Depraved and Disorderly: Female Convicts, Sexuality and Gender in Colonial AustraliaThis innovative book marks a new way of looking at convict women. It tells their stories in a powerful and evocative way, drawing out broader themes of gender and sexual disorder and race and class dynamics in a colonial context. It considers the convict past in light of contemporary concerns, looking at the cultural meanings of aspects of life in the colony: on ships, in the factories and in orphanages. Using startlingly original research, Joy Damousi considers such varied topics as headshaving as punishment in the prisons and the subversive nature of laughter and play, as well as analysing the language of pollution, purity and abandonment. She also dicusses the nature of sexual relationships, including evidence of lesbianism. The book shows how understanding about sexual and racial difference was crucial for both the maintenance and disturbance of colonial society, and became a focus for cultural anxiety. |
Contents
Chaos and Order Gender Space and Sexuality on Female Convict Ships | 9 |
Depravity and Disorder The Sexuality of Convict Women | 34 |
Disrupting the Boundaries Resistance and Convict Women | 59 |
Defeminising Convict Women Headshaving as Punishment in the Female Factories | 85 |
Family Life and the Convict System | 111 |
Convict Mothering | 113 |
Wretchedness and Vice The Orphan and the Colonial Imagination | 128 |
Other editions - View all
Depraved and Disorderly: Female Convicts, Sexuality and Gender in Colonial ... Joy Damousi No preview available - 1997 |
Common terms and phrases
abandoned Aboriginal amongst anxiety AONSW applications Archdeacon Scott Australian Dictionary authorities became behaviour cells Charles Cowper child claimed cleanliness clothes Colonial Secretary Committee on Transportation confinement considered Convict Prison Discipline convict ships convict women Dangerous Girls Diemen's Land disease disorder Elizabeth Ellen Elyard entry Ewing Female Convict Prison female factory Female Orphan Institution Female Orphan School female prisoners femininity gender Governor Darling headshaving Hobart Hutchinson Ibid Inquiry into Female John Josiah Spode Journal July Labour History language Letter London Lord Sidmouth Macquarie Magistrates male convicts Margaret marriage masculine master Melbourne mistress moral mother motherhood nineteenth century noted November nursery observed parents Parramatta Parramatta Female Factory Police Court pollution prostitution reform relationships reported resistance Samuel Marsden Sarah servants sexual social South Wales space Strumpets and Dangerous superintendent Surgeon-Superintendent surgeons Sydney Gazette Tasmanian Papers University Press Van Diemen's Land voyage William woman wrote