Quote:
"Though [My American Cousin] is family oriented and comedic, [Sandy] Wilson constructs a feminist commentary about female sexuality and desire that exists outside strict Victorian moral codes about sex. In contrast to Major Wilcox's ideology that sex is procreative, here sexual desire, constructed through a female (heterosexual) gaze, exists outside masculine parameters, marriage, and even heteronormative romantic love, echoing the sex-positive feminists of the 1970s. Sex is presented as potentially fun, not a duty. Though Butch gets some perverse pleasure out of scaring the girls for a moment, he is not depicted as a sexually aggressive male. Rather, Butch is a kind of peacock, shamelessly displaying his body in front of the girls, who collectively enjoy the show. Female characters do not face any real punishment for acting on or pursuing their sexual desires but rather assert a level of control over the males in their lives."
-- Kathleen Cummins

Source:
Cummins, Kathleen. Herstories on Screen: Feminist Subversions of Frontier Myths. New York: Wallflower, 2020. (p. 153)