To the Brownes: Eric, David, Julia, and my cousin-who-is-really-a-sister, Sarah Kaplan. I am more myself than I’ve ever been because of you. Thank you for bearing witness and for standing beside me.
To my grandparents, John and Olga Florio and Jack and Kappy Vorona: you taught me how to be a person in the world—to be kind and to listen and to consider.
Thank you to my sisters, Laura and Jinny, who are marvelous and talented and who teach me the many varieties of strength.
To Dad, my first reader and editor—and one of the finest at that. I understand what it means to unite principles and compassion because I have the great fortune to be your daughter. But please understand that I will never eat baked beans. To Mom, who asked to see the finished product: this was always for you.
And Paul, my fella and my darling. Nothing good comes from me that is not imbued by you. I love you.
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Notes
Chapter One: Wonderland: An Introduction
Julius Althaus, On Epilepsy, Hysteria, and Ataxy: Three Lectures (London: John Churchill & Sons, 1866), 36.
Mary Kingsley (1862–1900) was an English explorer, ethnologist, and author who traveled and researched extensively in West Africa, publishing the popular Travels in West Africa in 1897, as well as West African Studies (1899) and other related works.
Jess Zimmerman, “Hunger Makes Me,” Hazlitt, July 7, 2016, https://hazlitt.net/feature/hunger-makes-me.
Michelle Chen, “The Clothing Industry Is Set to Consume a Quarter of the Global Carbon Supply by 2050,” The Nation, February 13, 2018, https://www.thenation.com/article/the-clothing-industry-is-set-to-consume-a-quarter-of-the-global-carbon-supply-by-2050/.
Andrew Scull, Hysteria: The Disturbing History (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009), 69, 93.
Cecilia Tasca, Mariangela Rapetti, Mauro Giovanni Carta, Bianca Fadda, “Women and Hysteria in the History of Mental Health,” Clinical Practice & Epidemiology in Mental Health 8 (2012): 110–119.
Carroll Smith-Rosenberg, “The Hysterical Woman: Sex Roles and Role Conflict in 19th Century America,” Social Research 39, no. 4 (Winter 1972): 652.
Scull, Hysteria: The Disturbing History, 23.
Frederick Hollick, The Diseases of Woman, Their Causes and Cure Familiarly Explained; with Practical Hints for their Prevention and for the Preservation of Female Health (New York: Burgess, Stringer, & Co., 1847), 205.
Hollick, 194.
Hollick, 199–200.
Hollick, 194–195.
Hollick, 200–201.
Chapter Two: Chatterbox
Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre (London: Penguin Classics, 2006), 39.
M. O. Grenby, “Moral and Instructive Children’s Literature,” British Library, May 15, 2014, https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/moral-and-instructive-childrens-literature.
Claire Harman, Charlotte Brontë: A Fiery Heart (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2015), 43.
Harman, 43.
Charlotte Brontë, “Introduction,” Juvenilia 1829–1835, ed. Juliet Barker (New York: Penguin Books, 1996), xv.
Harman, Charlotte Brontë: A Fiery Heart, 103.
Harman, 108–109.
Harman, 109.
Maria Edgeworth, “Simple Susan,” The Parent’s Assistant; Or, Stories for Children (London: George Routledge and Sons, Limited, 1891), http://www.gutenberg.org/files/3655/3655-h/3655-h.htm.
“The Girl’s Own Paper,” The Victorian Web, April 15, 2015, http://www.victorianweb.org/periodicals/girlsownpaper/index.html.
U. C. Knoepflmacher, Ventures into Childland (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 1998), 168.
Hugh Haughton, “Introduction,” Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass (New York: Penguin Books Ltd., 1998), xx.
Roger Lancelyn Green, ed., The Diaries of Lewis Carroll (Westport: Greenwood Press, 1971), 230–231.
Lynne Vallone and Claudia Nelson, “Introduction,” The Girl’s Own: Cultural Histories of the Anglo-American Girl, 1830–1915, ed. Lynne Vallone and Claudia Nelson (Athens: The University of Georgia Press, 2010), 3.
Gail Kern Paster, The Body Embarrassed: Drama and the Disciplines of Shame in Early Modern England (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1993), 25.
Lewis Carroll, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass (New York: Penguin Books Ltd., 1998), 20–21.
Chantel Tattoli, “Astrid Lindgren, the Gutsy Creator of Pippi Longstocking,” The Paris Review, March 1, 2018, https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2018/03/01/astrid-lindgren-gutsy-creator-pippi-longstocking/.
