Abstract

In the 1870s and ‘80s, more women discussed sex to promote free love and sex education in speeches, pamphlets, books, and periodicals. Some of these women inspired the 1873 “Comstock law,” which banned materials deemed obscene. This essay uses the fictional figure of Audacia Dangyereyes to illustrate the constraints on women discussing sex in public forums. It identifies the rhetorical moves necessary to accommodate constraining audiences through close readings of the works of Victoria Woodhull, Tennessee Claflin, and Angela Heywood, all women deemed immodest by public standards and obscene by Anthony Comstock. To allay such charges, these women worked to redefine appropriate speech for women.

Journal
Rhetoric Society Quarterly
Published
2012-10-01
DOI
10.1080/02773945.2012.724515
CompPile
Search in CompPile ↗
Open Access
Closed
Topics
Export

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (1)

  1. Rhetoric Society Quarterly

References (56) · 4 in this index

  1. American Sexual Politics: Sex, Gender, and Race since the Civil War
  2. Rhetoric Society Quarterly
  3. Free Love and Anarchism: The Biography of Ezra Heywood
  4. Regendering Delivery: The Fifth Canon and Antebellum Women Rhetors
  5. Man Cannot Speak For Her. Vol. I. A Critical Study of Early Feminist Rhetoric
Show all 56 →
  1. The Ethics of Sexual Equality, A Lecture Delivered by Tennie C. Claflin, at the Academy o…
  2. Talks and Essays Volume 1
  3. Talks and Essays
  4. Woodhull & Claflin's Weekly
  5. Talks and Essays Volume 2
  6. Talks and Essays Volume 3
  7. 10.1177/152263790600800301
  8. Conversational Rhetoric: The Rise and Fall of a Women's Tradition, 1600–1900
  9. Rhetorical Theory by Women Before 1900
  10. 10.1353/jowh.2000.0022
  11. Victoria Woodhull's Sexual Revolution: Political Theater and the Popular Press in Ninetee…
  12. Feminist Rhetorical Theories
  13. The Moral Property of Women: A History of Birth Control Politics in America
  14. Woman's Body. Woman's Right: A Social History of Birth Control in America
  15. The Word: A Monthly Journal of Reform
  16. The Word: A Monthly Journal of Reform
  17. Leaflet Literature
  18. The Word: A Monthly Journal of Reform
  19. The Word: A Monthly Journal of Reform
  20. The Word: A Monthly Journal of Reform
  21. The Word: A Monthly Journal of Reform
  22. The Word: A Monthly Journal of Reform
  23. The Word: A Monthly Journal of Reform
  24. The Word: A Monthly Journal of Reform
  25. Rereading Sex: Battles Over Sexual Knowledge and Suppression in Nineteenth-Century America
  26. 10.2307/2568758
  27. Dirty Words: The Rhetoric of Public Sex Education, 1870–1924
  28. Gender and Rhetorical Space in American Life, 1866–1910
  29. Rhetoric Review
  30. Appropriate[ing] Dress: Women's Rhetorical Style in Nineteenth-Century America
  31. Individualist Feminism of the Nineteenth Century: Collected Writings and Biographical Profiles
  32. 10.1353/jowh.2000.0042
  33. Sex Radicals and the Quest for Women's Equality
  34. Available Means: An Anthology of Women's Rhetoric(s)
  35. Schaechterle , Inez .Speaking of Sex: The Rhetorical Strategies of Frances Willard, Victoria Woodhull, and Id…
  36. The Sex Radicals: Free Love in High Victorian America
  37. Rhetoric Review
  38. Rhetoric Society Quarterly
  39. Free Love: Marriage and Middle-Class Radicalism in America, 1825–1860
  40. Free Love in America: A Documentary History
  41. My Wife and I, or, Harry Henderson's History
  42. The Woman Who Ran for President: The Many Lives of Victoria Woodhull
  43. The Beecher Sisters
  44. Willing , Jennie . “FromThe Potential Woman: A Book for Young Ladies(1887).” In Donawerth 215–221. Print.
  45. 10.1353/amp.2008.0009
  46. “And the Truth Shall Make You Free:” A Speech on the Principles of Social Freedom
  47. The Elixir of Life, or, Why Do We Die?
  48. The Human Body the Temple of God; or the Philosophy of Sociology
  49. Tried as by Fire; Or, The True and the False Socially
  50. 10.1080/00335639509384108
  51. 10.1080/00335630209384368