Conference Papers by Jillian Slaight
“At what age is a girl young, and when does she cease to be?” This question preoccupied lawyers ... more “At what age is a girl young, and when does she cease to be?” This question preoccupied lawyers and judges who addressed sex-related crime in late eighteenth-century France. A complainant’s age directly corresponded to the degree of legal protection she deserved against alleged rapists and seducers. Indeed, her physical maturity dictated whether the court regarded her as a victim or an aggressor. My paper investigates gendered and sexualized standards of age that pervaded legal contests around seduction and rape between 1750 and 1790. It points to the mobilization of science to inscribe gender norms in law, while also suggesting that biological notions of age bent to existing legal benchmarks.
First, I will examine the role of puberty in the classification of rape and seduction. Parisian police commissioners categorized coercive sexual encounters with pre-pubescent girls as rape, while labeling similar encounters with post-pubescent women as seduction. Sexual maturity determined the severity of the crime, an equation that helped establish a hierarchy of victimhood based largely on age.
Second, I will address how theories of female adolescence made the age of legal majority a key turning point in women’s physical and moral development. Defense attorneys often mapped adolescence as beginning at 12 with puberty and ending at 25 with legal majority. At this age, they argued, victims of seduction transformed into transgressors in their own rite. This map of maturity vilified vieilles filles as seductresses undeserving of legal protection.
In addressing these discourses around puberty and adolescence, my paper aims to contribute to scholarship on the construction and contestation of gender norms during the Enlightenment. I aim to show that expectations of women were hardly consistent, but varied alongside axes of age and physical development.
Historians of early modern France have used declarations of pregnancy to explain a sharp spike in... more Historians of early modern France have used declarations of pregnancy to explain a sharp spike in illegitimate pregnancy in the late eighteenth century. Their assessments presuppose that communities were less vigilant in enforcing gendered standards of honor as the century progressed. My paper tests that assumption by examining declarations of pregnancy that developed into formal seduction charges. I argue that provençal communities were no less vigilant in their surveillance of and intervention into the lives of young couples. Instead, failed courtships and illegitimate pregnancies were the unintended effects of conflicts between parents and communities over the social function of marriage. For parents of eligible bachelors, aspirations to socially advantageous unions increasingly trumped obligations to fulfill community standards of honor. Carefree attitudes toward sex did not drive men to abandon their partners. More often, they bent to parental will.
Scholars who attempt a history of rape in the early modern period face daunting challenges. The v... more Scholars who attempt a history of rape in the early modern period face daunting challenges. The very dearth of judicial evidence in France attests to that society’s lenient treatment of perpetrators and effacement of victims. But historians have conceived of sexual violence too narrowly by addressing only those cases classified as rape. Building on Georges Vigarello and others, my paper refocuses the question of sexual violence around the crimes of seduction, abduction and elopement (séduction and rapt de séduction) to consider how early modern men and women understood consent and coercion more broadly.
Old Regime police archives (1750-1790) testify to an abundance of contentious sexual relationships. Women often sought recourse in the law only after unwed pregnancy rendered their social position increasingly tenuous. In narrating the circumstances of their conception before the police, these women rarely made sharp distinctions between consensual and nonconsensual relations. Although formal complaints seldom deploy the word viol (rape), the majority depict sex in ambivalent terms. The male partner figures as a malicious seducer who robs the complainant of her will and authority over her own body. Many women portray the first encounter as physically coercive: being pinned to the ground or silenced by a handkerchief. Nevertheless, they cite seducers’ tender words and marriage promises, as if to justify their implicit assent to the act or to an ensuing liaison.
My paper examines this testimony to consider how eighteenth-century French people defined and imagined consent within legal conflicts over séduction. Equally, it considers how men and women manipulated and maneuvered within the contours of legitimate courtship and marriage. Finally, it looks at how both court testimony and sensationalist legal literature depicted the relationship between violence and sex, and how those depictions simultaneously challenged and upheld gender norms. I will argue that ordinary people participated in crucial negotiations of authority vis-à-vis their own bodies just as philosophes did vis-à-vis the body politic.
This paper examines the concept of female autonomy within the context of eighteenth-century crimi... more This paper examines the concept of female autonomy within the context of eighteenth-century criminal seduction suits (Paris, 1750-1790). It explores how claimants in these cases depicted themselves as powerless victims of unruly male sexuality and contrasts these claims with those of accused seducers. These men argued their "victims" were simply headstrong runaways; they had not been abducted, but had freely elected to elope with their lovers. I argue that these defenses manipulated broader discourses of mutual love and sentimentality to shift blame for illicit sexual practices from men onto women, helping to chip away at sympathy for unwed mothers by the end of the Old Regime.
Blog Posts by Jillian Slaight
Goldman ruffles feathers with a brief visit to UW-Madison's campus.
A short history of protest and policy responses to a 1988 Greek event featuring a mock slave auct... more A short history of protest and policy responses to a 1988 Greek event featuring a mock slave auction.
A series of posts honoring UW-Madison's women scholars and students, including some famed figures... more A series of posts honoring UW-Madison's women scholars and students, including some famed figures (Gerda Lerner, Ada Deer) and lesser known community members (Mary McNulty).