Tattoli, “Astrid Lindgren, the Gutsy Creator of Pippi Longstocking.”
Tattoli, “Astrid Lindgren, the Gutsy Creator of Pippi Longstocking.”
“An Interview with Beverly Cleary on Ramona Quimby, Age 8,” Ramona Quimby, Age 8 (New York: Harper Collins Publishers), 182.
Beverly Cleary, Beezus and Ramona (New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 2013), 1–2.
Beverly Cleary, Ramona the Brave (New York: Harper Collins Publishers, 2013), 140–141.
Cleary, 82–83.
Chapter Three: Nerve
George Eliot, Middlemarch (New York: Penguin Books, 2003), 194.
L. M. Montgomery, Emily of New Moon (New York: Dell Laurel-Leaf, 1993), 80–81.
Montgomery, 81.
L. M. Montgomery, Emily Climbs (New York: Bantam Books, 1993), 32.
Montgomery, Emily of New Moon, 29.
Montgomery, 33.
Louisa May Alcott, Little Women (New York: Penguin Books, 1989), 162.
Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2006), 3.
Hodgson Burnett, 9.
L. M. Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables (New York: Bantam Books, 1998), 64.
Montgomery, 65.
Montgomery, Emily Climbs, 207.
Chapter Four: Close
Sharon Marcus, Between Women: Friendship, Desire, and Marriage in Victorian England (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2007), 1.
Marcus, 4.
Marcus, 175.
Wilkie Collins, The Woman in White (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998), 189
Christina Rossetti, “Goblin Market,” Poetry Foundation, https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44996/goblin-market.
Dinah Roe, The Rossettis in Wonderland: A Victorian Family History (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2013), 188.
Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre (New York: Penguin Classics, 2006), 97–98.
Marcus, Between Women: Friendship, Desire, and Marriage in Victorian England, 257.
After Juliet Hulme was released from prison, she took the name Anne Perry. Now, years later, she is a prolific crime novelist.
Charles Dickens, Our Mutual Friend (New York: Oxford World’s Classics, 2008), 347.
Dickens, 233–234.
J. Sheridan Le Fanu, Carmilla (London: Hesperus Press Limited, 2013), 100.
Martha Vicinus, Intimate Friends: Women Who Loved Women, 1778–1928 (Chicago: The University of Chicago Press, 2004), 26.
Laura Thompson, “Equality at the Gallows: The Hanged Women of England,” CrimeReads, November 6, 2018, https://crimereads.com/equality-at-the-gallows-the-hanged-women-of-england/.
Chapter Five: Plus
Anne Helen Petersen, Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud: The Rise and Reign of the Unruly Woman (New York: Plume, 2017), 29.
Anya Krugovoy Silver, Victorian Literature and the Anorexic Body (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), 72–73.
Helena Michie, The Flesh Made Word (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989), 19.
Michie, 26.
Michie, 13.
Charles Dickens, Little Dorrit (New York: Penguin Books, 2003), 96.
Silver, Victorian Literature and the Anorexic Body, 26.
Carolyn Day, Consumptive Chic: A Histo
ry of Beauty, Fashion, and Disease (New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2017), 91.
Michie, The Flesh Made Word, 21.
Michie, 21.
Silver, Victorian Literature and the Anorexic Body, 1.
Silver, 1.
Silver, 3.
Cesare Lombroso and Guglielmo Ferrero, The Female Offender (New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1898), 74.
Silver, Victorian Literature and the Anorexic Body, 34.
Ella Adelia Fletcher, The Woman Beautiful (New York: W. M. & Co. Publishers, 1899), 28.
Fletcher, 409.
Fletcher, 410.
Fletcher, 410.
Fletcher, 410–411.
Fletcher, 411.
Fletcher, 411.
William Makepeace Thackeray, Vanity Fair (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1994), 21.
Joseph Litvak, Strange Gourmets: Sophistication, Theory, and the Novel (Durham: Duke University Press, 1997), 72.
Julia Baird, Victoria the Queen (New York: Random House, 2016), 28.
Baird, 158.
George Eliot, Middlemarch (New York: Penguin Books, 2003), 7.
Eliot, 273.
Day, Consumptive Chic: A History of Beauty, Fashion, and Disease, 90.
George Eliot, Adam Bede (New York: Oxford University Press, 1998), 190.
Eliot, 159.
Michie, The Flesh Made Word, 58.
Eliot, Adam Bede, 84.
Michie, The Flesh Made Word, 26.
Charlotte Brontë, Villette (New York: Penguin Books, 2004), 260.
Michie, The Flesh Made Word, 22.
