Chastity and Measure for Measure
Taylor Swift and Anne Shakespeare are both concerned in their poetry with the nature of chastity. Why? Because in a patriarchal society where the power lies with men to define woman, the virtue of chastity becomes one of the defining features for what constitutes, in the male view, a “good” woman. Why is it that men treat women who are not virgins as something less, as tainted, as “used” goods? Yet, on the other hand, men wear as a symbol of pride the number of sexual conquests they have; no sign of a man being labelled soiled, tainted or used because of their sexual prowess. yet it is to this virtue that Anne and Taylor turn their attention. Regarding virginity, de Beauvoir (1949/2009, p. 57) suggests that “Man is not fascinated by wholeness because it symbolises feminine virginity; rather his love for wholeness makes virginity precious.”
That is, men are seeking a woman who is considered “whole” and this wholeness can only be demonstrated through the woman being a virgin; untainted by other men’s touch. Yet, if woman was to go searching for a virginal man, firstly, she would be hard pressed to find one! and secondly, why should not a woman then question why he is a virgin? And if a woman was to find a virgin male it becomes the source of a comedy (such as the film “A Forty Year Old Virgin”) and every effort is made to “deflower” him. On the other hand if a woman is forty years old and a virgin, she is in for much harsher assessment of her reasons for being chaste. As Taylor writes in her song The Man,
[Chorus]
I'm so sick of running as fast as I can
Wonderin' if I'd get there quicker if I was a man
And I’m so sick of them comin' at me again
'Cause if I was a man, then I'd be the man
I'd be the man (Man)
I'd be the man (Man)
[Bridge]
What's it like to brag about raking in dollars
And getting bitches and models?
And it's all good if you're bad
And it's okay if you're mad
If I was out flashin' my dollars
I'd be a bitch, not a baller
They'd paint me out to be bad
So it's okay that I’m mad. (The Man)
And in Anne’s play Measure for Measure we have the spectacle of the virginal Isabella being defined and lusted after for her very chastity which is seen as most desirable commodity; not her mind, her intellect, her spirit or her soul, but seen purely as a body. And it is this facticity of her body that comes to define her; a body that is “whole”. As we see in Angelo after he has been approached by Isabella to plead for her brother’s life,
ANGELO From thee, even from thy virtue.
What’s this? What’s this? Is this her fault or mine?
The tempter or the tempted, who sins most, ha? 200
Not she, nor doth she tempt; but it is I
That, lying by the violet in the sun,
Do as the carrion does, not as the flower,
Corrupt with virtuous season. Can it be
That modesty may more betray our sense 205
Than woman’s lightness? Having waste ground
enough,
Shall we desire to raze the sanctuary
And pitch our evils there? O fie, fie, fie!
What dost thou, or what art thou, Angelo? 210
Dost thou desire her foully for those things
That make her good? O, let her brother live.
Thieves for their robbery have authority
When judges steal themselves. What, do I love her
That I desire to hear her speak again 215
And feast upon her eyes? What is ’t I dream on?
O cunning enemy that, to catch a saint,
With saints dost bait thy hook. Most dangerous
Is that temptation that doth goad us on
To sin in loving virtue. Never could the strumpet 220
With all her double vigor, art and nature,
Once stir my temper, but this virtuous maid
Subdues me quite. Ever till now
When men were fond, I smiled and wondered how. (II, 2, ll. 198-223)
Is man the only one to be afflicted with desire, with lust with the beauty of a body? A body that is whole? Why should not women be tempted to find desire in the body of a man? As Taylor laments in her song All Too Well
[Verse 4]
They say all's well that ends well, but I'm in a new Hell
Every time you double-cross my mind
You said if we had been closer in age maybe it would have been fine
And that made me want to die
The idea you had of me, who was she?
A never-needy, ever-lovely jewel whose shine reflects on you
Not weeping in a party bathroom
Some actress asking me what happened, you
That's what happened, you
You who charmed my dad with self-effacing jokes
Sipping coffee like you're on a late-night show
But then he watched me watch the front door all night, willing you to come
And he said, "It's supposed to be fun turning twenty-one" (All too Well)
What just such a conception of female virtue proposes is that woman is defined by man; woman is placed beneath man (in more ways than one) and has to continually prove herself an equal to man. And in doing so she must compromise herself and live a life of bad faith, an inauthentic existence waiting on man. And man privileges himself above woman and in doing so exposes himself (again in more ways that one) to the anxiety and doubt which accompanies man’s existence as he seeks validation, approval and praise from the very one he denigrates as inessential!
More to come.