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The Fashion in Shrouds, Margery Allingham
Enjoyed the plot thoroughly, have qualms about some of the characterizations.
I always go into these things braced for the casual period racism, but wasn't quite as worried about sexism, because in a mystery novel, all characters, male and female, have to at least be competent enough to make plausible murder suspects. In this case there were at least three sympathetic portrayals of intelligent and independent women. Unfortunately one of them, Campion's sister Val at that, spends the novel pining over a man, and when she complains to her brother about unrequited love, he impatiently replies that she needs "a good raping." It's pretty obvious he doesn't mean it literally (I think he's advising her to have a fling with somebody else to take her mind off the guy), and she calls him on it, but for a moment I was reminded just how much of a different country the past can be.
Also, the subplot ends with Mr. Unrequited revealing that he does love Val, but wants her to give up her successful career as the head of a fashion house, and she falls into his arms cooing that he's so masculine and dominant and everything she'd never realized she craved. Thing is, I can sort of make sense of this reaction -- there'd been references all through the book to how conscious Val was that if she made an error, hundreds of employees could lose their jobs, and that this responsibility weighed on her; basically, she's the trope of the business tycoon or cabinet minister who's submissive in the bedroom because they've got to make so many big decisions in their professional life. Thing is, though, those other characters never give up their professional careers, they just want someone to dominate them as occasional relief.
So, um, I think I'm arguing that this 1930s mystery needed to end with a happy two-career marriage that includes some consensual BDSM.
Actually, I think that's how it pans out for Campion and his love interest, Amanda; maybe that fight they staged at the party just before the denouement was for fun as well as to trick the murderer into making a move.
Enjoyed the plot thoroughly, have qualms about some of the characterizations.
I always go into these things braced for the casual period racism, but wasn't quite as worried about sexism, because in a mystery novel, all characters, male and female, have to at least be competent enough to make plausible murder suspects. In this case there were at least three sympathetic portrayals of intelligent and independent women. Unfortunately one of them, Campion's sister Val at that, spends the novel pining over a man, and when she complains to her brother about unrequited love, he impatiently replies that she needs "a good raping." It's pretty obvious he doesn't mean it literally (I think he's advising her to have a fling with somebody else to take her mind off the guy), and she calls him on it, but for a moment I was reminded just how much of a different country the past can be.
Also, the subplot ends with Mr. Unrequited revealing that he does love Val, but wants her to give up her successful career as the head of a fashion house, and she falls into his arms cooing that he's so masculine and dominant and everything she'd never realized she craved. Thing is, I can sort of make sense of this reaction -- there'd been references all through the book to how conscious Val was that if she made an error, hundreds of employees could lose their jobs, and that this responsibility weighed on her; basically, she's the trope of the business tycoon or cabinet minister who's submissive in the bedroom because they've got to make so many big decisions in their professional life. Thing is, though, those other characters never give up their professional careers, they just want someone to dominate them as occasional relief.
So, um, I think I'm arguing that this 1930s mystery needed to end with a happy two-career marriage that includes some consensual BDSM.
Actually, I think that's how it pans out for Campion and his love interest, Amanda; maybe that fight they staged at the party just before the denouement was for fun as well as to trick the murderer into making a move.
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Date: 2015-10-04 11:25 pm (UTC)From:I'm cool with it. A Fashion in Shrouds is about the only Allingham where the period-accurate sexism comes out of the woodwork in quite that fashion, in consequence it's the only Allingham I don't re-read. It puzzles me also because Campion and Amanda's relationship is a happy two-career marriage where she does airplanes and he does espionage and they're fine. No one has ever been able to explain to me what the hell happened with Val.
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Date: 2015-10-05 01:19 am (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2015-10-08 04:20 pm (UTC)From: