Today, a sort of quiz. Below, you’ll find extended excerpts from a rather Man Boobzy article about young English women. Afterwards, I want you to guess where, and when, this article came from.
The girl of the period is a creature who dyes her hair, and paints her face … whose sole idea of life is plenty of fun and luxury; and whose dress is the object of such thought and intellect as she possesses. …Â and as she dresses to please herself she does not care it she displeases every one else. Nothing is too extraordinary and nothing too exaggerated for her vitiated taste … .
[S]he cannot be made to see that modesty of appearance and virtue ought to be inseparable, and that no good girl can afford to appear bad, under penalty of receiving the contempt awarded to the bad. …
The girl of the period envies the queens of the demi-monde far more than she abhors them. She sees them gorgeously attired and sumptuously appointed, and she knows them to be flattered, feted, and courted with a certain disdainful admiration of which she catches only the admiration while she ignores the disdain. …
No one can say of the modern English girl that she is tender, loving, retiring, or domestic. … Love indeed is the last thing she thinks of, and the least of the dangers besetting her. …
The legal barter of herself for so much money — representing so much dash, so much luxury and pleasure — that is her idea of marriage; the only idea worth entertaining. For all seriousness of thought respecting the duties or the consequences of marriage, she has, not a trace.
If children come, they find but a stepmother’s cold welcome from her; and if her husband thinks that he has married anything that is to belong to him … the sooner he wakes from his hallucination and understands that he has simply married some one who will condescend to spend his money on herself, and who will shelter her indiscretions behind the shield of his name, the less severe will be his disappointment.
She has married his house … his balance at the banker’s, his title; and he himself is just the inevitable condition clogging the wheel of her fortune; at best an adjunct, to be tolerated with more or less patience as may chance. For it is only the old-fashioned sort … that marry for love, or put the husband before the banker.
But she does not marry easily. Men are afraid of her; and with reason. They may amuse themselves with her for an evening, but they do not take her readily for life. Besides, after all her efforts, she is only a poor copy of the real thing; and the real thing is far more amusing than the copy … Men I can get that whenever they like …
[I]t cannot be too plainly told to the modern English girl that the net result of her present manner of life is to assimilate her as nearly as possible to a class of women whom we must not call by their proper-or improper-name.
And we are willing to believe that she has still some modesty of soul left hidden under all this effrontery of fashion, and that, if she could be made to see herself as she appears to the eyes of men, she would mend her ways before too late.
It is terribly significant of the present state of things when men are free to write as they do of the women of their own nation. …
It is only when these [women] have placed themselves beyond the pale of masculine respect that such things could be written as are written now; when they become again what they were once they will gather round them the love and homage and chivalrous devotion which were then an Englishwoman’s natural inheritance. The marvel, in the present fashion of life among women, is how it holds its ground in spite of the disapprobation of men.
It used to be an old-time notion that the sexes were made for each other, and that it was only natural for them to please each other, and to set themselves out for that end.
But the girl of the period does not please men. She pleases them as little as she elevates them; and how little she does that, the class of women she has taken as her model of herself testifies.
All men whose opinion is worth having prefer the simple and genuine girl of the past, with her tender little ways and pretty bashful modesties, to this loud and rampant modernization, with her false red hair and painted skin, talking slang as glibly as a man, and by preference leading the conversation to doubtful subjects. …
[S]he will not see that though men laugh with her, they do not respect her, though men flirt with her they do not marry her; she will not believe that she is not the kind of thing they want, and that she is acting against nature and her own interests when she disregards their advice and offends their taste….
[A]ll we can do is to wait patiently until the national madness has passed, and our women have come back again to the old English ideal, once the most beautiful, the most modest, the most, essentially womanly in the world.
Ok, now comes the quiz part.
So where did I get this from?
A) The Thinking Housewife blog, in April of 2011
B) “Whore-Imitating Sluts Are Ruining England,” The Spearhead, in August of 2012
C) Margaret Thatcher, “Up From Sluttery,” Tory Press, 1972.
D) “The Girl of the Period,” The Perth Gazette and West Australian Times, 6/5/1868
Click on this link to find out the answer.
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NOTE: I cheated a teensy bit by taking out some of the more egregiously old-fashioned language. But if you ignore the old-fashioned style, the content of the piece is strikingly similar to a lot of stuff posted in the more traditionalist corners of the Manosphere today.
Thanks to Magpie for posting a link to this piece in the comments!
PS: Margaret Thatcher didn’t actually write a book entitled “Up From Sluttery,” nor did The Spearhead run a piece titled “Whore-Imitating Sluts Are Ruining England.” At least it hasn’t yet.
@melody – I’m not even going to look at that “please shave your pubic hair” page. My feeling on that suggestion is “Guys, please wear a tampon up each nostril simultaneously.”
Actually I’ve found that the most effective response in terms of pissing people who make those kinds of blanket demands off is a flat, perfectly unemotional “no”.
The laughable thing (well, if you’re not of a mindset to be pressured by it) is that it’s a great filter. Some dude expects/requires women to shave? He’s automatically in the Piece of Shit pile.
… which, the moment after I hit post, reminded me of this Pierre.
In case of nosebleed…
“Guys, please wear a tampon up each nostril simultaneously.”
I’m a bit mystified by this not liking vaginas rubbish. To say you want s.e.x. but not liking vaginas? If you really want sex, you’re thinking squishy squelchy cooperative activity is what you want. And the squishier and squelchier the better.
Or is a vagina supposed to have some totally not-at-all-like-a-vagina properties that I’m unaware of?
Love the image.
