Advice to Young Brides...Victorian Era Style

[tropicsgoddess]

This has to be THE biggest load of crap I'v ever heard of regarding marital advice...this one is in paricular about the bedroom aspect of marriage.


http://www.snopes.com/weddings/newlywed/advice.asp

[Boozy]

When you say "biggest load of crap I've ever heard", do you mean because it's a fictional piece, or because you don't agree with the advice?

[Eisa]

"Orgy of sexual lust" sounds fine to me...

[Rapscallion]

Well, if you're offering...

Rapscallion

[Hyena Dandy]

Doesn't the Snopes article also explain why this is probably nonsense?

[JustaCashier]

Even though it's certainly bogus, I wouldn't be surprised of it was at least a partial reflection of the attitude towards sex back in the day.

I have a bible sized copy of a Webster's Dictionary, published in 1908, that defines Masturbation as "Self-Pollution".

I can just imagine, similarly to how teenage boys from my era (1970's) and beyond would look up the word "Fuck", "Twat", and others and snicker, that the teen boys from back then were looking up "Masturbation", and snickering.


Mike

[tropicsgoddess]

When you say "biggest load of crap I've ever heard", do you mean because it's a fictional piece, or because you don't agree with the advice?

I don't agree with the advice.

[BlaqueKatt]

Even though it's certainly bogus, I wouldn't be surprised of it was at least a partial reflection of the attitude towards sex back in the day.

Or what someone from today thinks the attitude was-remember most Americans "know" the pilgrims dressed in all black clothing....they didn't but popular belief is that they did.

This may be because in many pictures of that time from England, people are shown wearing black clothes. People usually had their pictures painted while wearing their best clothes. In the 1620s, best clothes were often black. It was not easy to dye cloth a solid, long-lasting black. It took a great deal of skill. People kept clothes made of such beautiful, expensive cloth for best. Everyday clothes were made of many colors. Brown, brick, yellow and blue were common.

[Mongo Skruddgemire]

Even though it's certainly bogus, I wouldn't be surprised of it was at least a partial reflection of the attitude towards sex back in the day.

As someone who studies history, I can say that while the article is widely inaccurate in details, the general feelings and attitudes towards women are pretty much spot on.

[lordlundar]

Okay, assuming (and that is a MASSIVE assumption by the way) that the information is factual, and not some bull someone made up, please consider the date, you know, it being over a century old. There were considerable differences between then and now. Heck, there's books around from the 50's that basically paint the wife as a housebound slave who has to be perfect for her husband and nothing more.

The point is, unless someone is trying for a revival of this way of life, it's all in the past and a moot point.

[linguist]

I have a bible sized copy of a Webster's Dictionary, published in 1908, that defines Masturbation as "Self-Pollution".

ah yes, it always amuses me to see how attitudes change over time. i have a medical dictionary from the 50s that defines fellatio as a sexual act, but cunnilingus as a sexual perversion.

[BigGiant]

lol.


Sorry but this:

defines fellatio as a sexual act, but cunnilingus as a sexual perversion.

Coming from someone with the handle, "linguist" struck me as quite amusing.

[Lace Neil Singer]

It wouldn't surprise me if there was something like this about back in the day. Hell, men were allowed to "correct" their wives (ie, beat them) if provoked, plus all of a woman's money and property automatically transferred to her husband once they were married. There was a lot of sexual inequality about. A man who killed his wife could even escape the gallows if he could prove that she'd provoked him into doing it by nagging; whereas a woman who killed her husband was considered to have committed petty treason and would be strangled and burned.

[Skunkle]

The text in this one isn't written in the sort of verbiage I think was common then; it comes across as stilted and halting, makes careful allusions to a few modern things... In short, it's like the fake 1950s ads going around, like the "This family is healthy because of LARD" one: a pastiche and parody, intended to be funny and remind you that "things were different back then" in some vague way. Yeah, sexual attitudes were different in 1994, and I'm sure pamphlets decrying the debauchery of the day (for a bunch of prudes, the so-called Victorians were pretty wild) were out there, but this isn't one of them. I just read it, and I'm 100% certain it was written within the last 10 years.

Religious documents of the era put out by churches, however, did discuss ways to avoid the temptation of masturbation - usually based around wearing nightclothes that fasten securely, making it difficult to get your hand in - maybe halfway through working at those buttons, your self-preservation will kick in, you'll grab your Bible and quench your desires with some Scripture. There were also devices sold - though I don't think they were likely to have been popular with mainstream society - that had little spikes on them, so that in case the devil forced a rise out of you, trying to get you to fall prey to sin while still asleep, you'd receive some sharp pains when you reached half-mast and wake up.

[JustaCashier]

There were also devices sold - [snip] - that had little spikes on them, so that in case the devil forced a rise out of you, trying to get you to fall prey to sin while still asleep, you'd receive some sharp pains when you reached half-mast and wake up.

I think I prefer the more modern way of avoiding the temptation of masturbation....




Getting laid.

Mike