Gender Identity In Fantomina And Beauplaisir

Celia Fantomina and Beauplaisir begin meeting more frequently until Beauplaisir grows tried of her and leaves town unexpectedly and when Fantomina finds out Beauplaisir has left, she follows him under the disguise of Celia. She dresses as a servant and offers to work in the house Beauplaisir is staying in. As a servant girl, Celia is perceived to be of a lower class than Beauplaisir and of a higher class than her persona, Fantomina; because of this, Celia is able to maintain slightly more control over her interactions and is treated with slightly more respect than when she as Fantomina. With that being said, her lower class status in combination with her gender dictates that she will still be treated with little regard but it will still be a step up from how her her prior interactions were when she was perceived to be a sex worker. Soon after Celia begins service at the house, she encounters Beauplaisir and their interaction quickly turns sexual, he asks her to sit …show more content…
However, as Haywood put it, “for there could not be a difference in merit, because they were the same person; but the Widow Bloomer was a more new acquaintance than Fantomina, and therefore esteem'd more valuable.”(Fant) Beauplaisir spends significantly more effort on romancing the Widow Bloomer than any of the other personas because he perceives her to have more value. Haywood implies that the Widow Bloomer’s is held to such a regard, mostly, because she is “new.” In other words, Beauplaisir has been objectifying women, treating them as if they are possessions: when he gets bored he abandons his toy and gets excited when he finds one far more shiny and new. Her gender becomes the primary source of her mistreatment where her social class was the larger contributor to the disrespect Fantomina and Celia