Weighing Up Celibacy: The Fat Virgin of Molly Keane’s Devoted Ladies

Journal article

In Molly Keane’s 1934 novel Devoted Ladies, the young Irish character Piggy Browne is dismissed as a “fat, hungry virgin”, an insult that incites the text’s denouement. This article uses the figure of Piggy Browne to juxtapose virginity and fatness in Keane’s writing, asking how fat can inform our understanding of the single Irish woman in Keane. I set up both fat and virginity as relevant concerns to Keane’s work, drawing on a range of her fiction as well as writing about virginity, land, and time. Focussing on Piggy in Devoted Ladies demonstrates how the novel is interested in the emotional lives of women, however satirically. Moreover, ideas of virginity, fat, and hunger become useful ways of thinking about Piggy’s role in the ending of Devoted Ladies. Keane ultimately emphasizes a fall, not a culmination, concluding on a moment of agency, if not progress.

Authors: Oldham, J

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: MDPI
• Journal: Humanities
• Volume: 15
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 51
• Article number: 51
• Publication date: 2026-03-24
• Acceptance date: 2026-03-23
• DOI: 10.3390/h15040051
• EISSN: 2076-0787
• ISSN: 2076-0787
• Language: English
• Keywords: Molly Keane; sexuality; Irish women’s writing; celibacy