“Maids, not you my mind doth change” by Michael Field (K. Bradley & E. Cooper):A Poem about Gender Roles

This poem has a lot of sapphic feeling to it, which is what the two authors were going for. I find it interesting how they state their feelings about men. They state “Men I defy, allure, estrange, prostrate, make bond or free” (Lines 2-3) This shows the role reversal they have for men. In most heterosexual relationships in the Victorian era the man was the dominating person. The relationship was dependent on him and often the woman was taught to be ‘helpless’ without him. According to victorian-era, “The patriarchal system was the norm and women usually led a more secluded, private life. Men, on the other hand, possessed all kinds of freedom. The man was naturally the head of the family and the guardian of family members.” These lines show the opposite though. They defy men, they manipulate men, and they turn the men to the submissive side of the relationship. They do this without changing their own gender to man, they are still women and they are dominant. In this poem, there is a lot of contrast from heterosexual relationships to lesbian relationships. When talking about women, the authors make you feel soft and sweet. “To you I sing my love’s refrain; between us is no thought of pain, peril, satiety.” (Lines 5-7) This shows that when two women are together, they are truly free, they have no feelings of pain or peril. With heterosexual relationships though, Bradley and Cooper state that “Soon odth a lover’s patience tire, but ye to mainfold desire can yield response, ye know.” (lines 8-10) In the Victorian era, it seems that women were trapped to become married to men because the law made it impossible for women to make any money independently. Olga Zeltser states “Because society prevented women from making their own living, there was an inescapable dependence upon men’s income.” This seems to show the struggle of loving another woman in a society that does not agree with that. It shows that the love of two women in this world they created is loving and soft, while the love of a man and a woman isn’t so loving as it’s filled with sexual desire and the idea of falling out of love. To these women, a lesbian relationship seems so much better because they like each other and they are as free as can be. There is no dominating figure. This brings on the idea that love is much more than roles and who works or who cooks, it’s a deep feeling of freedom when you are together. This deepens the question of how love was perceived back in the victorian times. There were heterosexual couples that loved each other, but how many people got married to each other because they thought that getting married was the correct thing to do? Would they have considered that to be love back then? I would argue that comparing that kind of love to love in 2019, that kind of love isn’t actually love. It is just filling a role that needed to be filled and is seen as doing your ‘duty’. Love is much deeper than duty, and that’s what the poem is ultimately about. Both women adore each other and see love as love, and letting go of the heterosexual ideals that had been forced upon them let them have that freedom. The freedom to love the person you really do love.

Work Cited

“Gender Roles of Victorian Era for Men and Women.” Victorian Era Life in England. Victorians Society & Daily Life, victorian-era.org/gender-roles-of-victorian-era.html.

Zeltser, Olga. “Victorian Women: The Gender of Oppression .” Historical Analysis: Women as               the "the Sex" During the Victorian Era,                                                                                    webpage.pace.edu/nreagin/tempmotherhood/fall2003/3/HisPage.html.