revolution. Olympe de Gouges’ ‘Declaration of the Rights of Woman and the Female Citizen’ was an influence for Mary Wollstoncraft and many others around the world. The People’s charter of the Chartists borrowed heavily from the United Irishmen. I have yet to read Bliss Bennet’s ‘A Rebel Without a Rogue’, but I promise I will. Through Fergus O’Connor and his ‘Northern Star’ newspaper they even had a familial connection to the 1798 uprising.<br /><br />Women were participants in the Chartist movement. You referenced documentation and I can add that the daughter of Karl Marx, Jenny played a role in defense of those Chartists arrested just as she would later for the Fenians. The movement’s demands for suffrage definitely inspired women to mount a struggle for their rights. Here in the US the women’s struggle for suffrage was entwined with the Abolitionist movement. In fact the women’s movement split at the time of the 15th amendment. Anthony felt it should not be supported because only black men and not black women and white women were included. It is the kind of question struggles often face. I think I would have disagreed with Anthony and felt good about winning a partial victory and then insisting all had to unite to struggle with women. <br /> <br />I probably would not have done what Ballogh did, but I do not think it is a major flaw. It is very plausible to me that a local Chartist organizer could have been a male chauvinist who banned women from meetings. It is also plausible that the owner of an estate could be enlightened about women’s oppression. I went through women being denied leadership roles in SDS at Columbia during the strike in 1968. The sisters got together for speak bitterness consciousness raising sessions and demanded a greater role from the men. The next thing you know we were in the streets demanding abortion, equal rights and equal pay. My point is that struggle is rarely perfect or linear and that struggle inspires struggle. We take a step forward and later have to fight all over again for the same thing. Who would have thought in 2015 there would be such an attack against women’s reproductive rights? French women didn’t get the vote until 1945. Go figure!<br /><br />I think I can forgive Mary Ballogh. I like that she wrote a story about the home of my ancestors that wasn’t strictly about the aristocracy but included Welsh coal miners. However, I cannot forgive Dickens for ‘A Tale of Two Cities.’ I admire his opening, but love to trash the sentimental words he put into the mouth of Sydney Carton. More than anything, I resent that he created such a horrific character as Madame Lafarge to represent the women participants of the French Revolution. <br />enrage_femmehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08519083598367295017noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-630346294397505634.post-38937453116535933082015-11-04T12:22:51.885-05:002015-11-04T12:22:51.885-05:00Yes. When authors choose to make the past HARDER, ...Yes. When authors choose to make the past HARDER, I wonder if they aren't playing in to the progressive view of history, the idea that society is always getting better and better. Makes us feel happy about living in the times we do, rather than questioning whether there were times in the past when women had it better in some ways...Jackie C. Hornehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04146684628443152376noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-630346294397505634.post-77067799773195231572015-11-03T22:30:23.011-05:002015-11-03T22:30:23.011-05:00As much as anything else, it's always interest...As much as anything else, it's always interesting to see where writers of historical fiction take their liberties and where they hold true. But it's fascinating to me that she chose to make society more oppressive than it was. It makes me wonder how many books I've read where the author made a similar choice, and I assumed it was part and parcel of the history rather than the fiction.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11628382420435864397noreply@blogger.com