The Victorian Era is often shrouded in myths and misconceptions, one of the most amusing being the idea that Victorians were scandalized by exposed table legs. This story suggests that upper-class Victorians covered their furniture legs to avoid impropriety. However, the truth is more mundane: some Victorians covered table legs to protect them from dust and damage, not out of modesty.
The myth about table legs actually began as a joke about Americans. Frederick Marryat, a former British navy captain, recounted an encounter with an American woman who was offended by the mention of the word “leg” in front of a lady. Marryat humorously noted seeing a piano with its legs covered to preserve women’s purity. This story was picked up by the British media, and over time, the facts became distorted, leading to the misconception that Victorians were the ones concerned about furniture legs.
Victorians are often perceived as excessively modest, a reputation largely influenced by Queen Victoria’s public persona. However, their art and literature tell a different story. Queen Victoria herself had a collection of nude paintings and exchanged risqué artwork with her husband, Prince Albert. Her diaries reveal that she was a passionate lover, describing her wedding night as an experience of heavenly love and happiness.
Victorian literature also contained elements of eroticism. “My Secret Life,” a book filled with vivid accounts of a man’s sexual adventures, was one such example. There were even how-to books on relationships, encouraging married couples to engage in passionate intimacy.
Another popular myth is that a Victorian doctor invented the vibrator to treat “hysterical women.” According to this myth, doctors would manually stimulate women to cure hysteria, and one doctor, exhausted from this task, invented a vibrating device. However, there is little evidence to support this claim. The electric vibrator was indeed invented by a Victorian doctor, Joseph Mortimer Granville, but it was intended for muscle relief, not for treating women.
There’s a legend that Prince Albert pierced his penis with a “dressing ring” to prevent unsightly bulging in tight clothing. However, there is no evidence to support this claim. The story was popularized by Doug Malloy, a piercing enthusiast, in the 1960s and 1970s, but its origins remain unclear.
Contrary to the belief that Victorians lacked humor, they enjoyed jokes just as much as people do today. The magazine Punch, founded in 1841, was dedicated to humor and satire. Newspapers, books, and theaters also featured jokes and puns, although some may not resonate with modern audiences due to their historical context.
Victorian photographs often depict unsmiling subjects, leading to the misconception that they were always serious. While long exposure times made smiling difficult in early photography, even when exposure times shortened, people often chose serious expressions, similar to painted portraits.
Queen Victoria is often seen as a somber figure, partly due to the quote “We are not amused,” which she likely never said. Her serious reputation was also influenced by her long period of mourning after Prince Albert’s death. Victoria spent 40 years mourning her husband, which contributed to her image as a somber monarch.
Another myth is that grieving Victorians used glass tear bottles to collect their tears. While they did have decorative glass vials, these were primarily used for perfume, not tears. This myth likely arose from the discovery of similar bottles in ancient tombs.
Queen Victoria is credited with popularizing the white wedding dress, but she wasn’t the first to wear white. Princess Charlotte wore a white and silver dress decades earlier. Victoria chose white to symbolize her social status, as white fabric was expensive to maintain.
Corsets were common in the Victorian era but were not the restrictive devices often portrayed in films. Properly fitted corsets were not painful, and women could fasten them without assistance. The idea of women constantly fainting due to tight clothing is largely a myth.
In conclusion, the Victorian Era was not as uptight as commonly believed. It was a time of complexity and contradiction, with a rich cultural tapestry that included humor, art, and evolving social norms. If you’re interested in exploring more historical periods, feel free to suggest them for future discussions!
Engage in a debate with your classmates about the perception of Victorian modesty. Divide into two groups: one supporting the notion of Victorian prudishness and the other challenging it with evidence from art and literature. Use examples from the article to support your arguments.
Choose one of the myths mentioned in the article, such as the table leg myth or the Victorian vibrator, and conduct further research. Prepare a short presentation to share your findings with the class, focusing on how these myths originated and why they persist today.
