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Carole
Moschetti Ph.D.
Honorary Research Fellow
School of Political Science, Criminology and Sociology
University
of Melbourne, Australia
Conjugal Wrongs Don't Make Rights -
International Feminist Activism, Child Marriage & Sexual Relativism
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This
thesis examines international feminist activism from the late nineteenth
century to the present. In particular it focuses on the campaigns against
forms of sexual slavery including child marriage. It examines the male sex
right as a major cause of sexual exploitation and it investigates claims that
similarities between trafficking children into the institutions of marriage
and prostitution reflect the power of heteropatriarchy in governing the
social model of heterosexuality and the ensuing subordination of women and
girls. It argues that challenging sexual exploitation is difficult because of
the social acceptance of men’s right of sexual access to women and girls. |
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This
thesis examines the ways in which the ideologies of cultural relativism and
sexual libertarianism protect the concept of ‘conjugal rights’ in systems of
traditional marriage. It introduces the theory of sexual relativism in order
to explain how cultural relativism works in relation to child marriage. Sexual
relativism as a corollary of cultural relativism is used as a feminist tool
of analysis in order to make the male sex right visible and politically
accountable. |
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Lesbian
historiography is introduced in order to document the role of lesbian
experience in the lives and networks of these international activists. The
inclusion of lesbian existence in this thesis is a unique approach intended
to restore historical accuracy to the lives of women who have been involved
in international campaigns against forms of sexual exploitation that include
child marriage, child prostitution, incest, and other harmful cultural
practices. I discuss how lesbians and spinsters, as unhusbanded women,
experienced freedom from domestic duties including child care and the sexual
servicing of men. Their ensuing independence enabled them to become involved
in political work and by forming networks they were able to discuss and
formulate their ideas. I explore the relationship between the personal and
political in the examination of these women’s lives. In particular I examine
the lesbian existence within the political and friendship networks of
interwar feminists such as Eleanor Rathbone, Constance Antonina (Nina) Boyle,
Alison Neilans, Cicely Hamilton, Katharine Furse and Margaret Haig. The
radical feminist approach to this inquiry is intended to contribute to
filling gaps in the knowledge base of feminist history and to broaden the
transdisciplinary approach to international scholarship. |
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