Random Weirdest Bits Of Victorian Etiquette You Won't Believe People Actually Observed (11 items)

• 

  (#1) Eating Cornflakes So You Aren't Tempted To Play With Yourself

  In the 19th century, cornflakes (not just any brand, but Kellogg's Corn Flakes, specifically) were a must-eat item when it came to curtailing libidinous energy. Indeed, it was John Harvey Kellogg himself who described his famously wholesome breakfast cereal as a "healthy, ready to eat anti-masturbatory morning meal," which meant that it was good form for any well-bred gentleman to be seen consuming it.

  The theory was that lascivious foods bred lascivious habits. What, exactly, is a "lascivious food," you might ask? Basically, anything spicy or excessively rich or flavorful (see: delicious), which meant that things like curry, heavy French sauces, and presumably Bloody Marys (had they been invented at that point) were out. Kellogg's advice to young girls, namely that they douse their clitorises with carbolic acid to "burn off" desire, was equally problematic.
• 

  (#11) Passing Out To 'Express' Yourself

  The Victorian custom of swooning (in response to bad news, moral scandal, or just about anything that was deemed too unseemly to be handled) was actually way ahead of its time, in its way: 100 years later, gaggles of teens would be doing the very same thing over the Beatles, Charles Manson, and Elvis (et al). According to some theories, though, there was more to it than that.

  Passing out wasn't so much about being overwhelmed as it was about expressing oneself in a socially acceptable fashion. In the Victorian era, such "bodily extremities" were all some women had, and even though the custom wasn't as effective as, say, throwing up on someone, it got the message across.
• 

  (#4) Using Sex Techniques To Avoid Having Ugly Kids

  Listless, passionless sex and loveless marriage weren't just inadvisable because they were bound to lead to emotional unhappiness. As the Daily Mail put it:

  Crucially, any union without true love... would bring forth ‘ill-looking, sour and spiritless offspring,' while those hoping for good-looking children should remember that sex must not be ‘faintly or drowsily performed.'

  Making love on the stairs was also a bad idea, as a child "that was begat upon a set of stair is most likely to be born with a crooked back, and given in no small way to the fault of staring." Moral of the story: if you want catalog-model kids who don't keep their eyes fixed on anyone for longer than five seconds, do it with vigor and élan.
• 

  (#5) Sleeping With Raw Meat Lashed To Your Face

  In the Victorian era, there was nothing like plastering a piece of flesh to your flesh, and hoping that its "youthful" essence would infiltrate your own. Apparently, wrinkles that resulted from harsh freckle-eliminating methods (like steeping one's skin in carbolic acid) could be counteracted by sleeping with raw steak on one's face, or by smearing "any animal fat on the skin — sheep’s fat, veal, lard."

  After all, a well-bred lady always aimed for a snow white complexion (tans were low-class and a sign that one labored outside like a common peasant), and if it took a sacrificial lamb to maintain said whiteness, so be it. Something to keep in mind (and on your face), before you shell out $50.00 for that anti-aging elixir.
• 

  (#10) Trying Deliberately To Clash With Your Spouse's Hair And Eye Color

  Dating in the Victorian era was in some ways akin to the aesthetics of interior decorating, except in reverse. When it came to your paramour, coordinating your hair, eye, and complexion to clash was paramount.

  According to guides of the time, for example:

  People who had red hair and a flushed complexion were considered to have an excitable and hot tempered personality, so they were encouraged to marry someone with a different temperament, such as someone with jet-black or brown hair... and people were told to never marry someone with the same eye color as they have.

  Two redheads marrying? Out of the question.
• 

  (#6) Weaving Your Dead Husband's Hair In With Your Own And Wearing It As Jewelry

  During the Victorian era, a fashion-conscious mourning woman was always ready to shear off a lock of her deceased husband's tresses to wear as a piece of jewelry. Though the initial stages of mourning called for nothing but heavy black veils and shrouds, one could eventually "graduate" into donning sentimental keepsakes. Indeed, hair jewelry eventually transitioned into an everyday accessory, as "wreaths made from the hair" of the departed were "objects of mourning, while wreaths made from the hair of multiple people... were more like sentimental family trees."

  It was a pretty romantic and poignant tradition, actually, and not so different than the contemporary trend of tattooing yourself with loved ones' ashes mixed with ink. 

New Random Displays    Display All By Ranking