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The Evolution of Society’s Opinion of Sexual Affairs: From Pamela to Present

In the English novel Pamela (1740) by Samuel Richardson, the innocent and pure titular

character endures many unwanted sexual advances from her employer, and it is up to this young

fifteen-year-old woman to maintain her virginity and thus reputation to make sure she has a

chance to succeed in society. If she fails, she could end up on the street with no money,

opportunities, or future. Even though elements concerning sexual affairs, such as families being

unlikely to reject a woman if they have sex before marriage unless they are very traditional or

religious, are different in the present than they were in the eighteenth-century, there is still the

prevalent aspect of women having to protect themselves from men’s advances. If they do not, it

is their fault, and they usually must deal with the consequences themselves without assistance.

This paper will explore how sexuality regarding women has changed in society from the

eighteenth-century to the twenty-first century. To answer this question, this essay will be

separated into three different parts: society’s view of virginity in the past and present, how

Christianity views the importance of women’s purity in the eighteenth-century versus the twenty-

first century, and how the ideology concerning sexual assault has altered from Pamela’s time to

today, which will include looking at the 2017-2018 “Me Too” Movement that started in America

and how it has progressed society to enact change on the culture in general. These sections will

explore how much or how little society has changed concerning the treatment of women sexual

affairs.

Literature Review

The concept of virginity in the eighteenth-century was strict and only applied to women.

Hanne Blank in the book Virgin: The Untouched History discusses where the root of the work

“virgin” comes from and how it is meant to control females but not males. Blank shares that
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“virginity has never mattered in regard to the way men are valued, or whether they were

considered fit to marry or, indeed, to be permitted to survive. As a result, virgins are, and always

have been, almost uniformly female” (10). Diana Rosenberger in the article “Virtual Rewarded:

What# MeToo Can Learn from Samuel Richardson's Pamela” agrees that virgin and virtue are

used to describe women. The author states, “Pamela’s virtue is posited as authentic (although

perhaps a bit naïve) and her body, while not explicitly sexualized, is nevertheless rendered

metaphorically naked, in need of protection from ‘externalist’ predators” (Rosenberger 19). Both

Blank and Rosenberger share how virginity, virtue, and purity are terms to preserve and control

women in society.

Modern-day society still prizes female virginity. Laura Carpenter in the article “Gender

and the Meaning and Experience of Virginity Loss in the Contemporary United States” states,

“[T]raditional gendered approaches to sexuality and virginity loss did not disappear so much as

take on new configurations, becoming a new sexual double standard” (346). Carpenter shares

that the controlling nature of virginity is still very much present today and has only evolved over

the years. Blank also agrees with this and explains, “Virginity has been used as an organizing

principle of human cultures for millennia. In the present as well as the past, any woman who

trespasses against what her era, religion, community, or family holds as constituting virginity

might be teased, harassed, shamed, ostracized, prohibited from marrying, or disowned” (9). Even

though it is around two to three hundred years later, the patriarchal society still upholds the

concepts of virtue and virginity to control women.

Turning to religion’s impact on virginity in the eighteenth-century, the text “The Concept

of Virginity and Its Representations in Eighteenth-Century English Literature” by Kuo-jung

Chen explains the importance of virginity in the Christianity. The author states, “At the early
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stage of Christianity, the concept of imitatio Christi is not only based on Christ himself being a

virgin (and thus his followers should also be virgins) but also extended to include those who had

been sexually active but now chose to abstain” (Chen 82). Since Jesus was a virgin, this

persuades others that truly want to be like him to follow in his footsteps. Elizabeth Castelli in the

article “Virginity and its Meaning for Women's Sexuality in Early Christianity” agrees with

Chen about the necessity of virginity being preached in Christianity and shares that the “tyranny

of sensation and the passions as an obstacle in the pathway to the Christian ideal is a common

notion in early Christian writings, especially from the third century on, and especially in the

writings on virginity and continence” (73). Writings taught people to abstain from sexual

pleasures since it was seen as an obstacle to get closer to God.

