Martha Vicinus
Martha Vicinus (born November 20, 1939) is an American scholar of
English literature and
Women's studies. She serves as the Eliza M. Mosher Distinguished University Professor of English, Women's Studies, and History at the
University of Michigan. Prior to coming to the University of Michigan, Vicinus was a faculty member in the English Department at
Indiana University from 1968 to 1982. She has written several books about Victorian women as well as gender and sexuality. She earned a PhD from the
University of Wisconsin in 1968.
She has been noted for drawing attention to the Victorian
double standards that were applied to women and to the Victorian ideal of women without sexual desires. She has argued that society often defines sexuality through a male heterosexual perspective.
In addition to her career as a scholar, she has been active as an advocate of
anti-war and
LGBT causes.
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