The unmentionable madness of being a woman and Ripper Street

Abstract

First offering a nineteenth-century perspective of woman as “the womb” and drawing from nineteenth-century nonfiction by physicians, a historical context is offered on how Victorians perceived puberty, menses, sexual desire, nymphomania, pregnancy, childbirth and menopause. The second half of the chapter analyses how neo-Victorian narratives in the BBC series Ripper Street infuse contemporary awareness and sensitivities in contrast to Victorian ignorance of women’s bodies and their minds. More significantly, it emphasises that Victorian perceptions of women and their sexual apparati and functions might have been defined by the best medical minds of the day but in truth they were driven by patriarchal political ideologies meant to keep men in power in both the private and public spheres. Neo-Victorian narratives expose that agenda, rebel against it, and give voice to what really was behind all that insanity experienced by our Victorian mothers and sisters.