In the present, the Christian view of virginity has not changed, and it is one of the most

valued aspects of a young woman. Dalmacio Flores and Julie Barroso in the text “21st Century

Parent–Child Sex Communication in the United States: A Process Review” share that instead of

teaching young adults about sexual intercourse, in “rural South Carolina, mothers used faith-

based messages with their children where biblical instruction should be sufficient to prevent the

adolescent from engaging in sexual activity” (540). Instead of teaching them about sex and what

it entails, the subject is avoided and abstinence is emphasized. Sonya Sharma in the article

“Young Women, Sexuality and Protestant Church Community: Oppression or Empowerment?”

agrees with Flores and Barroso and uses Christian author Lauren F. Winner to showcase how

believers in the church need to maintain their virginity until marriage: “The place where the

church confers the privilege of sex is the wedding; weddings grant us license to have sex with

one person . . . sex beyond the boundaries of marriage – the boundaries of communally granted

sanction of sex – is simply off limits’” (Sharma 350). Virginity is maintained until marriage,
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where one can only have sex with one person; virginity is still heavily embraced in religion,

specifically Christianity.

Sexual assault during Pamela’s time was difficult to define, which lead to gray areas

regarding the matter. However, during this time, it was against the law to commit rape, which

usually entailed a man violating a woman by force and inserting himself into her. Frances

Ferguson in the article “Rape and the Rise of the Novel” states that “rape is a most detestable

crime. . . it must be remembered, that it is an accusation easily to be made and hard to be proved,

and harder to be defended by the party accused, tho never so innocent” (89). The act was

difficult to prove in court, which often hindered the women from getting the justice they

deserved. Caitlyn Jordan in the piece “‘So Here is a Plot to Ruin Me:’ Legal and Literary Forms

of Female Consent in the Marriage Plots of Pamela and Mansfield Park” agrees that the process

in the court for sexual assault during that time was difficult and tells the reader that “At the same

time as British law was establishing marriage statutes, it was constructing an informal legal

definition of consent through legal treatises and court cases on sexual abuse and rape. The legal

parameters of rape were murky and unstable; the legal definition of consent was even less

explicit” (Jordan 6). The laws at this time did not fully protect women, even though sexual

assault was a crime.

In the last five years, the Me Too Movement--a social media movement where women

shared their sexual assault experiences online--began in the United States. Despite the millions of

people who participated in the movement, there is also criticism of how effective the campaign

is. Elizabeth Tippett in the article “The Legal Implications of the MeToo Movement” feels like

the movement, “particularly when combined with shifts in judicial interpretations and legal

reforms, stands to have a lasting effect on employer disciplinary practices” (236). Tippett thinks
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there could be everlasting change from the movement to protect women in the workplace;

however, Rosenberger disagrees. Rosenberger believes that some of the experiences shared were

“citing incidents not previously regarded as inappropriate” and that often, people would join the

conversation “not because they believe themselves to be victims, but to support friends, to

demonstrate their belief of other women, or to show solidarity with the overall movement”

(Rosenberger 28). Even though the Me Too Movement is prevalent in today’s culture, there are

different stances regarding how effective it really is.

Virginity

In the eighteenth-century, the concept of virginity controlled young women in society,

which is showcased in the novel Pamela. Blank shares that the broadest way to define virginity

is the lack and abstinence of any sexual interaction with others (6). For a woman to retain her

purity and virginity in society, she must not engage in any sexual affairs until marriage. Blank

continues by stating the root of the word of virgin: “The very word ‘virgin’ comes from the Latin

virgo, meaning a girl or never-married woman (the two were basically synonymous in the culture

of ancient Rome, where girls were commonly married off in early puberty), as opposed to uxor, a

woman or wife” (10). The term “virginity” only applies to women and not men. This is

showcased in Pamela when Mr. B is not worried about his own virtue and reputation, but Pamela

is deathly afraid of the repercussions of losing her virtue. Carpenter states that “Throughout the

nineteenth and much of the twentieth centuries, young women typically perceived their virginity

as precious and strove to maintain it until they were married or at least engaged. In contrast,

young men customarily saw their virginity as neutral or even stigmatizing, and often sought to

lose it outside the context of a committed romantic relationship” (345). Even though this is

describing the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, this was also the case in the eighteenth-century
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as shown by the main characters in Pamela. Women were not allowed to be open about their

sexuality because they would not be seen as pure in the eyes of society and their future husbands,

but men were not controlled by these same expectations.

