In the nineteenth century, sensuality among working women was prevalent. Women who were lower class needed a way to earn income, and, for some, sex was a way to solve that. For pretty women, such as Mary Rogers, the opportunity to raise money through promiscuity arose. With that being said, Mary Rogers’s life and death symbolizes sex during the industrial revolution. The Mysterious Death of Mary Rogers, by Amy Gilman Srebnick shows that; through Mary Rogers personal experience of gang rape, her job at the New York Cigar Shop, and her death from an abortion; it is clear that, through her sexual relations, she was one of many who got mistreated. All in all, Mary Rogers’s life represents that sex in the industrial revolution will continue to be…show more content… It was said that the gangs had raped and abused her until she died. It makes sense, because, for gangs, popularity was not their goal, it was to create unhappiness for others. They would do anything, ranging from; raping, stealing, strangling, beating, and possibly even killing people. With Mary’s encounter of sexual abuse with the gangs, it was obvious that the use of rape was common in the urban society where Mary had lived. The gang rape of Mary shows the representation of sexuality in Mary’s life. Throughout her life, she had many sexual relations with people other than her significant other, which is able to show that, through urban societies, pretty women have a high possibility of getting raped or put into sexual activities. It shows that the nineteenth century was a dangerous time to be alive. Rape was common, as well as domestic violence with gangs during the industrial revolution. The acts of sexual violence were common and, although society has a different perspective on that today, the rapists were not always persecuted. It was more of a shame to mistreat women than the victim of the rape. When Mary Rogers died, there was finally a representation to show that gangs and rape were a much bigger deal than society had…show more content… Although she had a boyfriend, Daniel Payne, it did not stop her from having sexual relations with others. In fact, due to one of her sexual relations, she became pregnant. The father was not her boyfriend, Daniel, however, it was “Constance’s own father, the prosperous merchant, Albert Shirley” (85). With that being said, abortion was the route she decided to take. She did not have the opportunity to use a condom or birth control because, at that time, her source of money was low. Also, the medical region was lacking, and there was not a source to create a substantial birth control that was affordable to low income females. By then, she had realized that she was, “the source of social and sexual danger, her life served as a challenge to bourgeois structures of sexual morality and order” (82). With this said, the death of Mary Rogers symbolized that women were treated unequal. It shows that the society put a mental toll on women. Although a majority of the time, men were promoting the sexual relations, the women were the ones getting blamed. The women then were left alone to either keep the baby, or abort it. During the industrial revolution, Mary Rogers’s death was able to symbolize that sexuality within that time period was impaired. The use of safe sex was inadequate, and through Mary Rogers death, it was able to show that sensuality lead to unwanted births. It not
