Photo by Fred Kearney on Unsplash
A woman is instructed to “have but two hours (of) intellectual life per day” and “never touch a pen, brush, or pencil again” as long as she lived, to cure a nervous disorder. Her intellectual activities were obviously taking away from her ability to be a domestic wife and channeling energy from her reproductive system, where it could be put to better use.
To prevent a path to insanity.
Cause it more like.
“Hysteria, Witches, and The Wandering Uterus: A Brief History … Or, Why I Teach ‘The Yellow Wallpaper'” by Terri Kapsalis published on April 5, 2017 at the Literary Hub (a very useful website – check it out while looking at this particular posting) can be found here: https://lithub.com/hysteria-witches-and-the-wandering-uterus-a-brief-history/
This paper dovetails the 1891 paper with the 2016 election campaign and captures some of what women were feeling about the whole process during the 2016 summer and fall. The “witch” hunts and accusations of hysteria and all the other items being leveled against women of TODAY.
Doctors may no longer proscribe avoiding any intellectual activity to women, but that doesn’t mean we aren’t still being told NOT TO THINK. I, for one, would be clawing at the Yellow Wallpaper.