Sadie Stein, “For the Last Time: What Size Was Marilyn Monroe?” Jezebel, June 2, 2009, https://jezebel.com/5299793/for-the-last-time-what-size-was-marilyn-monroe.
Petersen, Too Fat, Too Slutty, Too Loud: The Rise and Reign of the Unruly Woman, 212–213.
Lanetra Bennett, “Local Teen Told Afro Is ‘Extreme’ and Can’t Be Worn at School,” WCTV.tv, May 19, 2017, https://www.wctv.tv/content/news/Local-teen-told-cant-wear-hairstyle-at-school-423232994.html.
Remy Smidt and Alec Bostwick, “These Teens Were Banned from Prom and Track Because of Their Hair, So They Challenged Their School,” Buzzfeed News, May 22, 2017, https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/remysmidt/these-teen-twins#.iqV6KYZAb.
Chapter Six: Crazy
“Art. VI.—Report of the Metropolitan Commissioners in Lunacy to the Lord Chancellor,” Westminster Review, March–June 1845, via the British Library, https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/the-figure-of-bertha-mason.
Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice (New York: Penguin Classics, 2003), 7.
Mary Elizabeth Braddon, Lady Audley’s Secret (Oxford: Oxford World’s Classics, 2012), 176.
Palko Karasz, “Charles Dickens Tried to Banish His Wife to an Asylum, Letters Show,” New York Times, February 23, 2019, https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/23/world/europe/charles-dickens-wife-asylum.html.
Susanna Kaysen, Girl, Interrupted (New York: Vintage Books, 1993), 124.
Braddon, Lady Audley’s Secret, 323.
Lyn Pykett, “Introduction,” Lady Audley’s Secret (Oxford: Oxford World’s Classics, 2012), xxi.
Kaysen, Girl, Interrupted, 124.
Kaysen, 124.
Carol Atherton, “The Figure of Bertha Mason,” British Library, May 15, 2014, https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/the-figure-of-bertha-mason.
Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre (New York: Penguin Classics, 2006), 353.
Brontë, 352.
Jean Rhys, Wide Sargasso Sea (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1999), 41.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman, “The Yellow Wallpaper,” in The Norton Anthology: Literature by Women, 3rd edition, Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar, eds. (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2007), 1392.
Gilman, 1394.
Gilman, 1394.
Charlotte Perkins Gilman, “Why I Wrote The Yellow Wallpaper?” The Norton Anthology: Literature by Women, 3rd edition, Sandra M. Gilbert and Susan Gubar, eds. (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2007), 1403.
Virginia Woolf, A Writer’s Diary, ed. Leonard Woolf (San Diego: Harcourt, Inc., 1954), 166.
Mitchell Sunderland, “Paparazzo Auctioning Off Umbrella from Infamous Britney Spears Attack,” Vice, February 21, 2017, https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/9k9y45/paparazzo-auctioning-off-umbrella-from-infamous-britney-spears-attack.
Sunderland, “Paparazzo Auctioning Off Umbrella from Infamous Britney Spears Attack.”
Alice Bolin, Dead Girls (New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 2018), 110.
Stephanie Marcus, “10 Years Later, Britney Spears’ Head-Shaving Moment Is Still Unforgettable,” HuffPost, February 27, 2017, https://www.huffpost.com/entry/britney-spears-shaved-her-head-ten-years-ago_n_58a5cff6e4b07602ad525d50.
Kathryn Lindsay, “Britney Spears Shares Positive Messages on the 10th Anniversary of Shaving Her Head,” Refinery29, February 17, 2017, https://www.refinery29.com/2017/02/141451/britney-spears-shave-head-ten-year-anniversary-instagram.
“Article 1. Detention of Mentally Disordered Persons for Evaluation and Treatment [5150-5155],” California Legislative Information, https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=WIC§ionNum=5150.
Josephine Livingstone, “Freeing Britney Spears,” The New Republic, May 16, 2019, https://newrepublic.com/article/153903/freeing-britney-spears.
Antoinette Bueno, “Britney Spears’ Father Wants to Extend Conservatorship to Louisiana, Hawaii and Florida,” ET Online, May 22, 2019, https://www.etonline.com/britney-spears-father-wants-to-extend-conservatorship-to-louisiana-hawaii-and-florida-125725.
Ben Beaumont-Thomas, “Britney Spears Takes Out Restraining Order against Former Manager Sam Lutfi,” The Guardian, May 9, 2019, https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/may/09/britney-spears-restraining-order-former-manager-sam-lutfi.
