A large part of the reason that I get so annoyed by the idea that Austen’s heroes would obviously be having Period Mandated Sexual Exploits (aside of your sociology is bad and you should feel bad) is because yes, there are plenty of references to period-typical male sexual behaviour in her books.
like:
- Frederick Tilney leads a bratty but beautiful girl on to the point she thinks he’s going to marry her, then is like “bye, babe.”
- John Willoughby seduces a vulnerable young girl, gets her pregnant, and abandons her. He proceeds to carry on an increasingly intense flirtation with the seventeen-year-old dependent cousin of a local squire, then vanishes and marries an heiress.
- George Wickham stalks the fifteen-year-old daughter of his benefactor and tries to seduce her into an elopement to steal her large fortune, and only fails because she confides in her brother. Later on, he runs off with a sixteen-year-old girl because she’s pretty and available; he has to be bribed into marrying her.
- Henry Crawford flirts with two sisters, one of whom is engaged. After the latter’s marriage, they begin an affair. When it’s discovered, they run off together, but he doesn’t marry her or even stay with her–he gets bored and ditches her. The narrator remarks in passing that it’s a pity that men aren’t punished as harshly for this kind of fuckery as women. Another man in the novel suggests that both should be flogged.
- Frank Churchill falls in love with a poor governess and proposes to her, but insists it has to be kept secret until his rich aunt dies. He uses another, oblivious woman to conceal it, carrying on a very public flirtation with her before his fiancée’s eyes. (Fun fact: his wife dies young.)
- William Elliot, heir to a baronet cousin, pretends to some interest in the daughter of that cousin to repair bridges, then begins an affair with his apparent LI’s widowed friend to keep her from marrying the cousin and maybe having children to cut him out of his inheritance. He sets her up as his mistress.
Do you not see a common theme here?
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#austen /knows/ what goes on irl and is refusing to normalize it
#which makes ‘but it was normal’ just… /headdesk
