Before and after gender: sexual mythologies of everyday life

362 Pages·2017·1.14 MB·English

by  Marilyn Strathern

Before and after Gender
Hau
Books
executive editor
Giovanni da Col

Managing editor
Sean M. Dowdy
editorial Board
Anne-Christine Taylor
Carlos Fausto
Danilyn Rutherford
Ilana Gershon
Jason Throop
Joel Robbins
Jonathan Parry
Michael Lempert
Stephan Palmié
www.haubooks.com
Before and after Gender
SexuAL MyTHoLoGIeS
oF eveRyDAy LIFe
Marilyn strathern

edited with an Introduction by sarah franklin

afterword by Judith Butler
Hau Books
Chicago
© 2016 Hau Books and Marilyn Strathern
Cover and layout design: Sheehan Moore
Cover photo printed with permission from the Barbara Hepsworth estate and
The Art Institute of Chicago: Barbara Hepworth, english, 1903-1975, Two Figures
(Menhirs), © 1954/55, Teak and paint, 144.8 x 61 x 44.4 cm (57 x 24 x 17 1/2 in.),
Bequest of Solomon B. Smith, 1986.1278
Typesetting: Prepress Plus (www.prepressplus.in)
ISBN: 978-0-9861325-3-7
LCCN: 2016902723
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The Priest Sylvester, in Russia in the sixteenth century, writes to his son:
The husband ought to teach his wife with love and sensible punishment. The wife should
ask her husband about all matters of decorum; how to save her soul; how to please the
husband and God; how to keep the house in good order. And to obey him in every-
thing. . . . And no matter how guilty the wife is, the husband should not hit her eyes or ears,
nor beat her with his fist or feet under the heart. . . . But to beat her carefully with a whip
is sensible, painful, fear-inspiring, and healthy. In the case of a grave offence, pull off her
shirt and whip politely, holding her by the hands and saying: “Don’t be angry; the people
should not know about it; there should be no complaints.” (Quoted in Catlin 1929: xvi)
Lord Kames, Loose hints upon education (1781):
“To make a good husband is but one branch of a man’s duty; but it is the chief duty of a
woman to make a good wife.” (Quoted in Catlin 1929: xx)
From George Gissing, The odd women (1893):
“I don’t think, edmund, there’s much real difference between men and women. That is,
there wouldn’t be, if women had fair treatment.”
“Not much difference? oh, come; you are talking nonsense. There’s as much difference
between their minds as between their bodies. They are made for entirely different duties.”
Monica sighed.
“oh, that word Duty!”
From Wilkie Collins, The woman in white (1859–60):
“Human ingenuity, my friend, has hitherto only discovered two ways in which a man can
manage a woman. one way is to knock her down—a method largely adopted by the brutal
lower orders of the people, but utterly abhorrent to the refined and educated classes above
them. The other way (much longer, much more difficult, but in the end not less certain)
is never to accept to provocation at a woman’s hands. It holds with animals, it holds with
children, and it holds with women, who are nothing but children grown up.”
From George Gissing, The odd women (1893):
[Miss Barfoot, talking about her uncle:] “I have heard him speak bitterly, and very in-
discreetly, of early marriages; his wife was dead then, but everyone knew what he meant.
Rhoda, when one thinks how often a woman is a clog upon a man’s ambition, no wonder
they regard us as they do.”
“of course, women are always retarding one thing or another. But men are intensely stupid
not to have remedied that long ago.”

table of Contents
original Acknowledgments ix
editorial Note xi
editor’s introduction
“The Riddle of Gender” by Sarah Franklin xiii
preface
“Concepts in Transition” by Marilyn Strathern 1
chapter one
The Seductive Symbol 5
chapter two
Stereotypes 33
chapter three
Families and Housewives 63
chapter four
The World outside 97
viii Before and after Gender
chapter five
Dependency 129
chapter six
Sex and the Concept of the Person 175
chapter seven
Sex and the Social order 245
Afterword by Judith Butler 293
References 303
Index of Names 309
original acknowledgments
The purpose of this book is to apply some of the findings of social anthropolo-
gists to a topic which they do not often treat on its own, male-female relations.
It is intended to suggest a point of view rather than offer an original synthesis,
and the ideas in it are drawn from many sources in addition to those specifically
given reference. But although the point of view is one which an anthropologist
might be expected to follow, it in no way amounts to an orthodoxy. At the same
time, I have both taken much anthropological analysis for granted and been free
with the material I quote. I hope the authors whose works I cite will find there
has not been too much distortion.
Several parts of the book were written in collaboration with Joyce evans,
my mother. I thank her for her help in this way, especially for the reading she
did and for perusing the manuscript. Joyce evans has for many years lectured
on women’s roles and “the woman question” to historical studies and literature
classes, and any perspective I can lay claim to on the topic derives largely from
what she has taught me.
Marilyn Strathern
Port Moresby, 1974