The Effeminacy of Catholicism in its Victorian Literary Depictions
The Effeminacy of Catholicism in its Victorian Literary Depictions

Summary/Abstract: When studying Victorian texts dealing with Roman Catholicism or Anglo-Catholicism, one can observe very often that they are structured around the cultural dichotomy: “masculine” Protestantism versus “feminine” Catholicism. The feminization of Catholicism is particularly striking in the portraits of Catholic men, ranging from The Punch cartoons, which portrayed Anglo-Catholic priests mincing in their new vestments in front of the mirrors, to the references to emasculated men in the works of such authors as George Borrow, John Ruskin and most notably Charles Kingsley. This kind of portrayal can be explained by several factors: a long-standing legal discrimination of Catholics, placing Catholic men effectively on a par with women; the contrast between “emotional” Catholicism, relying on the sensual appeal of liturgy versus the “rational” Protestantism based on the Word of God; finally, abjection as defined by Julia Kristeva, casting the Catholic in the role of both repulsive and attractive feminine Other.

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