Write a fictional diary entry from the perspective of a Victorian individual. Incorporate elements of humor, modesty, or societal norms discussed in the article. Share your entry with the class and discuss how it reflects or challenges the common misconceptions of the era.
In groups, recreate a Victorian-style photograph. Choose whether to depict a serious or humorous scene, and consider the historical context of photography during that time. Present your photograph to the class and explain the choices you made in terms of expression and setting.
Read a selection of jokes or satirical pieces from the Victorian magazine Punch. Analyze the humor and discuss with your classmates how it compares to modern humor. Consider what these pieces reveal about Victorian society and its values.
Here’s a sanitized version of the provided YouTube transcript:
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If there’s one thing I know to be true, it’s that there’s nothing more intriguing than an exposed table leg. The curvy pieces of wood were so suggestive that upper-class Victorians kept them covered to hide the furnishings. Or so the story goes. Some Victorians might have covered their table legs, but only because they liked to accessorize their homes and wanted to protect their belongings from dust and damage, not because they were overly modest.
The notion of needing to cover table legs actually started as a quip about Americans. A former British navy captain named Frederick Marryat wrote about an encounter he had with an American woman who chided him for mentioning the word “leg” in the presence of a lady. He poked fun at American culture by noting he once saw a piano with its legs covered to protect women’s purity. After British media picked up the story, the facts became blurred, and the tale eventually snowballed into a rumor that it was the Victorians themselves who were scandalized by their own furniture.
Hi, I’m Justin Dodd, welcome to Misconceptions. The intrigue of table legs is just one misconception about the Victorian Era I’ll cover today, or, uncover. Unless that makes you uncomfortable, then I will cover it? I don’t know what to do here, so I’ll just play the intro.
The Victorians have a reputation for being overly modest, largely thanks to Queen Victoria’s buttoned-up public image. But their art and literature tell a different story. Queen Victoria herself had an entire collection of nude paintings. She and her husband, Prince Albert, delighted in giving each other risqué artwork as birthday gifts. According to her own diaries, Victoria was a passionate lover. When writing about her wedding night, she expressed feelings of heavenly love and happiness she had never felt before. She did not just “lie back and think of England.”
Victorian literature featured its fair share of eroticism. One particularly famous book was “My Secret Life,” filled with a man’s vivid accounts of his sexual adventures. There were even how-to books, one subtitled “An Infallible Guidebook for Married and Single Persons, In Matters of The Utmost Importance To The Human Race,” which was essentially the Victorian version of a relationship guide. The book encouraged married couples to have passionate intimacy, claiming that any children conceived would resemble the parent who had the most intense experience.
Another common misconception claims a Victorian doctor invented the vibrator to help “hysterical women.” According to popular myth, doctors cured women of “hysteria” by manually bringing them to orgasm. One doctor, tired from having to stimulate so many women, created a vibrating device to make his job easier. However, there isn’t much evidence to support the idea that Victorian doctors used vibrators—or masturbation at all—for hysteria. A Victorian doctor is credited with inventing the electric vibrator, but not for genital stimulation. Joseph Mortimer Granville came up with the buzzing contraption in the 1880s, which was meant for muscle relief, not for women.
According to legend, Prince Albert pierced his penis with what was then known as a “dressing ring.” He, and other fashionable men, would supposedly hook these rings to one side of their trousers to prevent any “unsightly bulging” when they wore tight clothing. However, there’s no actual proof the Prince Consort ever had such a piercing. The origin of this legend remains unknown, but it was popularized by Doug Malloy, a big piercing proponent in the 1960s and 1970s.
In addition to supposedly being modest, it’s often said that Victorians had no sense of humor. But they were just as fond of a good joke as people are today. The magazine Punch, founded in 1841, was entirely dedicated to humor and satire. Newspapers, books, and the theater all featured various jokes and puns. Some Victorian-era jokes may not make sense to those unfamiliar with the political events being satirized, and some of the era’s jokes were downright offensive.
