Earlier
today I stumbled upon this article, via Twitter, about
how in Victorian England, many doctors thought that reading novels was terribly
bad for a woman’s health – to the point that it might drive her insane. Specifically,
reading novels lead to moral decay and depravity, in addition to wreaking havoc
on her reproductive health and nervous system. While men were ostensibly immune
to such ills, fiction posed a threat to women because the weaker sex was more
susceptible to its undeniable frivolity and straight-up trashiness. So even
though the stronger sex could resist the havoc fiction might wreak upon mind
and body, fiction itself was largely the problem.
Maybe
I take things too personally as a former English major, but I feel like this
isn’t the first or last time in history that fiction has gotten a bad wrap. And
I definitely take offense as a modern feminist, so I guess I’d like to travel
back to Victorian England and tell as many ladies as possible that reading
novels is absolutely not bad for your health and can in fact be quite beneficial
for one’s mental health. Indeed, I would tell those ladies and anyone else who
would listen to read as much as they liked, and especially to read whatever
they liked.
Throughout history there have always been books
that people tell you not to read, for somewhat similar reasons. While the
Victorians thought that all novels for women were at best drivel and at worst a
cause of depravity, today people will still tell you that about certain books.
I’d like to travel back in time to make a case for pleasure reading, including
that of the guilty persuasion (as Julia brought up in a previous blog post). Overall,
I share the sentiment of many fellow bloggers this week, who simply want
readers in the past to know that there is a future for books and reading, and I
want them to know that going forward there will still be people who try to tell
you how and when and especially what you should read. I think as long as books
and stories exist in some form, especially novels just because these are my
personal favourite, I can be less preoccupied and anxious about the future of
the physicality of books and resign myself to a happy future in which readers
simply continue to read, voraciously and without the restraint or prescription
of others. Regardless of the ability to time travel, it’s a message I think is
important to deliver past, present, and future.
It's funny how little has changed since that era! While we no longer believe that women literally go crazy from reading novels, there is certainly a very strong belief that some books are for women (the ones with the pastels and the beach scenes on the front!) and that they are pretty much garbage that fill ladies' heads with unrealistic ideas. This reminds me of a weird correlation that was suggested about fanfiction. It doesn't have the best reputation as far as literary merit goes and it's mostly written by women, but I read that maybe it's so overwhelmingly female because it's so much easier for women to be amateur writers than try their hand in the publishing industry (this was supported by the figure that only 30% of the writers reviewed in 2012 in all of the respected publication like the Paris Review, New Yorker, The Atlantic, etc were women). Gender aside, I think you're right in saying there will always be a line between what's considered worthwhile and what isn't, and that for some reason the advantages of pleasure reading never seem to be inherently understood.
ReplyDeleteI never considered it, but of COURSE more women write fanfiction because that way they can get published, rather than dealing with the patriarchy and the sexist publishing industry. I think you hit it spot on, Christine.
ReplyDeleteI think in general I'm a happier person when I can pleasure read, and I haven't been able to do that much lately. It took me a long time after my MA to be able to sit down and read a serious (rather than guilty pleasure e-book) book, and I suspect it will be the same after this degree. Honestly, I think the mental exercise of reading is important enough that we shouldn't worry our pretty little lady heads (/sarcasm) about the content.
This post contains the two things that can get me really riled up: feminism and censorship. It's also the kind of post I read while thinking to myself "I wish I'd thought of that!"
ReplyDeleteAnyway, jealousy aside, this post got me thinking about chick lit. Although it's not a genre I read much, it's almost backlash to the concept that women can't or shouldn't read books that are gendered male. There is no such thing as "man lit". The entire genre of chick lit almost says "Fine, we'll write our own books then. Beat that."