IncorrigibleWilfrid Laurier Univ. Press, 2006 M01 1 - 172 páginas On a May morning in 1939, eighteen-year-old Velma Demerson and her lover were having breakfast when two police officers arrived to take her away. Her crime was loving a Chinese man, a “crime” that was compounded by her pregnancy and subsequent mixed-race child. Sentenced to a home for wayward girls, Demerson was then transferred (along with forty-six other girls) to Torontos Mercer Reformatory for Females. The girls were locked in their cells for twelve hours a day and required to work in the on-site laundry and factory. They also endured suspect medical examinations. When Demerson was finally released after ten months’ incarceration weeks of solitary confinement, abusive medical treatments, and the state’s apprehension of her child, her marriage to her lover resulted in the loss of her citizenship status. This is the story of how Demerson, and so many other girls, were treated as criminals or mentally defective individuals, even though their worst crime might have been only their choice of lover. Incorrigible is a survivor’s narrative. In a period that saw the rise of psychiatry, legislation against interracial marriage, and a populist movement that believed in eradicating disease and sin by improving the purity of Anglo-Saxon stock, Velma Demerson, like many young women, found herself confronted by powerful social forces. This is a history of some of those who fell through the cracks of the criminal code, told in a powerful first-person voice. |
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... cell. No sound ever comes out of it. The floors are hardwood, darkened from long usage. The matron points to the cell I will occupy. All the cells look the same but I'm supposed to remember the location of the one I'm allotted. I enter ...
... cell isn't far from the entrance but I thought I saw another Belmont girl as we came in. I walk down the corridor, peering into each cell. At the very end, not far from the toilets, I find Victoria sitting on the chair in her cell. I ...
... cell and hurriedly make my bed before the matron returns. I hear the sound of keys jingling as she approaches. She bids us to enter our cells and says firmly, “There's to be no talking.” We are quick to obey. The matron begins the ...
... cell looking confused, wondering which way to turn. The girls call out, directing her to the furthest cell. I can hear the rattle of keys as the matron searches for the right one, then the grating of the door being unlocked. Victoria's ...
... cell is long and silent. The book usually handed out each fortnight is soon read. A matron passes by our cells with a cart full of storybooks. Through the bars she receives the previous book and hands out another, asking, “Have you read ...
Contenido
CHAPTER 12 | 111 |
CHAPTER 13 | 121 |
CHAPTER 14 | 127 |
CHAPTER 15 | 135 |
CHAPTER 16 | 141 |
CHAPTER 17 | 149 |
CHAPTER 18 | 159 |
AFTERWORD | 165 |