A Study On Misogyny In Early Modern England

In early modern England,the political,economic,cultural and other aspects were undergoing profound changes.The Renaissance,the Reformation,the development of natural science and the progress of the mode of production accelerated the progress of human society towards a more civilized,scientific and rational direction.But population growth,inflation,religious splits,polarization of wealth and increasing poverty,as well as the fear of chaos are common,and rapid social change has led to a growing concern about various problems in society.The attention and discussion on the nature of women and the proper role of women is one of them.The development of printing culture has enabled the dissemination and preservation of these works,which also provides a reference for the study of people’s attitudes and opinions towards women in this period.In early modern English society,there was a debate about the nature of women and their proper role,from the Swetnam controversy at the beginning of the 17 th century to the monster theory in the middle of the 17 th century,which produced a large number of related works.Behaviour books and sermons aimed at the middle class,defined the roles of husband and wife,and were more prescriptive for women in particular.Negative views about femininity in printed pamphlets became more extreme.Joke sets and the oral culture of banter interact with each other to express their points with vulgar,lewd,and subversive humor.Medical theory at the time was still influenced by traditional humoralism,which still saw women as defective and imperfect relative to men.These negative ideas about the nature of women,to some extent,can be said to be the concrete embodiment of misogyny.Most women in the society at that time also internalized and accepted these views.Although there were some refutations,they could not get rid of the limitations of the times’ thoughts.However,these texts and popular works can not fully reflect the reality.The real life experience and status of England women in this period are complicated.Their role and status in family and society are affected by many factors,and there are differences in different regions and classes.However,if we consider women as a whole social group and examine their universality,we can say that the status of women in early modern England was still subordinate and marginal,and did not undergo fundamental changes along with the social transformation.The reasons for the formation of misogyny in this period are not only the influence of traditional misogyny,but also the special social reality in the same period,which has its own characteristics.The existence of misogyny also reflects the crisis of social gender order at that time.