A Lady's Approach to Harassment in the 19th Century

A January 2^nd article in the Wall Street Journal by Paula Marantz Cohen, English professor at Drexel University, tackles the topic of the appropriate response to the advances of a sexual harasser by referring to the reaction of Elizabeth Bennet to the marriage proposal of the oleaginous Mr. Collins in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. In her thesis, Marantz claims that the reason harassers behave the way they do is that “a powerful man equates his power with attractiveness and confuses [the woman’s] resistance with playful seductiveness.”  This is what Mr. Collins does in the novel and Elizabeth responds by being decisive and clear in her rejection.  She is able to do so because she is repulsed by Collins’ personality and behavior. Mr. Darcy is younger, better looking, wealthier and much more powerful than Mr. Collins, and is a more attractive prospect. Rather than using those attributes to victimize her, he antagonizes her by refusing to dance with her because he doesn’t think she is pretty enough.  Had he flattered her instead as Wickham did, she might have responded with “playful seductiveness”, and if he were the kind of man Wickham was, things would have turned out very differently, as they almost did for Darcy’s sister Georgiana and unluckily did for Colonel Brandon’s ward in Sense and Sensibility, another Austen novel.

Kitty and Lydia are not impressed with Mr. Collins, because he is only a clergyman and not a soldier. In the opening lines of the novel Austen says, “It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife. However little known the feelings or views of such a man may be on his first entering a neighbourhood, this truth is so well fixed in the minds of the surrounding families, that he is considered the rightful property of some one or other of their daughters.” In Austen’s view, it is often the women who pursue powerful men rather than the other way around. Darcy goes out of his way to avoid mixing with the people in the town because he knows this to be true.

Charlotte Lucas accepts Mr. Collins with the same motivation that causes Miss Bingley to pursue Darcy. She has neither money nor looks, and she is 27 to Elizabeth Bennet’s 20, an age at which women of those times were considered on the shelf. She has run out of time to find a better match and has no other options. Marantz compares Elizabeth to Jane Austen and says that the author has brothers with whom she could live after her father’s death while Elizabeth has only sisters so in real life she might have had to accept Mr. Collins or work as a governess and be subjected to harassment for being in an inferior position.  However, Elizabeth Bennet’s older sister Jane has already attracted the attention of the affluent Mr. Bingley, and if Jane marries him, her sisters, including Elizabeth will have a chance to meetother young men in the same social and economic class and make an advantageous marriage, just as in the case of Duchess Kate and Pippa Middleton. Therefore she is not in the same position as Charlotte and that gives her the strength to refuse Mr. Collins.

Yet if Austen talks about how to stop harassment, she is also aware of how much the woman can influence a man to respond favorably to her. Modern dating advice for women includes ways to flirt with a man to spark his interest, but it is hardly new. Charlotte says, “Bingley likes your sister undoubtedly; but he may never do more than like her, if she does not help him on." She recognizes that the man wouldn’t initiate contact unless he gets some sign of encouragement from the woman and that is how she gets Mr. Collins to be interested in her. Marantz claims that one can sometimes know what is the right thing to do but not be able to do it and suggests that we not leap to judgment about the actions of people who may not be able to act freely because of their circumstances.  But sometimes people put themselves in risky situations and later claim that the circumstances prevented them from being able to react. 

A 2010 article in Forbes magazine written by Dr. Lois Frankel commented on the harassment experienced by Mexican sportscaster Ines Sainz during an aftergame interview with the New York Jets. According to Frankel, she was wearing a low-cut blouse, skin tight jeans and high heels. Frankel recognizes the dilemma that women face in the public image they present. While she agreed that a woman should not be harassed for the way she dresses, she also says that “a professional image doesn't include push-up bras with low cut or tight blouses, skirts so short that you have to continually tug at them when you sit down or bend over and dresses or pants that you have to pour yourself into. There's a lot of leeway in between that and a tailored navy blue suit.” 

She ends her article by saying that “sex sells but only in the short term. Don’t rely on it to boost your career.”  Self expression doesn’t obviate good judgment and a little common sense so she cautions that it’s better to prepare for a potential inappropriate response than be placed in the trickier position of fending it off later.