by Charity Shumway
Adelphi professor of English Susan
Ostrov Weisser, Ph.D., has long specialized in high literature
like the Romantic poets or the 19th-century British novel, but her most recent
book starts out with a close reading of The Bachelor. Yes, the reality TV show.
That’s because Dr. Weisser’s book, The Glass Slipper: Women and Love
Stories, (Rutgers University Press, 2013) is about more than
love stories in literature. It’s a broader cultural study of the linkage
between women and romance and about romance as a kind of cultural script—a
glass slipper—into which we fit our feelings.
In her book, Dr. Weisser looks at
how narratives surrounding women and romance emerged, starting with Jane Austen
and moving from there all the way through Victorian magazines to contemporary
films, and even women’s Internet dating profiles.
“It certainly wasn’t always the case
throughout history that romance was assigned to women,” Dr. Weisser says. “In
the Victorian era, love and marriage became linked to women through another
topic, which was also being intensely examined at the time—the nature of gender
and the ‘proper role’ of women.”
Feminism, the sexual revolution and
women’s increased economic independence have, of course, dramatically shifted
our thoughts on the role of women, Dr. Weisser says, “but romance is still a
story that is mainly aimed at women.”
So why has the link endured?
One possible explanation: “Just turn
on the TV,” Dr. Weisser says. “You’ll see even for very young girls the idea of
being on sexual display is hyped like never before. Romantic love is a way of
ensuring that a woman is not going to be devalued or exploited. A man needs you
emotionally, not just sexually. It ‘solves’ the problem.”
While Dr. Weisser is quick to point
out that The Glass Slipper is far from an advice book, that doesn’t mean she
doesn’t have any words of advice to pass along to young people. “I worry about
the unquestioning acceptance of the models of romantic love out there,” she
says. “I think they’re stifling. Who is to say it’s not love if it doesn’t have
a happy ending?”
This piece appeared in the Erudition 2014
edition.
