page_title: London Debating Societies
section_title: Love, sex, marriage, and relations between the sexes
hierarchical_section_title: London Debating Societies / Content of debates / Love, sex, marriage, and relations between the sexes
caption_attribution_description: A panegyric on the happiness and "Pleasures of the Married State", published in London ca. 1780. A father teaches his son reading, while his wife holds their daughter. A painting of Christ changing water into wine at the wedding-feast of Cana is shown on the wall, while an outdoors hat and equipment for battledore/shuttlecock (i.e. the precursor to badminton) are on the floor. Poem in image: A Wife so chaste, so tender, and so kind, So lovely in her Person and her mind; The gentle smiling Girl, the pratling Boy, The Father's comfort and the Mother's joy: Are blessed Guardians 'gainst all human woes, Unknown to idle Rakes, to Fops, and Beaus; These are the Pleasures of the Social state, View this, you Batchelors, and mourn your fate. For a caricature from the same period expressing the opposite point of view, see File:Les plaisir du mènage by James Gillray.jpg Bibliographic information found on the LoC site: TITLE: The pleasures of the married state / W. Proud del. et sculp. CALL NUMBER: PC 2 - Pleasures of the married state (A size) [P&amp;P] REPRODUCTION NUMBER: LC-USZ62-59621 (b&amp;w film copy neg.) No known restrictions on publication. SUMMARY: Print shows a family gathering around a table, the husband, seated, is instructing a son who stands next to him with an open book, and the wife, seated opposite, holds an infant daughter, the children mimic the parent's costume; in the background is a painting of Jesus changing water to wine during the wedding feast. Includes eight lines of verse promoting marriage. MEDIUM: 1 print&#160;: engraving. CREATED/PUBLISHED: London&#160;: Printed for Robt. Sayer in Fleet Street, &amp; Jno. Smith in Cheapside, [between 1770 and 1789] NOTES: Title from item. Forms part of: British Cartoon Collection (Library of Congress). SUBJECTS: Marriage--England--1770-1790. Families--England--1770-1790. Domestic life--England--1770-1790. FORMAT: Cartoons (Commentary) British 1770-1790. Engravings British 1770-1790. REPOSITORY: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA DIGITAL ID: (b&amp;w film copy neg.) cph 3b07363 http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/cph.3b07363 CARD #: 2003675451
context_page_description: Debating societies emerged in London in the early eighteenth century, and were a prominent feature of society until the end of the century. The origins of the debating societies are not certain, but by the mid-18th century, London fostered an active debating culture. Topics ranged from current events and governmental policy, to love and marriage, and the societies welcomed participants from both genders and all social backgrounds, exemplifying the enlarged public sphere of the Age of Enlightenment.
  At the end of the century, the political environment created by the French Revolution led to the tightening of governmental restrictions. The debating societies declined, and they virtually disappeared by the beginning of the nineteenth century. However, a select few societies survived to the present day, and new societies formed in recent years have been boosted by promotion via the internet and social media, giving debating in London a new lease on life.
  Scholarship on London's debating societies is hindered by the lack of records left by the societies, but the work of historian Donna T. Andrew, among others, has contributed to the field.
context_section_description: Perhaps one of the most interesting and radical themes of the debating societies was the continued and varied debate on men and women and their interactions. The presence of women in the societies meant that the debates had a chance of accurately representing contemporary women's own viewpoints on their role in society, not simply those of men, making the debates a significant marker of popular thought and opinion.
  The Oratorical Academy at Mitre Tavern asked, "Can friendship subsist between the two sexes, without the passion of love?" In discussing marriage, La Belle Assemblée, a women's only society, asked, "In the failure of a mutual affection in the married state, which is to be preferred, to love or be loved?" The New Westminster Forum questioned, "Which is the more disagreeable, a jealous or a scolding Wife?" The society at Coachmaker's Hall debated, "Is not the deliberate Seduction of the Fair, with an intention to desert, under all circumstances, equal to murder?" 
  Though the decision was negative in this case, the question indicated the seriousness with which these questions were approached. Other questions seem to reveal a genuine interest in understanding relationships: "Which is to be preferred in the choice of a wife, beauty without fortune, or fortune without beauty?" and "Is it the love of the mental or personal charms of the fair sex, that is more likely to induce men to enter into the married state?"
  These questions of love and marriage, and happiness in marriage, indicate how the social climate was changing, allowing for such discussions of gender relations. The societies were, in essence, part of a complete redefinition of gender roles that was underway in the late eighteenth century and into the nineteenth.
caption: The cover to a panegyric on the married state, published in London, c. 1780
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