Sunday, November 28, 2010

Open Office format

This is one area where Open Office seems to have limitations.  Here is a paragraph of my essay I am working on.  If you can read it and have any questions or comments, please post them. 









In eighteenth century Britain, class and gender were becoming closely tied to a commercial market. Cheaper prices and an expanding market allowed more people than ever before to experience choice when shopping. The coffeehouse became one more purchaseable experience for men with a penny to spend. The coffeehouse was the locus of far more than an exotic brew, however, because of it's association with Addison and Steele's Spectator A wider selection became available to the lower classes, and with cheaper prices, the market could now substitute handiwork to demonstrate personal choice and taste. Instead of hand crafting objects to use as adornment, householders were hand selecting objects to convey taste. The rising awareness of men and women to the fashions and trends in clothing, entertainment, and conspicuous display shaped their manners and environments. With the introduction of coffee, tea, and other beverages that centered around public display, elite men and women demonstrated and performed class-based rituals that reinforced their status. While eighteenth century elite women entertained single sex or mixed sex company at the tea table within the confines of the home, elite men conducted their conversation in the all-male public sphere of the coffeehouse.
The coffeehouse harbored a masculine public sphere, but women were often present in the coffehouse. 'Coffee women' as they were called, often owned their own shops or were employed serving the beverage to patrons, and maids, servants, and prostitutes participated in the day to day runnings of the coffeehouse.1 These women, however, were not part of the public sphere-they were disregarded the way slaves and servants always were by their elite employers and were not participants. Elite women did not patronize the coffeehouse because appearing in public would have suggested a sexual and class based transgression in the same way appearing at a public house would mark one as a public woman, and therefore a prostitute. Coffeehouses were not unique in assigning a male purview to their space, this was the case with most early modern urban venues.

1 comment:

  1. Hey Joelle -

    I'm not sure if this is the advice you were looking for, but these two sentences really stood out to me because I think there's something really interesting hidden in them. (I'm going to try and add italic for emphasis).

    "With the introduction of coffee, tea, and other beverages that centered around public display, elite men and women demonstrated and performed class-based rituals that reinforced their status. While eighteenth century elite women entertained single sex [...] company at the tea table within the confines of the home, elite men conducted their conversation in the all-male public sphere of the coffeehouse."

    Which, if that didn't work out, was intended to highlight the fact that you nearly state that:

    men = public = coffee, and
    women = private = tea

    which I think is fascinating. Is there a possibility that the gender-sphere could be divided into drinking habits? Men drank coffee outside of the home (coffeehouses) while women drank tea inside the home. The public vs. private gender-sphere of class rituals, divided by choice of drink.

    Looks like you've got an interesting project. Good luck!

    ReplyDelete