As we all well know, women fight a constant battle with themselves...not to faint. Hysterics as they were called, were an expectant problem of women - not because of tightly-laced stays, this malady was the cause of those emotions women are forced to deal with or, rather to contain. An expert at the time explained:The entire female body is riddled by obscure but strangely direct oaths of sympathy...from one extremity of its organic space to the other, it encloses a perpetual possibility of hysteria. The sympathetic sensibilities of her organism...condemns woman to...diseases of the nerves.Why thank you for that elucidation, "doctor."
Yes indeed, it was believed that all those pent-up emotions of amorous affection that women contained had no way of escaping and therefore built up in a lady's womb as some sort of massive heat-bomb ready to explode. And when it did explode? Hysterics.
And the picture of Mrs. Bentley sums it all up very well. Lol.
ReplyDeleteHysteria has been mentioned a few times in some of the Victorian romance novels,rather wittily as well. The general consensus was the women involved were not all that trusting in an electric treatment for their hysteria.
ReplyDeleteThis belief still exists today, except its perpetuated by everyone, not just men. Ever hear this from a woman: "I prefer the company of men because women are too emotional" or just a general "women are too/more dramatic than men." When a man has a tantrum, ppl say "stop acting like a girl" (or they may use the derogatory term for a female dog).
ReplyDeleteThank you for the great post!
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