Emily was demoralized by the departure of her mustachioed 'pals' from the 7th Regiment who galloped west to quell the Riel Rebellion of 1885.

Dark Side of the Moon
An Artist and Social Activist is Born

Cast out from London's inner social circles following the infamous (perhaps mythical) Thong Bank Incident, and demoralized by the departure of her mustachioed 'pals' from the 7^th Regiment who galloped west to quell the Riel Rebellion of 1885, Emily suddenly found herself alone. Her subsequent retreat into the rambling Flannigan mansion on Princess Avenue, with her ever-aging and increasingly dotty Uncle Michael, provided Emily with a much-needed pause for reflection.

It was during this dark, lonely time that Emily began to realize the folly of her promiscuous ways. She entered an uncharacteristic period of celibacy, and for months she spent her days in solitude introspectively gazing back into her past, searching for answers. When and where had she chosen the wrong forks in the road? How had this path led to such a degrading lifestyle of moral repugnance? And why, specifically, was the course she had chosen to travel littered with the salacious memories of illicit encounters with hirsute cavalry men of Norwegian descent?

At one dark moment, Emily blamed her tragic circumstances upon her dissolute aunts who had provided such poor examples of lady-like behavior during her younger impressionable years. Mary, Catherine, Chelsea and Hope are seen here in a 1866 lithograph titled, "At the Bumpy Ball".

Emily pondered various influences that may have contributed to her downfall. Initially, she thought her problems were due to a genetic defect inherited from the brave but psychopathic father she never knew. Then, she shifted blame for her tragic circumstances upon her debaucherous aunts who had provided such poor examples of lady-like behavior during her younger impressionable years. And for a time, Emily even wagged an accusing finger at her uncle. She postulated that the functional nature of many of Michael's inventions were manifestations of a deeply disturbed, sexually deviant mind; his mere presence, she thought, must be in some way be decaying the integrity of her scruples. Further, she argued, the fact that she felt obligated to make demonstrable public use of these inventions (particularly the Bloomer Disrobing Solution) to promote their commercial success, was the primary reason her virtue and reputation had been corrupted.

However, Emily eventually looked past the character flaws of her lineage and dug deeper into the recesses of her intellect to find the real reason behind her unhappiness. She loved her uncle dearly, and she could not bear the thought of placing the burden of her woes upon his conscience. But she was convinced that her present situation was not her own fault. She needed an excuse, an out, a scape-goat. In the final analysis, she attributed her lot in life to a much darker, more pervasive and insidious force than mere heredity. Her situation, she determined, was not the result of a genetic problem, but rather a social blight that plagued not only her but all members of the fairer sex: men.

Once Emily landed upon her final theory, she was like a pitbull with its jaws sunk into the pink belly of a defenseless toddler escaped from the safe confines of a fenced backyard. She quickly developed a radical feminist ideology that would be most poignantly expressed through her 1893 novel, The Brain Beasts of Blenheim Township. In this, one of her early novels, Chesley used the strange monstrous creatures "not of this Earth" that feasted on the brains of the township's lady folk as a metaphor for chauvinistic men who fantasize about women as being little more than bipedal conveyors of voluptuous mammary glands.

Cover art from The Brain Beasts of Blenheim Township, Rhesus Monkey Press, 1893

Chesley was among the first feminist writers to critique the notion that women should aspire to become fashion slaves for the sole purpose of making themselves more attractive to male members of the species. The heroine of Brain Beasts, Hildegard Williams, clearly plays an autobiographical role for Chesley. By this point, Chesley had long ago emerged from her self-imposed exile and re-entered the London community with a missionary zeal to expose the damaging effects of chauvinism and sexism within Victorian Canada. To this end, she never again was seen in public wearing a thong or any other suspect clothing items created by her uncle.

But Hildegard's helper, the acquiescent Bjorn Crow - who apparently was of mixed Norwegian and Sarcee Indian heritage - is a character that has puzzled literary scholars for decades. There is general agreement that by allowing Bjorn and Hildegard to unmask the horrific nature of the brain beasts together Chesley was suggesting she had not yet discounted the virtue and motives of all men. However, interpretations of the passage in which Hildegard demonstrates to Bjorn that one can "have a functioning brain and still be quite proficient at a full range of intimate and delicate relations" is still wildly controversial.

Was Chesley suggesting that even the meek and mild-mannered Bjorn could deviously cajole the intelligent and chaste Hildegard into a passionate and raucous roll in the cheese bin - thus proving that women are ultimately doomed to be victimized by the lustful longings of men? Or was Chesley's point that women, in fact, have an equally voracious appetite for carnal engagement and should not have to surrender to the commercial whims of fashion to attract men worthy of their affection?

The answer to this question, along with the reason behind Emily's irrepressible fascination with men of pure or mixed Norwegian heritage, is likely to remain a mystery forever.

--"Scholarship" by Foothills

Next:  Taking Up the Mantle, 1893-1904