GENDER POLITICS REVISION
the diaries written by Anne Lister (1791-1840)
The content was scandalous, crypthand code, hidden in her room.
John Lister found the journal and broke the code, they discovered Anne's sexuality and reburied them.
In 1983 diaries were finally re-discovered by Helena Whitbread.
She was the first to consider it a turning point in social history.
Gentleman Jack turned Anne into a global lesbian icon. Extremely accurate historically while Bridgerton has anachronism (material - music) but also feminism and black people.
1792: Woman Rights Act ( Mary Wollstonecraft)
The marrying game:
Marriage was an obligation for respectable people in Europe. Expected to produce male heirs as the rule of progeniture. Wealth and titles could be obtained. A single woman was a burden—no means of contraception, and many childbirth deaths. Husbands decided to save women or children.
Bridgerton = A quest series ( the mother trying to marry all of her offspring)
Gentleman Jack: Anne Lister’s pursuit of Ann Walker + their life together + starts 15 years before they meet.
Both series depict marriage as a game (Pall Malls as a game of seduction in Bridgerton)
Representation of women:
Bridgerton focuses on the upper class; we relate to their struggles. Gentleman Jack focuses more on working-class women (showing the farmer and craftsman's lives) and Anne Lister’s servants.
For wives, both series show unhappy marriages BUT Simon and Daphne granted the happy ending.
Representation of people of colours :
Black actors: 18% of characters shown in 2020.
Latinx: 5%
Asian: 7%
Indigenous: 0.4%
Still 71% of white actors on screen
Still racism (John Boyega in Star Wars) and whitewashing
But many shows cast black people during the Civil Rights movement.
- colour blind casting is more common
Bridgerton is a non-racist utopia in an alternative world = colour-conscious casting
Ladydanbury being a friend of the Queen
Simon is one of the highest rank characters
Eliza Raine = proof that coloured people were in British society
Left by their father and brought by a friend in England from India, they were illegitimate and not accepted by society / Anne Lister was poor.
They were both isolated together in an attic. She was Anne’s first love and is responsible for her starting her diaries. Lister’s family was welcoming to all of Anne’s lovers.
Yet Anne denied being in love with her and being responsible for Eliza being locked in an asylum for 30 years for being violent.
Rewriting history: Pros and Cons?
Rewriting history without enslavement and genocide while these legacies continue to kill people today.
Biddgerton allows people of colour to experience joy and love without the trauma of history.
Adding people of colour is sometimes a tick-box ( score DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) points.
Representation of LGBTQ people :
Until 2013, le Petit Robert defined a couple as “ a woman and a man”
Taubira Act -> definition includes homosexual couples in 2015.
Yet, homosexual couples have been represented for thousands of years.
Greek pederasty = greatly studied homosexual phenomenon.
Women's homosexuality was less studied.
Poetess Sappho: She lived in the 7th century on the island of Lesbos - little of her poetry survived.
Anne Lister studied Greek and Latin so she could read the classics.
She could identify and belong to a community.
Christian prejudice: The Bible condemns same-sex relationships,
which was made punishable by death in the 4th century. In the Middle Ages, a lot of men were executed.
sexual relationships between men were still illegal until the Sexual Offences Act of 1967.
People could not believe in relationships between women so it wasn’t prosecuted, a pilgrimage was the only punishment ( a spiritual journey)
Ladies of Llangollen: two Irish women in a romantic relationship,
gained celebrity status and were granted a pension by Queen Charlotte. Anne Lister even read about them and met one of them.
Sally Wainwright, a movie director obsessed with Anne Lister.
Gentleman Jack had a massive budget. She received letters from women who didn’t know of Lister, it had an impact on them.
Anne Lister’s legacy = University of York named a college after her
Halifax put up a statue of her.
