Passionlessness In The 1800s

During the 1800’s and early 1900s, women were considered to be inferior to men in some aspects due to religion, laws, and society’s outlook on both genders. In fact, because of these factors, some people believed that women suffered from passionlessness during that time. Passionlessness “convey the view that women lacked sexual aggressiveness, that their sexual appetites contributed a very minor part (if any at all) to their motivations, that lustfulness was simply uncharacteristic” (Cott 220). The rise of passionlessness in the 1800s was due to the evangelical beliefs people had during the time. Since religion was a big factor in society, women were in a way forced to follow the norm in which they were forbidden to express the same

Laws according to this period also diminished the values of women and their promiscuity. This allowed the husbands to recover “damages” from their wives’ lovers conveyed and reinstated the idea that women were property. Considering that they were property, any sexual relations with anyone but the husband would lower the value of the women in the eyes of society, as a result. Although passionlessness has many negative effects on a women’s sexuality, it has some advantages for women. “Acceptance of the idea of passionlessness created sexual solidarity among women; it allowed women to consider their love relationships with one another of higher character than heterosexual relationships” (Cott 233). By being oppressed, women were able to connect on a deeper level with other women in a non-sexual way. Women were able to discuss and bring out passionate topics that men couldn’t relate to at the time, since men considered women as property. This allowed women to translate their lost feelings of passionlessness with their men to with their “sisters” who understood what they were going through at the same time, and it allowed them become stronger as an individual. Female passionlessness also helped the