Difference between revisions of "426--Week 8 Questions/Comments--Thursday"
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I felt this chapter talked a lot about over crowding and over population. When I was reading it I was wondering, was the discussion of sterilization, restraint and birth control really aimed at middle to upper class families? Walters has successfully separated the content from the context in this book, but there were other reasons for population increases. Take immigration, for example. "Excessive child-breaing" was not the only reason the population grew. Perhaps the authors were referring to other classes and people, whose children were less desirable members of society. So what does that mean about who might read these? Did immigrants buy into this stuff? Or were these arguments just code for trying to clean up society?--Amanda | I felt this chapter talked a lot about over crowding and over population. When I was reading it I was wondering, was the discussion of sterilization, restraint and birth control really aimed at middle to upper class families? Walters has successfully separated the content from the context in this book, but there were other reasons for population increases. Take immigration, for example. "Excessive child-breaing" was not the only reason the population grew. Perhaps the authors were referring to other classes and people, whose children were less desirable members of society. So what does that mean about who might read these? Did immigrants buy into this stuff? Or were these arguments just code for trying to clean up society?--Amanda | ||
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| + | I was very interested to see how the author reflected on how Thomas Malthus's logistical model effected 19th century people's sexual activity. I also felt like Knowlton and Owen other writers were feeding into the Malthusian model. These scientists talk about how birth control was said to preserve female health, increase working class prosperity allow early marriage and keep youth from frequenting places of debauchery. I got the sense that they were reaching for straws on the moral side of the issue and painted a rosy picture that contraception would allow families to start at an earlier age rather than on the flipside causing increased underage sexual activity. -Joe C. | ||
== Perfecting The Race == | == Perfecting The Race == | ||
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No, it kind of came off that way to me too. It seemed very, random, almost. Like he wanted to try to add in women's rights at the last minute as a little bit of a "hurrah" but failed. I don't know, the whole women's rights, marital rights, thing should have been avoided, in my opinion, unless it were to be brought up somewhere else in the book. Like the Introduction and Preface, it just seemed out of place with the rest of the book and overall theme of things. -Kelly W. | No, it kind of came off that way to me too. It seemed very, random, almost. Like he wanted to try to add in women's rights at the last minute as a little bit of a "hurrah" but failed. I don't know, the whole women's rights, marital rights, thing should have been avoided, in my opinion, unless it were to be brought up somewhere else in the book. Like the Introduction and Preface, it just seemed out of place with the rest of the book and overall theme of things. -Kelly W. | ||
| − | Was the point of the epilogue | + | Was the point of the epilogue to describe how 19th century society lacked women's say on the topic of sex? Was it more that men misinterpreted the role of women (gap between ideal home and real one) and their freedoms? I personally think the epilogue was about the latter and how the author is expressing how male writers simply built stereotypes in their writings about women. -Joe C. |
== Rotundo: Chapter 6 == | == Rotundo: Chapter 6 == | ||
