Félicien Ropps, Fig Leaf, late 19th century. This image is an excellent example of the associations of female sexuality with the world of nature and its potential to bring chaos to the otherwise well-ordered male realm of society if not carefully regulated. As the little man (baby?) pulls away the fig leaf, chaos breaks loose.

The male fear expressed in this image was common in Western Europe at the end of the nineteenth century owing in large part to women beginning to move into social realms hitherto occupied exclusively by men--a process that has continued to this day.

Let us compare briefly with seventeenth-century China. Recall the changes in gender roles discussed in Chapter 11--not revolutionary, perhaps, but significant. Wang, relying on insights by Yenna Wu comments as follows: "The anxieties over the erosion of a clearly defined place for women in family and society also came out through the popularity of stories about henpecked husbands in seventeenth-century China. Such tales, as Yenna Wu points out, reflect "a male fear of woman's competition for supremacy, anxiety that she may subvert the patriarchal order, and a certain amount of hostility toward her. Men needed women for procreation, support, and comfort, yet dreaded their potential power to dominate" (1988, 372). This fear of women, mixed with beliefs in female power and equality, and the anxiety over blurred gender boundaries, greatly affected Chinese men's psyche, emotions, and attitude toward women's bodies and minds as well as their own." (Aching for Beauty, p. 46)

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