One can see how prevalent the concept of virginity is in Pamela and how it impacts the

actions of the titular character. Pamela is constantly told that the most important thing she has is

her virginity and she needs to protect it at all costs. Pamela’s parents tell her in a letter to “Besure

don’t let People’s telling you you are pretty, puff you up: for you did not make yourself, and so

can have no Praise due to you for it. It is Virtue and Goodness only, that make the true Beauty.

Remember that, Pamela” (Richardson 20). Her parents are warning her to disregard praises that

may tempt her to do something she is not proud of, such as giving up her purity. Laura Rosenthal

in the article “Pamela’s Work” explains that Pamela knows the severity of the situation if she

either lost her virginity to Mr. B with her permission or was coerced without her consent since in

both situations, they would not be married. The author shares, “Even without a child, the affair

with Mr. B would make her unattractive to many families and even possibly unemployable, at

least in a position anything like the one she held in the B household” and she would have to turn

to the streets to survive (Rosenthal 251). Pamela is not willing to give up her safety and security

for Mr. B and remembers the warnings that her parents always shared with her.

Additionally, the whole concept of the novel is to be a conduct manual. A conduct

manual is “a guide for increasingly literate young women in rendering their most valuable

qualities—femininity, honesty, and chastity—readable to those they were writing to”

(Rosenberger 21). The purpose is to warn young girls of how their choices could negatively

affect them and to showcase that they can resist temptations just like Pamela. An editor for

Pamela told Richardson that it “is an astonishing Matter, well worth our most serious
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Consideration, that a young beautiful Girl, in the low Scene of Life and Circumstance in which

Fortune placed her. . . could, after having a Taste of Ease and Plenty in a higher Sphere of Life

than what she was born first brought up in, resolve to return to her primitive Poverty, rather than

give up her Innocence” (Richardson 7-8). Pamela, the character, is meant to be an example for

how young women should act in society to reach prosperity and contentment.

The current-day mentality around the concept of virginity is different; however, there are

still some similarities that showcase how society still wants to control the bodies of women.

Carpenter explains how the differences in society have developed by pinpointing the change in

the 1960s and 1970s; the author explains that “the feminist, youth counterculture, and gay rights

movements, and the sexualization of the public realm—helped bring about new sexual norms

and behaviors” (Carpenter 345). When people organized for change during this time, it left an

everlasting effect on society and the concept of virginity. Carpenter continues that “Young

people increasingly voiced approval of, and engaged in, . . . ‘pre-premarital sex’—sex with

partners whom they did not expect to marry. This transformation was especially pronounced

among young women, as they had formerly been less permissive than men” (346). With an

increase of women not feeling as controlled concerning their sexuality, they began to utilize their

new freedom—freedom that men have always had.

However, even though women have more liberty, they are also combating years of

oppression towards them. In the 1970s and 1980s, “young women, while more permissive than

in previous decades, continued to value virginity and predicate sexual activity on love and

committed romantic relationships (though seldom on marriage), whereas young men continued

to express disdain for virginity” (Carpenter 346). While women are still influenced by the idea of

purity and virginity from the past, men do not have this same obstacle. A haunting example of
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how dangerous the effects of purity culture can be to some people is the example of “twelve-

year-old Birmingham, Alabama, schoolgirl Jasmine Archie [who] was murdered by her mother

in November 2004—forced to drink bleach, then asphyxiated—because Jasmine’s mother

believed that the girl had lost her virginity” (Blank 9). Even though the social changes of the

1960s-1980s changed the ideology of virginity, it still has a strong root in society, which can lead

to ostracization or even murder as shown here.