A series about notable black figures at UW-Madison, including Wisconsin VIPs like Vel Phillips an... more A series about notable black figures at UW-Madison, including Wisconsin VIPs like Vel Phillips and lesser known graduates like Argyle Stoute, as well as events like the black student strike of 1969.
Scenes of UW-Madison students and Navy & Coast Guard trainees on campus during World War II.
A mysterious love letter sends UW-Archives staff on an investigation of amorous coeds on the eve ... more A mysterious love letter sends UW-Archives staff on an investigation of amorous coeds on the eve of World War II
A short introduction to Ruth Doyle, a path-breaking woman in Wisconsin politics.
A profile of Sterling Court, the neighborhood demolished to make way for UW-Madison's current Hum... more A profile of Sterling Court, the neighborhood demolished to make way for UW-Madison's current Humanities building and Chazen Museum of Art (or Elvehjem Art Center). Campus notables lived there from the University's start in the 1840s until its building boom of the 1960s.
Campus feminists make waves by infiltrating the all-male armory pool in 1972.
A brief look at famed Badger kicker Pat O'Dea (1890s, 1900s).
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Conference Papers by Jillian Slaight
First, I will examine the role of puberty in the classification of rape and seduction. Parisian police commissioners categorized coercive sexual encounters with pre-pubescent girls as rape, while labeling similar encounters with post-pubescent women as seduction. Sexual maturity determined the severity of the crime, an equation that helped establish a hierarchy of victimhood based largely on age.
Second, I will address how theories of female adolescence made the age of legal majority a key turning point in women’s physical and moral development. Defense attorneys often mapped adolescence as beginning at 12 with puberty and ending at 25 with legal majority. At this age, they argued, victims of seduction transformed into transgressors in their own rite. This map of maturity vilified vieilles filles as seductresses undeserving of legal protection.
In addressing these discourses around puberty and adolescence, my paper aims to contribute to scholarship on the construction and contestation of gender norms during the Enlightenment. I aim to show that expectations of women were hardly consistent, but varied alongside axes of age and physical development.
Old Regime police archives (1750-1790) testify to an abundance of contentious sexual relationships. Women often sought recourse in the law only after unwed pregnancy rendered their social position increasingly tenuous. In narrating the circumstances of their conception before the police, these women rarely made sharp distinctions between consensual and nonconsensual relations. Although formal complaints seldom deploy the word viol (rape), the majority depict sex in ambivalent terms. The male partner figures as a malicious seducer who robs the complainant of her will and authority over her own body. Many women portray the first encounter as physically coercive: being pinned to the ground or silenced by a handkerchief. Nevertheless, they cite seducers’ tender words and marriage promises, as if to justify their implicit assent to the act or to an ensuing liaison.
My paper examines this testimony to consider how eighteenth-century French people defined and imagined consent within legal conflicts over séduction. Equally, it considers how men and women manipulated and maneuvered within the contours of legitimate courtship and marriage. Finally, it looks at how both court testimony and sensationalist legal literature depicted the relationship between violence and sex, and how those depictions simultaneously challenged and upheld gender norms. I will argue that ordinary people participated in crucial negotiations of authority vis-à-vis their own bodies just as philosophes did vis-à-vis the body politic.
Blog Posts by Jillian Slaight
First, I will examine the role of puberty in the classification of rape and seduction. Parisian police commissioners categorized coercive sexual encounters with pre-pubescent girls as rape, while labeling similar encounters with post-pubescent women as seduction. Sexual maturity determined the severity of the crime, an equation that helped establish a hierarchy of victimhood based largely on age.
Second, I will address how theories of female adolescence made the age of legal majority a key turning point in women’s physical and moral development. Defense attorneys often mapped adolescence as beginning at 12 with puberty and ending at 25 with legal majority. At this age, they argued, victims of seduction transformed into transgressors in their own rite. This map of maturity vilified vieilles filles as seductresses undeserving of legal protection.
In addressing these discourses around puberty and adolescence, my paper aims to contribute to scholarship on the construction and contestation of gender norms during the Enlightenment. I aim to show that expectations of women were hardly consistent, but varied alongside axes of age and physical development.
Old Regime police archives (1750-1790) testify to an abundance of contentious sexual relationships. Women often sought recourse in the law only after unwed pregnancy rendered their social position increasingly tenuous. In narrating the circumstances of their conception before the police, these women rarely made sharp distinctions between consensual and nonconsensual relations. Although formal complaints seldom deploy the word viol (rape), the majority depict sex in ambivalent terms. The male partner figures as a malicious seducer who robs the complainant of her will and authority over her own body. Many women portray the first encounter as physically coercive: being pinned to the ground or silenced by a handkerchief. Nevertheless, they cite seducers’ tender words and marriage promises, as if to justify their implicit assent to the act or to an ensuing liaison.
My paper examines this testimony to consider how eighteenth-century French people defined and imagined consent within legal conflicts over séduction. Equally, it considers how men and women manipulated and maneuvered within the contours of legitimate courtship and marriage. Finally, it looks at how both court testimony and sensationalist legal literature depicted the relationship between violence and sex, and how those depictions simultaneously challenged and upheld gender norms. I will argue that ordinary people participated in crucial negotiations of authority vis-à-vis their own bodies just as philosophes did vis-à-vis the body politic.