Lene Andersen (@theseatedview.bsky.social)

It’s one of the most enduring images of the 19th century: a Victorian lady, corseted and coiffed, collapsed on a fainting couch. But did women of the era really swoon so easily and so frequently? https://pulse.ly/cekdtk4alc

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Did Victorian Women Really Faint All the Time? It’s one of the most enduring images of the 19th century: a Victorian lady, corseted and coiffed, collapsed on a fainting couch. The idea appears repeatedly in literature and period dramas, and has become a kind of shorthand for the female condition during Queen Victoria’s reign. But did women of the era really swoon so easily and so frequently? There are certainly many reasons to believe fainting was common; life in Victorian England wasn’t always the most sanitary or healthy, and women’s clothing was often elaborate and restrictive. But while these factors explain occasional collapses, they don’t tell the whole story. A Literary Trope In the mid-18th century, novels started to become popular in Britain, and a social tradition known as the culture of sensibility dominated the evolving medium, rooted in Enlightenment ideas about moral improvement. Literary works celebrated emotion as a sign ...Read More https://pulse.ly/cekdtk4alc