Feminism and the “eroticization” of the middle-class woman: The intersection of class and gender attitudes

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Abstract

Sexuality continues to be a key issue for those studying the history and evolution of gender relations. It has also attracted many social theorists interested in the construction of social relations more generally.

This paper aims to contribute to both areas. It uses the texts of two leading feminist birth controllers at the turn of the century, Margaret Sanger and Marie Stopes, to examine changing attitudes to female sexuality and to see how attitudes on other issues such as class influenced their views on sexuality.

Sanger and Stopes had several agendas, including a desire to improve women's sex lives and their experience of marriage, and a political commitment to Anglo-Saxon, middle-class hegemony. Their membership in this particular social group determined the conceptual system within which they worked and imposed constraints on their analysis of women's roles and needs.

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