and how much of the line is dependent on race/sex/class, which I’m really having to think about wrt my lady Byronic hero somedaynovel. how much of the traditional unmarried cantankerous eccentricity wd even a wealthy woman be able to get away with?
YES YES YES.
i actually talked with my prof about this because i was feeling super guilty for having a hard time finding (published, book length) mental illness narratives by working class women or women of color to read for my thesis and so instead i’m making a small but significant chunk of it about how specifically the “madwoman” is embodied differently by middle class, white women historically and how constructions of white middle class femininity line up with or complicate ideas of “madness.”
but anyway.
yeah! i think the whole “bachelor” thing itself is really interesting because ladies (lady ladies) were…not really allowed to have that lifestyle? like—aloneness was not a thing that was as accessible to them as to men, and that’s a huge huge part of how byronic heroes come to be. i’m so excited to see how you work that out!
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plenilune said:
I AM ALSO EXCITED TO SEE HOW I WORK THAT OUT, TBQH. :P ugh what if I have to research historical eccentric rich ladies’ lives; that would be TERRIBLE.
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redheadbouquet posted this
