User:VelveteenOcean/Fantomina

Gender
One of the most sweeping themes throughout Fantomina is gender. and its role in shaping the dynamics between Fantomina, Beauplaisir, and the different sects of societies they find themselves in.

There are clear challenges to gender normative behavior Haywood is making throughout the story, while also portraying an honest depiction of the disparity between male and female social standings. Fantomina manipulates the constraints put on her because of her gender to satisfy her desire for sex, already thought to be an inherently masculine desire to have. To seduce Beauplaisir, Fantomina adopts multiple feminine disguises, enabling her to paradoxically act out a masculine libertine identity.

Given the fact that Beauplaisir escapes the end of the novella unaffected, irresponsible for the consequences of his affairs, Haywood hits readers with a dose of reality regarding gender inequalities. Despite the fact that men are easily manipulated, sexually promiscuous, predictable and even foolish, as Haywood seems to argue, they are still regarded as the superior gender.