Utopia of equality in Monsieur Vénus: Roman Matérialiste: Transgressing Gender Lines or Transgressing Social lines?

When the first edition of the novel by Rachilde, née Marguerite Eymery, Monsieur Vénus: Roman Matérialiste was published in Brussels in 1884, it was deemed pornographic and therefore banned. A revised edition was published in1889. The novel deals with gender inversion themes and the crossing of social boundaries. The novel’s main characters, Jacques and Raoule, belong to different social strata. Raoule is an aristocrat and Jacques is a florist. In the novel Rachilde presents Raoule as a strong woman who wants not equality but rather the privileges that men have.

In Jacques and Raoule the author conflates the drama and the inequality of social class. The novel at first appears to be a subversive narrative of gender inversion and a repudiation of the normative expectations that a rigid social system has concerning man and woman. But in reality what is most important in this novel and what I will demonstrate is that the play of gender roles and their inversion is not really that important as long as it is kept in private. What is subversive in the novel is the author’s refusal to give woman equality. In this thesis I want to demonstrate that for the author a woman can only achieve power if she acts as a man.

To demonstrate this I will use theorists who deal with gender theory, such as Butler and Sedgwick. I will also use other thinkers and authors who deal with sexuality and social class as well as authors who have worked on Rachilde in the past. In doing this I will establish a conversation with these critics and based on their arguments I will construct my own conclusion demonstrating that the author favors the patriarchal system of male dominance over women.