Romantic Friendship In The 18th Century: Article Analysis

I selected this post as one of my two best posts to submit due to my understanding of the discussion topic and assigned readings. I found the lesson 4 discussion to be easier to make connections between the topic question and the readings, allowing myself to go more in depth and providing more supporting details. An example of this would be supporting my argument with text from Lillian Faderman’s article “The ‘Fashion’ of Romantic Friendship in the Eighteenth Century.”
The majority of the other classmates were discussing how the scholars were incorrect when referring to the female friendship language as fashions of the time. Common themes that came up in discussions were the acceptance that men and society had for the language used, and that the writing style of the time allowed women to express themselves freely in their letters to one another. My post incorporates the discussion of the strong bonds females had for one another as friends and not a sexual desire. I further discussed how women spent so much quality time and confided in one another to the point were writing letters to one another when separated for long periods of time was like being away from one’s significant other. Amanda Woodrow statement to my response was, “I think you made a great point about how the women spent so much time doing things together that couples would do, that …show more content…
The social construction of romantic friendships in the 18th century have evolved over time; the language of the 18th century was more passionate and emotional. The language and the amount of freedom women had influenced the feelings freely expressed to other women through letters. As mentioned in lesson 4 and in my response, the strong bonds that women had were socially acceptable; men considered female friendships as “practice rounds” for self-preparation to be a “perfect”