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Media Influence On Teens/Women

The Well of Loneliness
Radclyffe Hall was born on August 12th, 1880 in Bournemouth, Dorset, a county in South West England. Though her parents were wealthy, she faced a tough childhood as her father left before she was born (“Hall,” 1). Furthermore, after remarrying, as a result of her mother wanting a “normal” daughter, her mother and step-father paid little to no attention to her. She lacked education from an early age, but this did not prevent her from furthering her knowledge as she attended King’s College in London, and later on attended college in Germany. Although these hardships had a negative impact on her life, they also made her a strong woman which helped her to cope with additional misfortunes later in life.
Radclyffe Hall was a lesbian, although she referred to herself as a “congenital inversion”, a term taken from sexologist Havelock Ellis (“Hall,” 1). She was also a British poet and author of eight novels. Her most well-known and controversial novel “The Well of Loneliness” had a lesbian theme and was banned almost immediately after its release in 1928. This book was way ahead of its time, as it was viewed as having been a “danger to the nation” (“Smith,” 1). Although Hall was a lesbian, this was the only one of her eight novels to have a lesbian theme.
In 1907 Hall met Mabel Veronica Batten at the Homburg Spa in Germany. Batten, whom Hall referred to as “Ladye”, was a well- known amateur singer of lieden, or romantic European songs (“Cline,” 58). Ladye, who was married with a daughter and grandchildren, was fifty-one when they met, while Hall a mere twenty-seven years of age. After the death of Batten’s
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husband, the two fell in love and began residing with one another. Batten, who was Hall’s inspiration, gave Hall the name “John”, which she would come to use for her entire life.
In1915, Hall fell in love with Batten’s cousin, Una Troubridge and after Batten’s death the year after, the two began living with one another....