Sapphism in the Seventeenth Century: Female Writers’ Language Allowing Authentic Sapphic Relationships

The purpose of this paper is to examine how Aphra Behn and Margaret Cavendish used language in their respective works The History of the Nun and The Convent of Pleasure to show sapphic relationships with the ambiguity of female friendships to avoid social fall back. Additionally, Same-Sex Desire in the English Renaissance: A Sourcebook of Texts, 1470-1650 by Kenneth Borris, Visual Pleasure and Narrative Media by Laura Mulvey and other scholarly articles are used to show how Behn and Cavendish succeeded at writing authentic sapphic relationships, without objectification of female characters and social ramifications. Male writers do not have the same authenticity when writing about sapphic relationships, which can be seen in the language they use compared to Behn and Cavendish. While men often use language that describes women as simple sexual organs, Behn and Cavendish give their female characters their own desires, and allow them to be sexual beings. They are able to write female relationships more freely, due to them using locations that are female-centric, which also allows them to openly discuss women’s desires. Behn and Cavendish show that women are not just passive participants, who have to be part of sexual acts just to help men reproduce. They add onto the lacking writing of women that is authentic, and not just added onto support a man’s purpose, or to be a shock factor.