The Spinster and Her Enemies - Feminish

FEMINISM AND SOCIAL PURITY
systems, the social purity women set themselves
straightforwardly to the task of getting men to control
themselves.
After 1900 a new wave of social purity organisations sprang
up in which feminism seems to have played little or no part.
Social purity seemed now to be diverging completely from the
ideals of feminists. An example of this new kind of organisation
is the Alliance of Honour, set up in 1904. It was a men’s
organisation which included among its founders Baden Powell,
of boy scout fame, and Bramwell Booth of the Salvation Army.
The 14 points of the Alliance of Honour sum up its philiosophy.
They include sentiments very similar to those of the White Cross
Army such as ‘an equally high moral standard for women and
men’. But there were significant differences. The 14 points did
not restrict themselves to sexual conduct or the defence of women.
They included a large dose of general political philosophy of a
highly conservative nature. This was directed towards the
protection of ‘religion, home and empire’. 42 The 14 points set
out a programme for the promotion of loyal and obedient
citizenship and patriotism. It was a nationalist programme.
Members of the Alliance were enjoined to ‘True Patriotism;
Clean Citizenship; Public Moral Health and Public Physical
Health’.
A major concern of the Alliance was pornography,
particularly in the forms in which they saw it to be proliferating
at this time, in theatre advertisements, for example, indecent
postcards and indecent papers, i.e. news items reporting on
sexual crime and the reporting of divorce cases. The way in
which their concern over pornography was expressed made it
clear that their objections stemmed from a root which had little
to do with feminism. In an article entitled ‘Pernicious Literature’,
Canon Rawnsley of Carlisle wrote:
An enormous output of demoralising fiction and periodicals
is poisoning the nation’s character at its fountain-head. Side
by side with this factor in the nation’s degradation is found
the deluge of the disgusting and vulgar post card and the
indecent photograph. 43
It is evident that their concern was for the protection of the
nation at a time when there was a general alarm at the decline
of Britain’s imperial strength. They express no interest in the
degradation of women in pornography, and very little in the
effect of such depictions of women on men’s behaviour towards
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