1900s: Canadian identity
- ideal Canadian was white, Anglo-Saxon, Protestant, and upper or middle-class
- First Nations, mixed women, Irish-Canadians, French-Canadians (Catholics), Asians, blacks, all seen as “a stable, efficient, disciplined work force.”
Female identity
- female identity centered around the home (domestic sphere), motherhood and childbearing; seen as determined by God
- working-class women portrayed as being inadequate mothers because they couldn’t spend all their time with their children
- initially, women were not supposed to work, encouraged to stay home
- later, women were supposed to work for a few years before having children so they could prepare their children for schooling, ensuring that the male children would be prepared to work and support their future families and the female children could, in turn, prepare their own children
Female sexual identity
- 2 opposing views of female sexuality
- women were supposedly incapable of sexual desire, if they slept with a man before age 21 they could legally claim to have been “seduced” without consent, and if they ended up being prostitutes, it was because they were trapped in the “white slave trade”
- if a woman did desire sex or became a prostitute, she was considered to have an “abnormal development of sexual desire… [that was] more pronounced in women than in men”
Sexual identity
- sexual identity was marriage because sex was either within marriage, or illegal prostitution
- there were serious concerns over the supposed undermining of marriage caused by prostitution, adultery, living together before marriage, etc
- sexual identity was all about the home and and the family
Homosexual identity
- the first terms to describe men who had sex with other men were “sissy” and “fairy”
- there were many reports of men dressing up as men in order to deceive other men, and women doing the same
- female identity became divided into “”two distinct types of womanhood”… the “timid, confiding woman” who comes to realize that her mission in this world is a domestic one”… the self-confident, self-asserting self-reliant, fearless, masculine women” for whom “domestic duties have but a secondary attraction””
- “lesbian” and “gay” identities did not exist; there was only one “homosexual” identity
- not all men saw themselves as “homosexual”- some preferred other terms
Interrelated and changing identities
- all identities at the time were tied to the ideal Canadian identity – women were supposed to not desire sex and produce contributing citizens, (“motherhood as the highest form of patriotism… “No Baby – No Nation””) men were supposed to support this practice through working, homosexuality was bad because it did not contribute to these practices supporting the nation
- new identities for men, women, immigrants, First Nations peoples, homosexuals, developed because people did not fit into the one identity that was allowed
- this led to a broadening of the “Canadian” identity as well, so now in order to be “Canadian” one barely needs to do anything at all
- identities often overlapped – in Maynard text, men meeting for sex with men in the Gardens, which were also used for sex with boys
Current controversies in identity
- Maynard talks about the historical (and current) practice of equating “homosexuals” with “pedophiles”
- moreover, the culture of victimhood persists to this day – preteens at the Gardens willingly participating in sex acts with men in order to obtain money, tickets, hockey gear, etc
- Maynard proposes viewing them as “sexual agents” rather than “victims” because they were never forced into anything
- current view of “sexual predator” and “sexual abuser” does not necessarily apply to every situation
- perhaps the next shift in Canadian/sexual identities will see pedophile as an orientation rather than a legal label
Question In the case of Charlotte Whitton – should we try to apply our modern views and identities to people from times with much more limited view and identities? Was she a lesbian or wasn’t she? It is impossible to know since that identity did not exist to her.
Answer (From Maynard): “We must guard against projecting into the past our current constructions of sexual abuse and sex across generations; instead, we must try to understand them in their shifting historical terms and contexts”
Possible transition to legal regulation – gays and lesbians kicked out of civil service and military for apparently suffering from “character weakness”