Sex, Heterosexual Marriage and the Body in Postwar English Canada, 1946-1966
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THE DOUBLE BED: SEX, HETEROSEXUAL MARRIAGE AND THE BODY IN POSTWAR ENGLISH CANADA, 1946-1966 A Thesis Submitted to the College of Graduate Studies and Research In Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements For the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy In the Department of History University of Saskatchewan Saskatoon By Heather Stanley © Copyright Heather Stanley, November, 2013. All rights reserved. PERMISSION TO USE In presenting this thesis/dissertation in partial fulfillment of the requirements for a Postgraduate degree from the University of Saskatchewan, I agree that the Libraries of this University may make it freely available for inspection. I further agree that permission for copying of this thesis/dissertation in any manner, in whole or in part, for scholarly purposes may be granted by the professor or professors who supervised my thesis/dissertation work or, in their absence, by the Head of the Department or the Dean of the College in which my thesis work was done. It is understood that any copying or publication or use of this thesis/dissertation or parts thereof for financial gain shall not be allowed without my written permission. It is also understood that due recognition shall be given to me and to the University of Saskatchewan in any scholarly use which may be made of any material in my thesis/dissertation. Requests for permission to copy or to make other uses of materials in this thesis/dissertation in whole or part should be addressed to: Head of the Department of History University of Saskatchewan Saskatoon, Saskatchewan S7N 5A5 Canada OR Dean College of Graduate Studies and Research University of Saskatchewan 107 Administration Place Saskatoon, Saskatchewan S7N 5A2 Canada i ABSTRACT Sex and sexuality are embodied experiences that are highly constructed by society. Sexual acts are subject to varied historical meanings, both dominant and subversive, which change over time and space. This dissertation explores how embodied heterosexual married sexual experiences were constructed for, and by, women in the immediate postwar era (1946-1966) and how that sexuality interacted with related social paradigms such as gender roles, motherhood, and femininity within English Canada. Using the body as a lens, this dissertation explores how three main sites of authoritative discourse attempted to police postwar sexual bodies through the creation of ideal, or Leviathan, bodies and associated systems of encoded knowledges and mores called “body politics.” The first case study examines the medicalized body, using the Canadian Medical Association Journal demonstrating how mothers were constructed as the keystones of their families; it reveals the intimate ties between familial gender and sexual role deviance and reproductive illnesses in women’s bodies. The second case study examines how the Anglican, United and Roman Catholic Churches reframed sex as sacramental for English Canadian married couples encouraging them to engage in sexual coitus to both strengthen their marriages and renew their spiritual connection to God. The third case study uses I Love Lucy to interrogate how mass media created and reflected postwar sexual and gender norms while simultaneously subverting them, generating a carnivalesque situation of tightly contained deviance. This dissertation then moves on to examine how the discourses of the previous three chapters affected actual women as demonstrated by a series of eighteen interviews with women who married between 1939 and 1966. The oral histories establish that actual corporeal bodies were at best distorted, or “fun house,” mirrors that only ever reflected imperfect copies of the ideal bodies they were supposed to emulate. In addition to making significant contributions to the historiographies of each of the case studies contained therein, this dissertation adds new knowledges about the ways that “normal” bodies work throughout history, creating simultaneous continuity and change, as well as how sexuality and gender norms are intimately connected within the realm of the body. