The Crimson Petal and the White Readalong discussion
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The Crimson Petal and the White
2. The Private Rooms and the Public Haunts
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Kamil
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Apr 09, 2016 06:25AM
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It’s a Victorian Trading Places! Take a common whore, dress her up and have her roam unnoticed during the Season.
David wrote: "It’s a Victorian Trading Places! Take a common whore, dress her up and have her roam unnoticed during the Season."Hahaha!
While books 1 and 2 deal with male sexual disfunction we turn our attention to the ladies in section 3 with a bit of classism to boot. Agnes Rackham is high society, obsessed with the impression she hopes to make in the upcoming Season. She is the ideal match to an up and coming heir to the Rackham fortune and the picture of a fashionable wife. Blonde, thin and well-turned out she is nonetheless completely clueless sexually. She is a completely non-sexual being unaware of even what menstruation is. We can assume she’s the mother of Sophie but in no way exhibits any maternal tendencies.
Emmeline Fox is the daughter of the doctor and in possession of some education and class. But her sexuality, that she is keenly aware of, is tamped down by society. Already married but now a childless widow she positively lusts after Henry but is constrained from acting on her feelings. Her middle class upbringing and unwillingness to participate in the Season renders her invisible to society and fittingly she is “disappearing” from consumption.
Sugar, clearly the lowest born is the most free sexually, completely comfortable with her body (there’s even a bizarre episode where she, crablike with her dress hiked up, is showing William her ability to squirt water out of her vagina) She is keenly aware of her own sexuality unlike Agnes who, while recognizing every pore and hair on her own face, is completely blind to everything below her waist. As a prostitute Sugar is clearly visible, an object of desire that is even written about. Now she is an interloper into high society, robed in its clothes and desiring to live with William. To even subvert Agnes’ role perhaps. It will be curious to see if her sexuality will change as her status rises.