When people think of serious Victorians, they often picture the unsmiling individuals found in photographs. While there are exceptions, most photographs from the era show close-lipped subjects. A common theory is that in the 19th century, having your photo taken involved long exposure times, making it difficult to smile. By the late 19th century, exposure times had shortened, yet people still weren’t smiling, possibly because early photography was similar to painting, where subjects favored serious expressions.
One more note on Victorian-era photography: While post-mortem shots were a real practice, they weren’t as widespread as some might believe. Many supposedly deceased subjects are just standing very still to avoid a blurry image.
Misconception: Queen Victoria Embodied Priggishness. Queen Victoria has a reputation as a particularly serious monarch. The quote “We are not amused” is often attributed to her, but it’s likely she never said it at all. Much of her reputation as a somber woman comes from the decades she spent mourning Prince Albert’s death. Albert died at a young age, and his untimely demise devastated Queen Victoria, who spent the next 40 years mourning him.
One myth is that grieving Victorians used glass tear bottles to collect their tears. While people did have fancy little glasses and vials, they were primarily used to store perfume. This myth likely arose from scholars finding similar glass bottles in ancient tombs and proposing they were used to store tears.
Queen Victoria is also associated with the color white, having popularized the white wedding dress. However, she wasn’t the first public figure to wear white on her wedding day. More than two decades before her wedding, there’s an account of Princess Charlotte’s wedding dress described as white and silver. Victoria chose white not to showcase her purity, but because white fabric was more expensive to maintain, symbolizing her social status.
Corsets were common throughout the Victorian era, but they were not the deadly devices often portrayed in films. If a corset hurt, it simply meant it hadn’t been fitted properly. Women didn’t need a lot of assistance to fasten them and weren’t constantly fainting due to tight clothing.
That’s all the misconceptions we have for you today. The Victorian Era was not as uptight as you might have thought. Comment below what other time periods you’d like to see us cover in a future episode. I’ll see you next time.
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This version maintains the essence of the original transcript while removing any explicit or potentially sensitive content.
Victorian – Relating to the period of Queen Victoria’s reign from 1837 to 1901, characterized by strict social morals and a focus on industrial progress. – The Victorian era saw significant advancements in technology and a rigid social structure that influenced literature and art.
Era – A distinct period of history with particular characteristics or events. – The Renaissance era was marked by a renewed interest in classical learning and the arts.
Modesty – The quality of being unassuming or moderate in the estimation of one’s abilities, often emphasized in historical contexts as a virtue. – In Victorian literature, modesty was often portrayed as a desirable trait for women, reflecting the societal norms of the time.
Literature – Written works, especially those considered of superior or lasting artistic merit. – The literature of the Romantic period often explored themes of nature and individualism.
Humor – The quality of being amusing or entertaining, often used in literature to critique societal norms. – Mark Twain’s use of humor in his novels provided a satirical look at American society during the 19th century.
Photography – The art or practice of taking and processing photographs, which became increasingly popular during the 19th century. – The advent of photography in the Victorian era revolutionized the way historical events were documented.
Queen – A female monarch or the wife of a king, often a central figure in historical narratives. – Queen Elizabeth I’s reign is often depicted in literature as a golden age of English history.
Victoria – The Queen of the United Kingdom from 1837 to 1901, whose reign was marked by industrial expansion and cultural change. – Queen Victoria’s influence extended beyond politics, shaping the cultural and social landscape of her time.
Myths – Traditional stories, especially those concerning the early history of a people or explaining a natural or social phenomenon, often involving supernatural beings or events. – Greek myths have been a rich source of inspiration for Western literature and art throughout history.
Art – The expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture, producing works to be appreciated for their beauty or emotional power. – The art of the Baroque period is characterized by dramatic use of light and shadow, reflecting the intense emotions of the era.
