[Hardy-l] Tess and "the facts of life"

[Niemeyer, Paul J.]

The discussion on what Tess would have known and what Hardy's readers would have understood has been very thought-provoking, and I can only conclude that in both cases the issue is murky.  I'm basing this belief on two pieces of admittedly anecdotal evidence, one Victorian and one contemporary.
 
The Victorian evidence involves E. M. Forster and his confession that he didn't really understand "where babies came from" until he was about 30--this despite an excellent education, his own early discovery of his sexual orientation, and a disturbing incident that happened to him in adolescence.  Apparently, when Forster was early in his pubescence (late 1880s, early 1890s, around the time TESS takes place and was published), he was accosted by and molested by a stranger.  Forster reported what happened, but the headmaster of the school told Forster that he had to be 100% sure he knew who the man was so he wouldn't ruin an innocent man's reputation; and Forster's family and his local vicar all gave him the impression that what had happened was somehow or other HIS fault.  A combination of things are at work here: a cultural desire to protect the reputation of a grown man and to disbelieve a boy; an even greater cultural sense that if a man does do something awful, it must have been provoked by something the victim was doing; and a reluctance to educate children on both "the facts of life" and on sexual predators.
 
The modern evidence is closer to home for me.  Here in Laredo, Texas, we have (unfortunately) one of the highest teen pregnancy rates in the United States.  A survey in the local newspaper done almost a year ago puts the number of pregnant teens--actually, some are as young as 12--between 2001 and 2007 at 1,769.  It's truly distressing to go to the mall and see the numbers of 14-year-olds pushing strollers; every semester I've had students with child-care issues; and there are people here who are my age--42--who have grandchildren in their teens (and thus likely to become great-grandparents).  Why this situation exists comes down to the poor education system and to religious and cultural factors: birth control is discouraged, and--though I'm told it's not as bad as it was a decade ago--there is a strong element of "machismo" in the culture: women and girls are expected to defer to men and to their wants.  One of my colleagues also informed me that a big problem here is with high-school and even college-aged boys who date middle-school-aged girls (12 to 14).  Yet you don't hear of many charges of statutory rape or date rape around here.  Why?  This is a small and, in many ways, closed community.  Everyone is someone's cousin, uncle, neighbor, or old friend from school.  Ignorance, isolation, and deference to men all conspire to create a lot of teen mothers.
 
Because of the design of my Vic Lit course I'll be teaching JUDE this semester, but one day I plan to teach TESS out here.  I'd like to know if any of my students see themselves in the novel. . .
 
Best,
 
Paul Niemeyer       
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