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First I would like to thank my supervisor Valerie J. Korinek for her untiring support of this dissertation. Your comments were always insightful and constructive and I am grateful for your investment in my scholarship. I am also grateful for the expertise and assistance of my doctoral advisory committee in overseeing this project: Erika Dyck, Mark Meyers, Ray Stephanson and William (Bill) Waiser. I was fortunate enough to have Veronica Strong-Boag serve as my external examiner; she provided excellent commentary and critique of the final draft of this dissertation. I would also like to express my appreciation for the staff of the History Department, especially Nadine Penner, for their assistance in completing the administrative requirements of this dissertation. Thank you also to the staff at all of the archives at which I conducted research, especially at the United Church of Canada Archives and the Anglican Church of Canada Archives. I also cannot thank enough the eighteen women who lent their voices and stories to this study. They were so generous in the sharing of their lives with me and this dissertation would be greatly impoverished without their contributions. Dissertations are rarely completed without support and I have been extremely fortunate to have the support of friends and family in abundance. Their encouragement and willingness to talk about my project, read drafts and provide needed childcare made this project possible. Finally my greatest thanks goes to my husband Jonathan. I cannot adequately express my gratitude to him for everything he has done to make this dissertation and my academic career a success. Together we have completed two doctorates and produced a truly amazing daughter. It is to him that I dedicate this dissertation. This research was carried out with the financial assistance of: a Social Sciences and Humanities Research Doctoral Fellowship, a University of Saskatchewan Dean’s Scholarship, a University of Saskatchewan Department of History Fellowship, a University of Saskatchewan Department of History Research Grant, and a Canadian Federation of University Women (Saskatoon) Graduate Scholarship. All research materials were used in compliance with the University of Saskatchewan ethics committee approval. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS PERMISSION TO USE……………………………………………………………………………………i ABSTRACT…….……………………………………………………………………………………...…ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS………………………………………………………………………………iii TABLE OF CONTENTS…………………………………………………………………………………iv LIST OF FIGURES………………………................…………………………………………................vi List of ABBREVIATIONS…………….……………………………………………....…….................viii CHAPTER ONE Breaking Free from the “Nostalgia Trap”: Historiography, Methodology, and the Paradox of Postwar Sexuality ………………………………………………………………………………………………………..……1 CHAPTER TWO Embodying Family Values: The Canadian Medical Association Journal and the Creation of the “Mother body” ………………………………………………………………………………………………..…………..22 CHAPTER THREE Sex, Marriage, and the “One Flesh” Body: Married Sexuality in the Anglican, United and Roman Catholic Denominations …………………………………………………………………………………………..………………..53 CHAPTER FOUR Performative Sexuality: I Love Lucy, the Lucy Body and The Triumph of Domesticated Sexuality iv ……………………………………………………………………….………………………………….104 CHAPTER FIVE Cracking the Leviathan: Oral Histories and the Engagement of Individual Bodies with the Ideal …………………………………………………………………………………………………………..155 CHAPTER SIX Conclusion: Making Good (Sex) ……………………………………………………………………………………….………………….205 BIBLIOGRAPHY …………………………………………………………………………………….…………………….222 APPENDIX: Interview Data …………………………………………………………………………………………………………..251 v LIST OF FIGURES FIGURE 2.1: Bonamine advertisement, CMAJ, 1960…………………………………………………...35 FIGURE 2.2: Mornidine advertisement, CMAJ, 1959…………………………………………………..36 FIGURE 2.3: Tace advertisement, CMAJ, 1955………………………………………………................37 FIGURE 2.4: Bellergal advertisement, CMAJ, 1962…………………………………………………….37 FIGURE 2.5: Cartoon lampooning overbearing female patient, CMAJ, 15 July 1958………………….45 FIGURE 3.1: Graph of census data of Canadian Christian denominations, 1951…………….…………59 FIGURE 3.2: Graph of census data of Canadian Christian denominations, 1961……………………….60 FIGURE 3.3: Chart of different temperaments from This is a Great Sacrament, 196?............................73 FIGURE 3.4: Chart of the four humors and their correlation to This is a Great Sacrament…………….74 FIGURE 4.1: Lucy and profession dancers, “The Diet,” Originally aired, 29 October 1951………….105 FIGURE 4.2: Lucy plays jacks: “Lucy Fakes an Illness,” Originally aired, 28 January 1952…………118 FIGURE 4.3: Lucy, Ricky and Little Ricky in the Indian Show: “The Indian Show,” Originally aired, 4 May 1953.................................................................................................................................................119 FIGURE 4.4: Lucy and Raggedy Ricky: “Lucy and the Dummy,” Originally aired, 17 October 1955……………………………………………………………………………………………………..123 FIGURE 4.5: Lucy feels guilty: “Lucy and the Dummy,” Originally aired, 17 October 1955………...124 vi FIGURE 4.6: Lucy vacuuming: “Lucy is Jealous of Girl Singer,” Originally aired, 17 December 1951……………………………………………………………………………………………………..129 FIGURE 4.7: Rosemary as Jezebel: “Lucy is Jealous of Girl Singer,” Originally aired, 17 December 1951……………………………………………………………………………...……………………...130 FIGURE 4.8: Lucy as a chorus girl: “Lucy is Jealous of Girl Singer,” Originally aired, 17 December