Religion

Religion has a substantial impact on virginity in general since Christianity preaches for

its followers to not engage in sexual affairs before marriage. Chen states that virginity is

“actually a reversion of the fateful division of humankind into sexually active males and females

after the Fall, which started with the creation of Eve from Adam . . . Therefore, the life of a

virgin is described as becoming children who do not yet know sexual shame and characterized as

angelical life” (82). In this way, Christians are attempting to be pure by rejecting the sin that

Adam and Eve brought into the world and emphasizing virginity. Castelli goes further to explain

that the “notion of sexuality was extremely narrowly defined, which is to say, heterosexual

intercourse within marriage [has] the goal of producing children” (68). Sex was in no way meant

to be pleasure, at least for women—it was to achieve one goal which is to reproduce and have

children.

In Pamela, the discussion of religion and God is a consistent factor. When she tells her

parents about how Mr. B has attempted to assault her, her parents write, “OUR Hearts bleed for

your Distress and the Temptations you are tried with. You have our hourly Prayers” (Richardson

27). This statement proves that the family is religious and believes that God will protect and

make her strong. Additionally, they also tell her that “when we consider your past Conduct, and
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your virtuous Education, and that you have been bred to be more asham’d of Dishonesty than

Poverty, we trust in God that he will enable you to overcome. . . . God direct you for the best”

(Richardson 27). She will not receive help from her parents; this is her burden to combat alone,

even though she is fighting against a grown man. Her parents only re-emphasize that she needs

to be pure for God and that she needs to maintain this virtue by any means necessary, which is a

lot of pressure to put on a young girl that has no assistance.

Today, purity culture is still central to mainstream Christianity. Sharma shares that “The

sense of accountability that many young women find in their churches often encourages a

passive and limited sexuality that can be oppressive . . . sexual decisions are sometimes felt not

to be theirs; rather there is a sense that their sexual self belongs to the community” (Sharma 347

and 350). Since virginity is so heavily emphasized, many females feel like they cannot explore

their sexuality in fear of retaliation from God. One young Protestant woman that Sharma

interviewed states, “Relationships of accountability in the Christian community are very

important if we are to maintain the standards of purity and integrity which Christ demands of us”

(350). Since these women are taught that chastity is the way to keep God’s good favor, they feel

they have to maintain this aspect in their lives, and the Church helps to make sure they do so.

Not only is the Church still vocal concerning the characteristics of purity, but people who

identify as religious also make sure to stress abstinence instead of teaching their children

anything about sexual intercourse. Flores and Barroso state that “religious affiliation and church

attendance contributed to less frequent conversations about birth control and were associated

with more discussions about the moral implications of adolescent sexual activity” (540).

Religious families want to avoid providing information about sex completely since they do not

want their children to know how to engage in the affair. Instead, they focus on the moral and
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religious implications of losing one’s virginity. In comparison, “[l]ess religious mothers initiate

sex communication earlier compared to their religious counterparts, and parents in the southern

United States are receptive to faith-based and church-led sex discussions with their children”

(Flores and Barroso 540). If conversations around sex are talked about in the Church, then it is

acceptable; however, parents avoid the topic at home and steer it toward chastity. Highlighting

the importance of virginity in religion has barely changed from the eighteenth-century to the

twenty-first century.

Sexual Assault

In the eighteenth-century, sexual assault was considered a crime in society, but it was

almost impossible to prove that the action took place and thus women were not believed.

