HIST 210 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Left School, Cover Charge, 18 Months
20 Oct 2016
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hist 210 week 7 10/27/2015 4:00:00 PM
The Hysterical Woman in Canadian
History, Part II
Sexuality was initially a middle class
construct, something the buugeoisie
invented to define themselves as a class
Once the dominant classes discovered power of sexuality to be a force of
regulation things began to change
In relationship to womens sexuality in th 20th century we see decline in the iterest
of the hysterical women in the middle class – give up on that idea… -- see
precoupation woth working class womens sexuality – hypersexual
I. Exporting Sexuality to the “Lower Orders”
A. From Hysterical to Hypersexual
working class women – seen to have sexualitythats out of control
In 20th century
Ottawa court – sent to mercer reformatory for women – for
dsolute behaviour
Mildred-19years, left school at 14 – sent to mercer for a year and
a bit.. was sent their to be taght discipline
Juliette sent there for 15 months – had two kids – was viewed as
not strong enough to take on world and had illegitmate kids
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Section 347 - females refuges act
- imorant eice of legistlation -1897 became active – law allowed
for incariration of women for u to five years for being
unmanageable – “girls gone wild”, girls who were sexually active
in ways that society dissaporved of – took in 35yrs old as max
age, but most were under age 21 – 43% not yet 20 years
- overwhelming from poverty stricken or middle class
background, no trial involved or criminal record required, police
just had to wwrite out a statement to a judge saying you were
sexually out of control and then you would face years in the
reformatory – Andrew mercer reformatory for women in TO.
- opened in 1872,
- contain non normative sexualities
- once inside – intensive retraining , rehabilitiating for domesticity
and feminity , training them to be domestic servants – training
them to cook and clean
- each inmate had a casefile – they are now in the provincial
archives – used for research – a source of info of the women in
the past--- also we dan seee how the pracices of the
insuttuionslayed out in hundreds of lives and the cumulatve
impact – also to use the sources themselves as knowledge, have
their own effects of power,
II. “Girls Gone Wild”
A. The 1897 Female Refuges Act and the Mercer
Reformatory
B. The Case File as Power/Knowledge
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Sexuality was initially a middle class construct, something the buugeoisie invented to define themselves as a class. Once the dominant classes discovered power of sexuality to be a force of regulation things began to change. Ottawa court sent to mercer reformatory for women for dsolute behaviour. Mildred-19years, left school at 14 sent to mercer for a year and a bit was sent their to be taght discipline. Juliette sent there for 15 months had two kids was viewed as not strong enough to take on world and had illegitmate kids: from hysterical to hypersexual. Once inside intensive retraining , rehabilitiating for domesticity and feminity , training them to be domestic servants training them to cook and clean. Toronto was the very first to get one in 1913 torontos womens court. Emily murphy first female magestrate in ca edmonton 1916. Remove them from main steam courts to keep them away from men.
