Hollins Digital Commons

Equality and Sexual Complementarity in Enlightenment Utopian Literature

Goodwin Private Dining Room

Utopian literature is frequently concerned with the issue of equality, though it is also, somewhat contradictorily, pervaded by the presence of difference. For example, groups of people, usually divided by gender, race, and class, are excluded from or confined to certain roles or duties. This presence of difference appears to be a paradox to modern audiences, but authors of utopian literature tended to see difference as crucial to, not just the creation of their utopia, but to the implementation of equality. One way to understand this contradiction is to study the juxtaposition of sameness and difference in utopian literature, particularly when it emerges after movements that raise questions about equality. Jean-Jacques Rousseau’s "Emile" (1762) and Denis Diderot’s "Supplement to Bougainville’s Voyage" (1772), written during the Enlightenment, discuss the issue of women’s equality specifically. Their use of sexual complementarity, which argues that women are equal to men because of their ability to perform specific, but separate, duties, illustrates that eighteenth century people understood equality in terms of difference. This helps to explain why both equality and difference are present in utopian literature.