Beatrix Potter-Feminist or Quiet English Farmer?
January 27, 2007
Interesting how our attitudes color what we see in history. In the January 26, 2007, Rochester (MN) Post-Bulletin, actress Emily Watson speaks of her role in a movie about Beatrix Potter, creator of the Peter Rabbit children’s stories. Watson plays Potter's fiance's sister, Millie, "who became one of Potter’s best friends when they discovered a shared political philosophy, which today could be called feminism.
“‘Had Millie been born a decade later (than 1860), she would have been a suffragette,’ Watson said. ‘She was very outspoken, which is one of the reasons I wanted to play her. I don’t often get the chance to play mouthy women.’
“The only disappointment came when she tried to research the character’s political stance. Potter’s estate includes a collection of Millie’s letters, but they didn’t offer much insight.
“’They kept writing to each other their whole lives,’ Watson said. ‘But the letters were full of recipes or stories about gardening. It was all very British.’”
Could it be that for these early 20th century friends, the recipes and gardening were the more meaningful and important parts of their lives? In reading more about Ms. Potter’s life (very little is readily available on the net on Millie Warne), it appears that “feminism” was not hugely important to Potter. Whatever activism she may have been involved in was directed to preservation of the Lake Country around the farm where she spent most of the end of her life. The BBC biography for her notes,
After her marriage, Beatrix wrote less and less, and concentrated more and more on farming - keeping sheep, pigs, ducks and hens - and on her other passion in life: the conservation of the Lake District countryside she had come to love. When she died in 1947 at the age of 81, her last wish was that the English Lake District be kept safe for future generations. Over the years she had purchased a number of farms, for this very reason, and in her will she left 17 farms including some 4000 acres of land to the National Trust, to ensure that her favourite corner of the country remained as unspoilt as when she had known it.
(http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A642151)
So, research on Potter’s life doesn’t reinforce the pre-conceived views Watson wants to lay upon Potter’s life? Then, just decide that she is a feminist anyway. Even intelligent, well-known women have often been known to enjoy domestic pleasures such as cooking and caring for gardens. Have we reached a point in time when women are no longer allowed to enjoy a wide range of interests, instead having to be "into" shopping, travel, sharing only "deep" conversations with their friends? That seems at least as limiting as the most sexist cultrues of the past.
Interesting how our attitudes color what we see in history. In the January 26, 2007, Rochester (MN) Post-Bulletin, actress Emily Watson speaks of her role in a movie about Beatrix Potter, creator of the Peter Rabbit children’s stories. Watson plays Potter's fiance's sister, Millie, "who became one of Potter’s best friends when they discovered a shared political philosophy, which today could be called feminism.
“‘Had Millie been born a decade later (than 1860), she would have been a suffragette,’ Watson said. ‘She was very outspoken, which is one of the reasons I wanted to play her. I don’t often get the chance to play mouthy women.’
“The only disappointment came when she tried to research the character’s political stance. Potter’s estate includes a collection of Millie’s letters, but they didn’t offer much insight.
“’They kept writing to each other their whole lives,’ Watson said. ‘But the letters were full of recipes or stories about gardening. It was all very British.’”
Could it be that for these early 20th century friends, the recipes and gardening were the more meaningful and important parts of their lives? In reading more about Ms. Potter’s life (very little is readily available on the net on Millie Warne), it appears that “feminism” was not hugely important to Potter. Whatever activism she may have been involved in was directed to preservation of the Lake Country around the farm where she spent most of the end of her life. The BBC biography for her notes,
After her marriage, Beatrix wrote less and less, and concentrated more and more on farming - keeping sheep, pigs, ducks and hens - and on her other passion in life: the conservation of the Lake District countryside she had come to love. When she died in 1947 at the age of 81, her last wish was that the English Lake District be kept safe for future generations. Over the years she had purchased a number of farms, for this very reason, and in her will she left 17 farms including some 4000 acres of land to the National Trust, to ensure that her favourite corner of the country remained as unspoilt as when she had known it.
(http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A642151)
So, research on Potter’s life doesn’t reinforce the pre-conceived views Watson wants to lay upon Potter’s life? Then, just decide that she is a feminist anyway. Even intelligent, well-known women have often been known to enjoy domestic pleasures such as cooking and caring for gardens. Have we reached a point in time when women are no longer allowed to enjoy a wide range of interests, instead having to be "into" shopping, travel, sharing only "deep" conversations with their friends? That seems at least as limiting as the most sexist cultrues of the past.
posted by hl at
1:38 PM
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