Ferguson explains that the “doubled warning to the jury—not merely ‘Are you sure?’ but ‘Are

you sure you're sure?’—had served until the 1970s to mark rape as particularly difficult to

determine and had identified it for some two and a half centuries as the charge most likely to

provoke skepticism” (89). Since there was no technology used for the investigation during this

time, there was no way to prove the assault occurred except if the woman got pregnant. This led

rape to be the “crime that was in its nature commonly secret,” even more so than today

(Ferguson 91). Furthermore, even if there was proof that a man raped them, sometimes the

woman was forced to marry the man that took advantage of her. Jordan shares that “Women’s

physical resistance was understood as a common facet of courtship and a promise of marriage

could retroactively transform rape into consensual intercourse, as was seen in court cases in

which men followed acts of sexual assault with promises of marriage” (3). Even though this

solved the problem in society with a woman only having sexual affairs with one man, she had

been violated in the process and forced to marry her abuser.

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In Pamela, while the titular character had to combat sexual assault attempts, she never

lost her virtue. Rosenthal outlines Pamela’s situation: “Mr. B initially assumes that Pamela

refuses to sleep with him not out of a higher sense of virtue, but out of practical self-interest.

From Mr. B’s perspective, Pamela has the reasonable concern that after seducing her, he will

eventually abandon her, at which point she would ultimately have to turn to streetwalking for her

survival” (251). Pamela knows that Mr. B would not marry her due to her lower servant status,

and she would lose all chances of obtaining an acceptable marriage if she did not fight these

attempts to take away her virginity. Pamela experiences many instances where Mr. B attempts to

ruin her: Mr. B “by Force kisses my Neck and Lips . . . He then put his Hand in my Bosom, and

the Indignation gave me double Strength, and I got loose from him, by a sudden Spring, and ran

out of the Room” (Richardson 32). Pamela rejects his efforts and gets away as quickly as

possible. In another instance, she finds him in her bedroom closet at night: “out rush’d my

Master, in a rich silk and silver Morning Gown. . . . I found his Hand in my Bosom, and when

my Fright let me know it, I was ready to die; and I sighed, and scream’d, and fainted away”

(Richardson 60 and 63). When Pamela could not easily escape, she fainted because she was so

afraid of losing her virginity. Mr. B ended up not going any further at this moment, and Pamela

stayed pure. Again, if Pamela let Mr. B have her virtue, then she would not get justice for the

crime and would most likely have been put on the street since he would have gotten what he

wanted and would promptly dispose of her.

Today, sexual assault is still a crime and even though more needs to be done for victims

to receive justice, the Me Too Movement has started the process of holding powerful men and

men in general accountable in society. For example, in the book Know My Name: A Memoir,

Chanel Miller describes her personal account of sexual assault from 2015. At the time, twenty-
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two-year-old Miller was taken advantage of by nineteen year old Brock Turner on Stanford’s

campus. When the news reported the situation, Miller recalls the comments she saw in articles

and on social media about her, such as, “He was only nineteen! She hooked up with a freshman?

Doesn’t that make her the predator?” and “Not trying to blame the victim but something is

wrong if you drink yourself to unconsciousness” (Miller 47). Miller recalls how she felt after

seeing the comments and how she did not understand where they were coming from. She states,

“They seemed angry that I’d made myself vulnerable, more than the fact that he’d acted on my

vulnerability. Drinking is not inherently immoral: a night of heavy drinking calls for Advil and

water. But being drunk and raped seemed to call for condemnation. People were confounded that

I had failed to protect myself” (Miller 47). The blame concerning victims is still evident in

society; if a woman is not successful in avoiding a man’s unwanted advances, she has to deal

with the consequences herself.