I did a blockquote!!! Yea!! *Does happy dance while dog gives confused looks*
::high fives neuroticbeagle::
mildlymagnificent – yeah, I don’t get that either. Even allowing that these idiots never seem to know the difference between the vagina and the vulva, it makes no sense.
OT didja see the comment I addressed to you yesterday? 🙂
Weeeeell… I’m gonna curse in church and say that someone might coherently want sex but not the squishy-squashy. Maybe someone just loves to rub against another person with clothes on until everyone involved comes, and they really dislike the squishy-squashy. IF someone has that for a sexual preference and does NOT couple it with nasty misogynism I think that’s a completely valid preference to have.
Fair comment, but d’you reckon these guys are likely to think of anything except PiV as “real” sex – unless they want the sort of stuff in the type of porn I’d bet they watch?
@Kittehs
I saw Mads practicing TEH CUTE. TEH CUTE and dirty looks are techniques used by both cats and dogs designed by the furrinati to keep teh hoomins in line. Dogs will also use TEH BREATH and licking as means to get what they want (in my case its usually space on the bed/couch or to be put under the blanket). TEH CLAWS are used by cats to maintain their position on the top of the furry hierarchy.
Yeah kittehs, I saw that. What fun!
Cursing in church? Oh, preferring non squishy squashy activity is absolutely fine – but, in my mind at least, that’s a bit different to both wanting PIV sex and disliking vaginas. I’d suspect the totes satisfying fully clothed sex would horrify this crowd anyway. A bit too not-PIV – how does that make anyone happy? would be the response I’d expect from this lot of know-nothings. They wouldn’t be so much horrified as mystified.
@neuroticbeagle
This is TRUTH! Rabbits are excellent at dirty looks too, I have learned from the Disapproving Rabbits site. TEH BREATH is one of the dogs’ harsher weapons, though TEH WET STINK is potent, and TEH FART probably the most dangerous of all, even worse than cats’.
Mads has just got down from sitting on the teddies, AGAIN. Her excuse this time was that she had a Poor Sore Eye* and needed cossetting. Well, more cossetting than usual.
*If she does in fact have a Poor Sore Eye it’s either directly self-inflicted by running into things, or indirectly self-inflicted by giving Fribbie a hard time and getting her face smacked.
Oh doesn’t that make beautiful sense. Weird thinking/writing might be contagious, I fear.
You know what I meant I hope.
Yay! 🙂
LOL I got what you meant, it’s pretty much what I was thinking – they want PiV but freak out about the V bit and prolly don’t know or don’t believe anything else is Teh Secks. ::brain explodes::
Oh dear. Our poor dear 20 year old Pearl had a bit of an incident this morning. I have a feeling they’re just as likely to have TIA events as humans are. Mr noticed her on the bed having not a fit but showing random uncoordinated movements. When he brought her into the living room she was a bit disorientated and staggered around. So I held her on my lap for quite a while. She purred a bit, but not much. Eventually I took her to the bedroom, put her on the bed to let her lie down alone.
Riiiiiight. She jumped straight off, ran to her door, went through the cat flap and ran off. We had to go out for an appointment. I was afraid she’d gone off to die and we’d come home to no wailing and complaining – a deaf cat has no idea how much noise she makes (though how many cats would care anyway). She turned up as usual, seems perfectly fine – in that nagging, complaining, I have to eat this?! manner we all know and love.
But it might be a signal that she’s going to be a bit more fragile from now on.
a bit blurry but here is my beagle conspiring with her superior (my mom’s cat)
http://i.imgur.com/paAE0zc.jpg
@neuroticbeagle – cuuute! She has such big floppy ears, and your mum’s kitty looks so like my mum’s Abbey. 🙂
@mildlymagnificent – ow, I didn’t know cats could have those (I’m gathering TIA is the mini-stroke thing, yes?). Glad she’s okay for the moment, hope she stays so!
Never occurred to me (I am doing well here) to think of the noisiness of deaf cats. Fribs has selective deafness and boy does she make a racket.
Okay, we’re off to watch some telly, which means me being sat on by Fribs. Later!
Sorry. For those who don’t know, a TIA is a transient ischemic attack – basically a very small stroke.
@magnificent
I hope pearl is ok. The dog sends kisses and cuddles to mostly Pearl, but teh hoomins can have some to.
@mildlymagnificent, I hope your kitty recuperates okay from that. It’s so sad for elderly kitties when their health starts going downhill.
Anecdote here about how the things that make MRA’s mad don’t register with most people. At the park yesterday, I saw a little girl wearing a T-shirt with female superheroes on it. They were Supergirl, Batgirl, and Wonder Woman. The caption was “Step aside, boys. The girls are in charge now!” I chuckled about the shirt, thinking, “Oh God, if MRA’s saw that shirt, they would be so pissed”. They’d have to write a long Spearhead screed about “grrrl power” ruining girls, and how only men can be superheroes, dammit!
So later in the day, I told my husband about the shirt, and this is how the conversation went:
Me: So are you offended by the shirt?
Him: Do what now?
Me: Offended by the shirt with female superheroes saying ‘Step aside boys. The girls are in charge now’. Do you think it’s against men?
Him: (laughing) Um, no. It sounds fine to me.
He then talked about how Supergirl is way stronger and better than Batgirl or Wonder Woman.
Does he realize there are 7 billion people on earth? It’s not like people are an endangered species. He’s also overlooking how much money working women pay into the Social Security system.
That sounds like a really awesome t-shirt and I even thought I don’t tend to wear tops with graphics or slogans on them I kind a want it.
@True, Magnificent, if MRA:s heard about a man preferring fully clothed sex they’d say he was somehow perverted by FEMINISTS and that’s how he became that way.