Motherhood: Exploring Social Ideas in The Yellow Book
Mary Ann Matias
Ryerson University
2473
Society in The Yellow Book
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Both
this article and painting are part of a larger discussion in The Yellow
Book about the roles of women in society. Much of that comes from the
fact that The Yellow
Book housed a literary and artistic movement for women seeking
full-time careers and ignored the prohibitions of female sexuality
(Linda K. Hughes 850). The Yellow Book contained the New Woman, a figure
that expressed ideas of agency for women (Hughes
851). The emergence of a free-spirit, uninterested in institutions such
as marriage, threatened conventional ideals of maternity and womanhood.
Many young women turned to the arts for self-expression, and magazines
like The Yellow Book provided a means for
that (Mix 11). “Mother and Child” is an example of this, a form of
expression culminated from Macdonald's imagination that challenged the
ideologies of motherhood. However, a variety of materials and artists
also meant a conflict in this discussion. Different
views permeated different texts and images, and that meant social ideas
like the New Woman also came under scrutiny (Hughes 16). More
traditional values, such as those enforced in “Women – Wives or
Mothers,” were also present. As a journalist, Greenwood possessed a proficiency in discussing public affairs (J.W. Robertson Scott 118). He
was a dramatic critic and editor for much of his life, and his article
in The Yellow Book is also a form of expression. Instead of utilizing
symbols like Macdonald, however, Greenwood's piece is entirely social commentary.
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Front Cover
James Illingworth Kay
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Conclusion
To
summarize, Macdonald's painting and Greenwood's article reveal a
contrast of normative and emerging ideas within The Yellow Book's
content. “Mother and Child” uses feminine stereotypes
associated with motherhood to create an absurd mirror that pushes
against those social conventions. “Women – Wives or Mothers” encourages
these stereotypes, projecting them as a part of a natural order in
society. The examination of these two pieces reveals
the importance of individual expression in The Yellow Book. It is well
known that this magazine embodies the 1890s. However, the ways in which
individual artists and authors expressed these social views is often
over-looked. Not only are different opinions
explored, but the manner in which they are expressed is telling of both
the creators and their genres. This study has laid the foundation for
examining these artists and writers as people of the period and a means
of expression. As such, The Yellow
Book becomes more of a record than before, a collection of different
accounts that made up literature and art in the 1890s to be inspected
with greater intimacy than before.
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