Britney Spears, Instagram post, April 23, 2019, https://www.instagram.com/p/BwnqpG5g7qn/.
Jessica Hopper, “Fiona Apple’s Bad, Bad Girl Moments,” Rolling Stone, April 24, 2012, https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-lists/fiona-apples-bad-bad-girl-moments-22292/.
“Fiona Apple Breaks Down After Being Heckled for Her Appearance,” Huffington Post, October 4, 2013 https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/10/04/fiona-apple-heckled_n_4044449.html.
Elahe Izadi, “Kehlani’s Suicide Attempt and the Double Standard of How Female Celebrities Get Criticized,” Washington Post, March 30, 2016, https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/arts-and-entertainment/wp/2016/03/30/kehlanis-suicide-attempt-internet-bullies-and-chris-brown/.
Charles Keene, “The Clew,” The Victorian Web, http://www.victorianweb.org/periodicals/punch/publichealth/2.html.
Andrzej Diniejko, “A Chronology of Social Change and Social Reform in Great Britain in the Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries,” The Victorian Web, http://www.victorianweb.org/history/socialism/chronology.html.
Elizabeth Gaskell, Mary Barton (Oxford: Oxford World Classics, 2006), 159.
Deborah Anna Logan, Fallenness in Victorian Women’s Writing: Marry, Stitch, Die, or Do Worse (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1998), 130.
Andrea Ritchie, “The War on Drugs Is a War on Women of Color,” Longreads, https://longreads.com/2017/08/03/the-war-on-drugs-is-a-war-on-women-of-color/.
Ritchie, “The War on Drugs Is a War on Women of Color.”
K. Austin Collins, “Naomie Harris’s Voice Is a Secret Weapon in ‘Moonlight,’” The Ringer, February 15, 2017, https://www.theringer.com/2017/2/15/16037908/naomie-harriss-voice-is-a-secret-weapon-in-moonlight-794b881e9b37
Collins, “Naomie Harris’s Voice Is a Secret Weapon in ‘Moonlight.’”
Spencer Kornhaber, “When the Reality of Addiction Meets the Fantasies of Pop Stardom,” The Atlantic, August 9, 2018, https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2018/08/demi-lovato-addiction-recovery/567047/.
Chapter Seven: Cut
Jennifer L. Geddes, “On Evil, Pain, and Beauty: A Conversation with
Elaine Scarry,” The Hedgehog Review, Summer 2000, https://hedgehogreview.com/issues/evil/articles/on-evil-pain-and-beauty-a-conversation-with-elaine-scarry.
George M. Gould and Walter L. Pyle, Anomalies and Curiosities of Medicine (New York: Bell Publishing Company, 1896).
Sylvia Plath, “Cut,” Ariel (New York: Harper Perennial, 1999), 13.
Robert E. McKeown, Steven P. Cuffe, and Richard M. Schulz, “US Suicide Rates by Age Group, 1970–2002: An Examination of Recent Trends,” American Journal of Public Health 96(10), October 2006, 1744–1751, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1586156/.
Elizabeth Wurtzel, Prozac Nation: Young and Depressed in America (New York: Riverhead Books, 1995), 47.
Gillian Flynn, Sharp Objects (New York: Broadway Books, 2006), 63.
Leslie Jamison, The Empathy Exams (Minneapolis: Graywolf Press, 2014), 212.
Nicci Gerrard, “Why Are So Many Teenage Girls Cutting Themselves?” The Guardian, May 19, 2002, https://www.theguardian.com/society/2002/may/19/mentalhealth.observerfocus.
Chapter Eight: Horny
Claire McEachern, “Why Do Cuckolds Have Horns?” Huntington Library Quarterly, December 2008, 607–631.
Michel Foucault, The History of Sexuality: Volume One, trans. Robert Hurley (New York: Vintage Books, 1990), 17–18.
“Michel Foucault,” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/foucault/.
Foucault, The History of Sexuality: Volume One, 11.
The Pearl: A Journal of Voluptuous Reading (New York: Grove Press Inc., 1968).
“A Visit to Miss Birch,” The Whippingham Papers (Hertfordshire: Wordsworth Classics, 1995), 30–31.
“Reginald’s Flogging,” The Whippingham Papers (Hertfordshire: Wordsworth Classics, 1995), 64.
Glenn Everett, “A. C. Swinburne: Biography,” The Victorian Web, http://victorianweb.org/authors/swinburne/acsbio1.html.
Algernon Charles Swinburne, “Anactoria,” Poems and Ballads & Atalanta in Calydon (New York: Penguin Classics, 2000), lines 11–16.
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