Disciplining Love

As the power and legitimacy of the aristocratic man waned, England had to turn to the bodies and the potential of new men from emerging classes and families. These men, however, had to be taught how to be proper male subjects in the modernizing world; most importantly, they had to be instructed to discipline their susceptibility to sexual desire and amorous emotions in order to maintain the hegemonic role of masculinity. In the modern nation of the nineteenth century, men who remained liable to love and desire ran the risk of becoming vulnerable to irrational passions and experiences. Such passions and experiences were simply not compatible with the post-Revolutionary English society that encouraged individuals to maximize utility and become industrious, and that required them to retain rational individuality."--Pub. desc.