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Originally Posted by skb
I find the casual sexism and racism (especially the racism) difficult to cope with in some books. Is it one of DLS's or Christie's that has the horrible scandal about a clergyman who is...gasp...black? I can remember reading that when I was a teenager and not being able to understand what the issue was (yes, I was so very, very innocent).
I didn't really notice the sexism in books until I'd experienced (in a huge way) once I started working. I remember being aghast reading about Marie Curie - she had to move to France to obtain a degree because she couldn't get one in Poland (I think that's right - it's been years since I read her daughter's book). I remember being outraged for a fictional character in a similar way when she "got a first but, of course, couldn't take a degree" (my emphais). That still rankles and I have no idea why. Hello? Fictional character!
Nowadays, I'll stop reading if the female characters are only present to be either scream, be killed, snogged or bonked and then never mentioned again. For some reason I've become super sensitive to sexism - I've stopped watching some TV shows I'd previously enjoyed because they suddenly made me go all John Cleese ragey at the screen. I find myself applying the Bechdel test. Which is just tiresome for me, but I can't stop!
It was in one of Sayer's books, Strong Poison, that the judge more or less kiboshed Harriet Vane's testimony because she'd lived with a man she wasn't married to. If she lived in sin, apparently she was capable of anything. Ah, the good old days, eh?
I love Sayer's books, especially the Lord Peter's once Harriet turns up but I think the classism, racism and even sexism (e.g. Peter's "Cattery") were of the time. It doesn't make it right, but that's the way it was. The classism still exists to some extent e.g. although officers no longer have batmen, in some cases they do have servants (captains on ships, for example).
Such an interesting topic!
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You remembered right on Marie Curie.