The Me Too Movement starting in 2017 changed society’s mentality concerning sexual

assault forever. On October 5, 2017, Harvey Weinstein, a successful Hollywood producer, was

accused of assaulting many famous actresses, such as Ashley Judd and Rose McGowan. Tippet

shares that “On October 15, 2017, actress Alyssa Milano asked her Twitter followers to reply

with the hashtag #metoo if they had experienced harassment or assault. Her tweet went viral, and

the #metoo hashtag has since been used over twelve million times” by 2018 (231). Milano’s

hashtag was originally created by activist Tarana Burke in 2007 but took ten years later to gain

public traction online. Tippett states the positives of the The Me Too Movement, such as that it

“revealed the ways in which the law can be misused to enable and conceal harassment. [Harvey]

Weinstein successfully covered his tracks for decades using contracts, threats, and a powerful

network” (234). Even though change can occur from the movement, Rosenberger argues that the
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outcome may not be what people initially wanted: “The results of this are not always ideal; for

many, #MeToo is either not true enough (there is not enough evidence for the accuser to be

trusted) or too true (the movement has shifted from one of modest reckoning to ruthless

vengeance)” (28). While aspects from the movement may not be used in its intended way,

change has occurred from the Me Too Movement to hold men accountable for their actions and

to stop the crime of sexual assault from being secret. Currently, society is seeing men have actual

repercussions for cases of sexual assault, which is something that is different from the

eighteenth-century. However, as from the example of Chanel Miller, it will take more than a

movement to change the mentality of many people.

Conclusion

The concept of sexuality has changed widely from the eighteenth-century to the early

twenty-first century. The aspects of the ideology behind society and religion’s view of virginity,

as well as the offense of sexual assault, have all evolved over the years; however, religion has

stayed the most similar. Today, we are working toward women being comfortable about their

sexuality and having the same opportunities to explore their desires as men; however, there is

still a long way to go. While the current society is more secular than the religious one during

Pamela’s time, its mentality is still present and affects women today. Even though religion still

promotes virginity, men are beginning to have real repercussions for committing sexual assault.

Pamela by Samuel Richardson provided an idea of what life looked like during the eighteenth-

century and how many obstacles women had to avoid to maintain their chastity. As time goes on,

one should optimally see the mentality concerning sexuality progress even more compared to the

past as society allows women the same liberties as men.

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Works Cited

Blank, Hanne. Virgin: The Untouched History. Bloomsbury, 2007.

Carpenter, Laura M. “Gender and the Meaning and Experience of Virginity Loss in the

Contemporary United States.” Gender & Society, vol. 16, no. 3, 2002, pp. 345-65.

Castelli, Elizabeth. “Virginity and its Meaning for Women's Sexuality in Early Christianity.”

Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion, vol. 2, no. 1, 1986, pp. 61-88.

Chen, Kuo-jung. “The Concept of Virginity and Its Representations in Eighteenth-Century

English Literature.” Dalam Wenshan Review of Literature and Culture, vol. 3, 2010.

Ferguson, Frances. “Rape and the Rise of the Novel.” Representation, vol. 20, 1987, pp. 88-112.

Flores, Dalmacio, and Julie Barroso. “21st Century Parent–Child Sex Communication in the

United States: A Process Review.” The Journal of Sex Research, vol. 54, no. 4-5, 2017,

pp. 532-48.

Jordan, Caitlyn. “‘So Here is a Plot to Ruin Me:’ Legal and Literary Forms of Female Consent

in the Marriage Plots of Pamela and Mansfield Park." Berkeley Undergraduate Journal,

vol. 34, no. 2, 2020.

Miller, Chanel. Know My Name: A Memoir. Viking, 2019.

Richardson, Samuel. Pamela. Oxford UP, 2008.

Rosenberger, Diana. “Virtual Rewarded: What #MeToo Can Learn from Samuel Richardson's

Pamela.” South Central Review, vol. 36, no. 2, 2019, pp. 17-32.

Rosenthal, Laura J. “Pamela’s Work.” The Eighteenth Century: Theory and Interpretation, vol.

46, no. 3, 2005, pp. 245–253.

Sharma, Sonya. “Young Women, Sexuality and Protestant Church Community: Oppression or

Empowerment?” European Journal of Women's Studies, vol. 15, no. 4, 2008, pp. 345-59.
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Tippett, Elizabeth C. “The Legal Implications of the MeToo Movement.” Minnesota Law

Review, vol. 57, 2018, pp. 229-302.