Cameron

To the left of this text is D.Y. Cameron’s “The Butterflies,” which falls under the genre of visual art. “The Butterflies” is a pen and ink image of a woman in nature surrounded by butterflies. Cameron’s images were highly regarded, which is seen when a reviewer says that volume 10 of The Yellow Book, where this image is located, would not have been received well without two of Cameron’s drawings (Yellow and Green). To the right, is another one of Cameron’s pen and ink drawings, titled "Vanity." The drawing is of a woman who is holding a decorative mirror. Similar to “The Butterflies,” there are three butterflies surrounding her. It is interesting to note that Cameron’s primary work was that of etching and most of his works featured architectural subjects such as old shops. In his later years, he focused on landscapes, such as mountains (Willsdon). These two pen and ink images are unique in their production and subject in comparison to Cameron’s other works.

The woman represented in “The Butterflies” is wearing a dress with a low neckline and a heavy ruffled skirt. There are bows attached to the arms of the dress and the back of the skirt. Her hair is tied up in a bun with a flower in it. There are four butterflies flying around her and she is holding a bouquet of flowers. The woman in the image is being placed in nature, which is seen through the fact that there is a flower in her hair, she is holding flowers and there are butterflies surrounding her. The woman is a part of the physical nature which surrounds her, and therefore, just like flowers and butterflies, serves to be decorative and an object to be admired for physical beauty.

Associating women with nature in this celebratory fashion, where the woman is presented to be as beautiful and as free as the butterflies, has the effect of ascribing emotional essences to women. Emotional essences include compassion and intuitiveness (Gates 12). The butterflies which surround her, the flower in her hair and the flowers in her hands, force the viewer of the image to confer the attributes of these flowers and butterflies onto the woman. Butterflies have short lives and so do flowers, but the effect they have on humans is still satisfying (Ledbetter 83). Because flowers and butterflies are short-lived, we have a sort of compassion and pity towards them. Flowers and butterflies are simple creatures which do not have opinions, but we adore them because of their physical beauty. This sort of pity and compassion is felt for the woman as well.

Moreover, animals, cannot make their own decisions. A dominant Victorian view was that women, being almost animalistic, needed to be controlled, watched or looked after (Gauld 39). By placing the woman near butterflies, the woman is seen as one who needs to be looked after or is in need of some sort of charity. Typically, children (as well as animals) are seen as ones who need caring and charity, so there is a connection being drawn between the characteristics used to describe children and women. These characteristics include but are not limited to, softness, innocence, forgiveness, and free spirits.

Greenwood

A different representation of women, one that restricts women instead of celebrating them, is Frederick Greenwood’s text “Women- Wives or Mothers,” which falls under the genre of criticism. To the left is a painting of Frederick Greenwood by Carlo Pellegrini, which I was kindly given permission to use from the National Portrait Gallery of London under the Creative Commons license. Greenwood’s text, which is located in volume 3 of The Yellow Book, was not received well, as it was called “amateurish” and “flimsy” (Rev. of The Yellow Book 3). Greenwood was an influential editor during his time (Dekkers), showing that the reason his text did not receive a warm reception was because he published it pseudonymously under “By a Woman.” The reviewer was biased against women, showing the publishing system of reception was patriarchal during the Victorian Era. However, Greenwood was also biased against women, which is shown through the meaning of his text but more importantly, through the production of the text. By publishing pseudonymously under “By a Woman,” Greenwood wanted to make his constricting and conservative views seem like the norm. He wanted readers, and other contributors to The Yellow Book, which included women, to see that if women also felt they should function only in relation to men, then it must be true.

“Women- Wives or Mothers” claims that all women can be placed into one of two categories, wives or mothers. This text enforces the idea that women’s entire lives are dictated by biology, either as sexual partners for men or mothers for their children. This text describes women as being molded by nature and those that are wives (not mothers) are described as “beautifully marked specimens.” Describing women as “beautifully marked specimens” seems as though Greenwood is talking about women as if they are butterflies or objects for him to collect and display. This relates to Cameron’s image which has butterflies in it, however Cameron is looking at nature in more of a positive way, because women are presented to be as free as butterflies.

Greenwood’s text focuses on using nature to ascribe biological, instead of emotional, essences to women. Biological essences include menstruation and pregnancy (Gates 12). The categories of wives and mothers are biological because they are determined by biological attributes. A wife provides sexual pleasure for a husband and a mother produces children for her husband. According to Hoffman-Reyes, women’s place in society came from their “biological evolution” because they had to stay home to “conserve their energy” (20). Emphasizing biological differences between men and women is a kind of biological determinism which places women closer to nature. Furthermore, Greenwood states in his text that women are molded by nature.

At the end of his text, Greenwood refers to both “mother-women” and “wife-women” as primitive women. This is another example of Greenwood attributing biological essences to women by labeling them according to their ability to reproduce or become pregnant. According to Gauld, “By the end of the 19th century then, it was generally agreed that by their ability to procreate women were closer to the animal” (37). Greenwood is drawing comparisons between animals and women, through a biological essence, which is that both can procreate.