Cat Lady on a Hot Tin Doll's House
Chapter Eight
THE MARCH 2, 2066, LECTURE -- "Gone with the Wind"
Professor Fuchs was surprised to see Professor Thomas Jones and Professor Constance Coolidge in her lecture hall Wednesday. "We thought it would be fun to sit in on one of your lectures on the way back from Mardi Gras," Professor Coolidge said.
"I was there too but I guess it is not surprising that we need not see each other among all those crowds. If you'd contacted me, perhaps we could have had lunch or watched a parade together," Emily answered.
"To tell the truth, our trip down here was sort of spare of the moment. I had a meeting with Professor Rutledge this morning and Tom and I decided that as long as I was coming this far south, we'd go down a few days early and go to Mardi Gras," Professor Coolidge said.
"Dare I ask what you were meeting with Professor Rutledge about," Emily said.
"You've already dared," Professor Jones said.
"I was interviewing to get a job," Professor Coolidge said. "I gather you've been busy down here, but it has become quite clear that North Liberal Arts is going to be merged into Ohio State and will lay off many people. The announcements have not been made yet, but I would not expect that you will be teaching there next year."
"I can't say I'm surprised," Emily said. "I guess I had better get out some resumes myself. Do you think you will get a job here Constance?"
"Professor Rutledge was very cordial, and I think honest. He said that they had another prospect for the anticipated literature teaching position about whom they were very enthusiastic that they felt could fill a few different roles at the university, but he would get back to me if that prospect fell through."
Emily thanked them for visiting, wished Coolidge luck and began her lecture.
Professor Fuchs presented the short life of Margaret Mitchell and naturally mentioned the Clark Gable, Vivian Leigh movie before stating:
"Gone with the Wind was perhaps the most popular American novel of the 20th Century. It has long been controversial both through its presentation of slavery and of women. It is a long book. I have only asked you to read one chapter, the most controversial chapter of the book with regard to the sex issue.
"Scarlett O'Hara is presented in most of the book as a strong and courageous woman, sort of a proto-feminist. But there is no point in beating around the bush," Professor Fuchs said, "the key passage for us starts with Scarlett's rogue husband, Rhett Butler, saying, 'You turned me out on the town while you chased him,' meaning Ashley Wilkes, Scarlett's not so secret crush. Continuing, 'By God, this is going to be one night when there are only going to be two of us in my bed.'
"The next paragraph is, 'He swung her off her feet into his arms and started up the stairs. Her head was crushed against his chest and she heard the hard hammering of his heart beneath her ears. He hurt her and she cried out, muffled, frightened. Up the stairs he went in the utter darkness, up, up, and she was wild with fear. He was a mad stranger, and this was a black darkness she did not know, darker than death. He was like death, carrying her away in arms that hurt. She screamed, stifled against him and he stopped suddenly on the landing and, turning her swiftly in his arms, bent over her and kissed her with a savagery and completeness that wiped out everything from her brain but the dark into which she was sinking and the lips on hers.'"
Professor Fuchs stopped reading aloud to say that it seems clear enough that this event was not consensual before continuing to read the paragraph explaining that Scarlett's clothing was torn off and there was much "darkness" that is not detailed by Mitchell. Emily then read, "Suddenly she had such a wild thrill such as she had never known before; joy, fear, madness, excitement, surrender to his arms that were too strong, lips too bruising, fate moved too fast."
Professor Fuchs explained further that the violent taking of Scarlett, even with her "wild thrill," was not the most controversial part of the episode. The most controversial part was the description of Scarlett's feelings the following morning. Mitchell wrote, "oh, she should be ashamed, should shrink down from the very memory of the darkness! A lady, a real lady, could never hold up her head after such a night. But stronger than shame, was the memory of rapture."
"A lot of crass things have been said about these words," Professor Fuchs explained, "but to be clear, the heroine is taken by force, scared out of her wits, apparently had at least one orgasm although Margaret Mitchell does not exactly write that, and Scarlett decides afterward that she liked it."
"One could say that this was one of the first bodice ripper romance novels." Professor Fuchs proceeded to explain briefly what a bodice ripper romantic novel was. She explained that this strange concept of a woman being ashamed that she is not ashamed of having enjoyed a sexual experience arises in a number of such books. Also, if this was a rape, it was a rape of stock fantasy kind in which the woman was raped by an extremely attractive man; in this case even her husband."
Several male students in the class said that they did not think this was rape but at most rough sex within a basically consensual relationship. "Is he supposed to get a signed consent form before having sex with his own wife?" a member of XYY asked in the class. Another guy went further and said, "Things have changed since all the woke stuff sixty years ago in 2016. Southern women in post-feminist 2066 know that if you arouse a guy, you have to put out. If you don't, what naturally follows isn't rape, it's men being men."
Professor Fuchs conceded that it probably would not have been considered rape in 1867. She said it certainly would be considered rape in northern Ohio even in 2066.
"It sure as hell was rape," Blake spouted out. "The fact she thought she enjoyed it just means that Scarlett was fucked in the hell."
A few guys snickered and Emily thought she heard one guy say, "I'm sure she'd enjoy it."
As usual, other than Blake, none of the female students in the class spoke up with the male students present. They know their place, Emily thought.
THE SEMINAR ON "Gone With the Wind"
Later that afternoon, after Professor Fuchs greeted everyone, Sophia kicked off the discussion by saying that, "It was said by somebody or other that every history is about three times; the time it is about, the time it was written and the time you read it. Here, the novel is about the 1860s, Mitchell wrote 'Gone with the Wind' in the 1930s and we are reading this in 2066. The irony is that we may be closer to the attitudes of 1866 than 1936 now."
"Yes, Emma said, "Scarlett was taken by her husband. He had every right to her. The only odd thing is that she failed to realize that she should be thankful and that there was nothing wrong with her enjoying it. It's not as though a rich woman like her couldn't replace the clothing that was torn. Any implication that Rhett was wrong to take what was his or for Scarlett to enjoy it, should be ascribed to the silly 1930s feminist thinking of the last century and early part of this century that we are now beyond."
Blake predictably exploded. Even Emily was surprised by the remarks of Sophia and Emma. "Rhett certainly did not get the clear consent that we tell the boys that they must have at Northern Liberals Arts College," Emily said.
"Oh, come on," Emma said. "Scarlett was married to Rhett. Maybe the stupid idea that a man could be guilty of raping his wife is still prevalent up north but in sensible parts of the country that nonsense is over. Women are not to be hurt or treated with disrespect, but they are to obey their husbands. Rhett should not have drunk so much and he should not have been seeing prostitutes but his real mistake that led to the others was in not earlier making clear to Scarlett that she had to satisfy his needs and those of the family she would have."
