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Polwhele's "Unsex'd Females"

During the Romantic period, progressives began to seek many changes in Britain, including strides towards science, and equal rights for both men and women. Unsurprisingly, this met with a great deal of backlash. Richard Polwhele, a conservative Anglican clergyman, attacks the female progressive movement in his piece “the Unsex’d Female.” This poem not only represents the male British misogyny of the period, but also the anti-French and anti-reason movements that were occurring. In the “Unsex’d Female,” Polwhele attacks all of these movements underlying a more obvious attack and argument against the female progressive movement, and most notably, Mary Wollstonecraft, who, to him was a culmination of all liberalities.

In his poem, Polwhele,staunchly against change, displays displays the anti-French sentiment that many British developed during the course of the French Revolution. Throughout the piece, Polwhele condemns the French, blaming them for particular aspects of the women’s rights movement that has made them doff their femininity and push for masculine education. Polwhele states that the “unsex’d females” (Polwhele line 16) call upon “Gallic freaks or Gallic faith” (20), inferring that France is the inspiration of the women’s movement. Throughout the piece, Polwhele never names France anything but the archaic “Gaul.” By associating France with this name, Polwhele is referring to the backwards and uncivilized nature of the new, democratic French, implying that their beliefs (and by association, Wollstonecraft’s and the progressives’) of equal democracy and justice are in fact just a product of a more medieval and bellicose culture. Polwhele also utilizes footnotes in his piece, which he uses to “explain” his allusions, although they do more condemnation than enlightenment. When describing the display of the “meretricious breast” that progressive women wear in line 24, he adds a note explaining the fashion, dubbing it as the “open bosom, a fashion which we have never invited or sanctioned…they now have their source among prostitutes.” The “we” Polwhlele mentions is likely the upstanding citizens of Britain, who would never align themselves with something as heinous as the cruelty of the French Revolution, and who, by being anti-French, are more than likely anti-Progressive. Furthermore, the reference of prostitutes suggests the Revolution and its ideals are immoral. Polwhele later attacks France by referring to it as “the wreck of the kingdoms” (36), describing how the female pursuit of democracy has led to waste. The footnote explaining this reference compares the British progressive women to the French, stating that although the women have had no opportunity to emulate the “atrocious acts of cruelty” of their French counterparts, they feel no shame for them, either. He thus criticizes both the Progressive ideology and the women themselves, and implying that the British progressives are much like their French counterparts and well on their way to savagery. They are not incapable of it; they merely have not had the “opportunity.”

Wollstonecraft argued for equal education and pursuit of reason for women, rather than have them gain worthless skills that would leave their minds empty. Throughout the piece, Polwhele criticizes the pursuit of reason and science, especially when women sought after it. His section describing botany is one of these; in it, he juxtaposes the unnatural women against the maturity of plants, whose “busoms heave” (29), and who “dissect the organ of unhallowed lust” (33). The tone in this section is overtly sexual, and characterizes the unnatural women as little more than whores. It also parallels the women with “mother Eve” (30). This reference suggests that the women, like Eve, are pursuing knowledge, and that the end they reach will only lead to sin and downfall. It is this section Polwhele contrasts with the natural female, one who is to “Nature true” (49), and who draws from “fancy” and “feeling” (50). Here, Polwhele suggests that women like Wollstonecraft are not able to handle reason; those who bring happiness to men are sentimental and utilize emotions. Those who do not fall to ruin among the “wreck of the kingdoms” (36).

Polwhele also condemns reason within the lines of the poem, characterizing it as “sceptic” and “cold” (55). Reason, what progressive women follow, “despis(es) nature’s law” (13). The women who use it do so with “a rash arm” (56). Diction such as this again suggests Polwhele’s belief that who hold and use the power of reason will not be able to utilize it properly. Nature did not give the women power initially; going against what nature has deemed will cause misuse and strife.

Polwhele concludes his attack against this movement by criticizing the very women at its head. He first isolates Mary Wollstonecraft, who was pro-Jacobin and believed that “political authority should rest of on the grounds of reason and justice alone” (Mellor 367). He characterizes her as “slight(ing) the timid blush of virgin fame” (Polwhele line 66), a possible comment on her sexual activities that were exposed in the memoir by William Godwin. Both texts were released in the same year. It also characterizes the push for intellectual female education as immoral; if the leader of the movement could not restrain herself sexually, why should those who follow her do the same? Next, Powhele grants Wollstonecraft a speech that is distinctly from the male perspective. She contradicts herself, saying that they will be granted power by “wield(ing) the scepter in yon blaze of day” (78), but will be giving up “the power of illusive sway” (77), and forego their already existent “living throne” (74). In this speech, Polwhele asserts the dominant male belief that women had their own power by using their emotions and flirtatious qualities ( a belief that Wollstonecraft specifically laments and cuts down in her Vindication). The diction in the speech makes Wollstonecraft contradict herself; although she is advocating female rights and power, the words and phrases she associates with feminine flirtation, such as “eyes that sparkle” (81), and “fond regard” (80) imply that the coyness already taught women is much better.

In “the Unsex’d Females,” Polwhele attacks the French Revolution, and the movement toward science and reason under the central figure of Mary Wollstonecraft and the women’s rights movement. “The Unsex’d Females” displays a stolid British attitude for the status-quo, awash in a sea of change. Those who were against change are rarely discussed; they are glossed over in an attempt to better understand Progressives and their impact on the period. However, if one better understands the opposition, it is easy to find new facets of both sides.