[ SECRET POST #5504 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #5504 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.


01.



__________________________________________________



02.



__________________________________________________



03.



__________________________________________________



04.



__________________________________________________



05.












Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 26 secrets from Secret Submission Post #787.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

I feel like the "Not Like The Other Girls" concept is more complex when you're talking about Victorian society where conventional femininity is actively enforced by a deeply patriarchal and oppressive society and used to disadvantage women and restrict their opportunities

[(Anonymous)]

Austen is Regency, not Victorian.

[(Anonymous)]

da

And Regency society was, if anything, even more rigidly gendered.

[(Anonymous)]

This is true! But I do think there is some validity to the idea that her stories do villainize "feminine" behaviors and other women. This isn't always portrayed as a good thing (as anon up above mentioned with some "uncommon" behaviors that the heroines display being marked as negative traits), but just using Pride and Prejudice as an example, there's definitely a disdain for women such as the mother or Lydia/Kitty. Even the other "not like other girls" sister Mary is a bit of a laughingstock.

I'm not great with words but hopefully my point comes across! There's just a definite air of derision for other women. I say this while being an Austen enjoyer, mind!

OP

[(Anonymous)]

It's interesting that you say that because I think "not like the other girls" is a more prominent concept in writing which is aware of the rigidness of gendered society, because if the writer is a woman, they are more aware of which girls can't manage success in an oppressive ideal way and so they denigrate the methods of success as "false" or "silly". It's seems less complex, nor more.

Jane Austen can say that she's not trying to denigrate gothic novels, but in both Mansfield Park and Northanger Abbey she has little sympathy for the way her society has set up women to find solace in them. Isabella, Maria, Julia, and Mary are varying degrees of horrible, but the framing of them always somehow reads like not being content with their social limitations is what makes them horrible.

Re: OP

[(Anonymous)]

Huh? Northanger Abbey is a deliberate piss take of Gothic novels.

Re: OP

[(Anonymous)]

Northanger Abbey seemed more of an affectionate piss-take, to me.

And also, there *was* something deeply messed up about the Abbey and the family that lived there - Catherine was at least half-right - it's just that it was the more mundane abusive parent.

[(Anonymous)]

+10000 This is exactly the comment I was hoping to find ITT so I wouldn't have to make it myself.