Rebecca Solnit "Walking after Midnight: Women, Sex and Public Space" and Charles Baudelaire, "The Painter of Modern Life" (1863)

 In Rebecca Solnit's "Walking after Midnight" she discusses what women went through during 1870 England when it came to walking the streets at night. It was rare to ever find a woman walking alone, as it would have been too dangerous for them, much like it still is today. It would have been frequent for a woman to be accompanied by a gentleman, despite this The Contagious Disease Act gave police the right to stop and arrest any woman they suspected of being a prostitute. The women would have to go through a medical examination, and if they refused they would be sent to jail for number of months. I find it distressing to know that women could not complete such simple tasks, such as going for a walk, without be accused, ridiculed and abused by men who took advantage of their authority. Solnit makes a powerful statement where she says "women's walking is often constructed as a performance rather than transport". She also goes on to explain how women only go out to walk to be seen and not for their own pleasure and experiences. This unveils a whole different understanding to Women's walking and how, especially back then, women did not have the same pleasure as their male counterpart. Restricted and held to the duties society expected of them. Even their clothing was seen as a way of 'intriguing unwanted attention', meaning the choice of clothing they wore may give certain men the 'permission' to approach and confront a woman.

This is where I lead onto Charles Baudelaire's "The painter of Modern Life", where he discusses modernity and more specifically how beauty, fashion and lifestyle all relate in the eyes of an artist. He also goes on to discuss how the ideas and thoughts of an artist can be quite childlike, and how many artist might subconsciously resort back to their childhood for inspiration in order to progress their work. However I want to analyse part of his discussion about women and his opinion on how they should be viewed and represented in paintings. This I feel could relate back well to Rebecca Solnit's discussion.

Baudelaire discusses the modern woman in all classes and areas of life for example; fashionable young women, prostitutes, actresses etc. I find it interesting how he believed women should be painted with the clothes they had on, as at the time (1870's) women were mostly painted nude. He saw women's clothes as a form of identity in the ever growing modern society. It made an intriguing identification that we cannot replace the bodies we were born into, but we can alter them through fashion and cosmetics. He believed in capturing the small moments in life and painting the slower moments of such a busy world. Identifying the smaller parts of life that are otherwise overlooked or missed when walking down a busy street. This links to a lot of what my aims are for this project and how I want my final Map to represent the moments that I missed or not usually noticed when walking through a city.

Solnit's discussion about Women's Walking links to Baudelaire's discussion about women and their identity, as clothing can be a link between women and the reasons for their unwanted confrontation from men, other women or authority. Women would usually be stopped by any reason not just because of what they are wearing, however certain clothing that may or may not represent a woman's identity are seen as an intriguing thing for a lot of men. Even by today's standards the way women dress, whether it be provocatively or not, somehow gives certain men the conformation that this particular woman wants that attention. As if her clothes are a sign of her seeking attention from others and is therefore 'asking for it'. So yes I do believe what Baudelaire says about women's clothing being a form of their identity. However, by the standards of what Solnit discusses and how things are even in our modern society, some women might not have that option, as they feel they are putting themselves in danger of some kind of attention. So they would rather go without fully expressing themselves through the use of fashion while out doing something as simple as a walk through a street. 

Many women fear far too often of the dangers of walking alone, whether that be from sexual assault, rape, verbal abuse or even sometimes a 'simple look' can be a frightful thing, especially at night. Things are always progressing in our modern society but there was something frightfully real about some of the things Solnit was saying. Women may not be stopped in the streets anymore for simply walking alone but there are still dangers for women who wish to simply walk alone at night. Be their own version of a Flaneur.