You finish your meal and let out a little nervous burp. Perhaps you’ll decide to recline in a chair. Or maybe you’re just standing there with your weapons by your sides. In the past, either of these blunders may have had you kicked out of civilized society. But, of course, we’re not talking of the prim and proper Victorian era here, but rather the 1950s. So, do you want to hear how you might have socially ruined yourself and your family? Here are the strangest methods to do it – some of them are borderline disgusting.
Borderline Gross Practices From The Past
Heavy-Handed Cologne
Etiquette manners covered any tiny act in the Victorian period, even down to the quantity of cologne that men used. Men were told to wear as little of their preferred perfume as practicable. And, while we must admit that there is such a thing as so much aftershave, you would not be publicly shunned for overdoing it these days.
Heavy Handed Cologne
Dinner Party Conversation
Dinner parties were common among the Victorians, but the discussion did not often extend beyond the table. Yes, as dinner guests waited for the serving staff to bring their meals, men could only converse with the woman to their right. What a suffocating atmosphere!
Dinner Party Conversation
Wrinkle-Free Bridesmaids
Anyone may be a member of a bridal party nowadays, so what about the Victorians? They had even stricter laws. According to an etiquette handbook from the time, a young woman getting married had to have bridesmaids that matched. But, of course, that implied they had to be together in age. After all, a wrinkled woman couldn’t pose next to a smooth-faced woman!
Wrinkle Free Bridesmaids
You Can’t Smile
Here’s a bit of protocol from the turn of the twentieth century that seems particularly surprising nowadays. Although ladies were allowed to go for walks outside, enjoying their mates and getting a good time was not permitted. Instead, women were meant to remain subdued and modest before they returned behind closed doors. So, are you having a good time in public? Don’t even think about it!
You Can’t Smile
Women Can’t Have Reclining Chairs
Emily Post outlined many ways a woman could not sit down in her 1922 book Etiquette in Society, Company, Politics, and at Home. And it seems that the author thought that so much back funding was a negative idea. Post said, “Of course, everybody leans against a chair back… A woman, on the other hand, can never throw herself nearly full length in a reclining chair or on a large couch while she is out in public.”
Women Can’t Have Reclining Chairs
Limited Karaoke
The singing at a Victorian party will sound somewhat distinct from that at a modern-day soiree. And, indeed, it comes as no surprise that there were limits to how many classical tunes a woman might sing at a party. According to A Hand-Book on Etiquette for Ladies, she was expected to leave the spotlight after just “one or two albums.”
Limited Karaoke
Never Talk About Yourself
A Handbook of Etiquette for Ladies also urged women to limit the amount of time they spent talking about themselves. So, how many do you blow your own trumpet? Never, ever. “Never add your affairs for the enjoyment of the company,” the guide advised. Such conversations cannot be entertaining to anyone because the most attentive audience is most often set the groundwork for a story that would make you look ridiculous.”
Never Talk About Yourself
Left-Hand Coughing
Let’s travel over 100 years in the past to learn about this odd 1960s etiquette code. Back then, behaviorists urged citizens to consider their right hand to be their social one. Meanwhile, the left side was for personal usage because this was the hand you coughed into. Yeah, it’s sanitary, but it’s still strange to think about that profoundly.
Honeymoon Chaperone
Left Hand Coughing
Honeymoon Chaperone
Honeymoon love? That didn’t go well with the Victorians. So instead, they believed it was appropriate for a woman to bring a guest on her first trip with her new husband. We can only hope that the BFF has a different room…
Buy Yourself Flowers
Mademoiselle, a late 1930s publication, advised its female college-bound readers about finding themselves attracted to their male classmates. But, first, they should have their mothers give them flowers secretly, giving the impression that other men were involved. The same article even recommended that women, even though they were at home, switching off their lights at night or on weekends to offer the appearance, were booked and occupied.
Buy Yourself Flowers
Never Arrive On Time
Nowadays, once you get a party invitation, you make an effort to arrive at the time specified on the invitation. However, in the Victorian period, everybody was a little late. Well, visitors were aware that they could arrive 15 minutes late to any single soiree, and they would rest in the drawing-room before dinner was ready.
Never Arrive On Time
No Irish Goodbye
If you’ve ever left a group without saying farewell, you’ve done an Irish goodbye. And, although you might get away with it nowadays, such an act would have been socially unacceptable in Victorian times. So instead, guests had to express their appreciation to the individual hosting the group, no matter how much they wished to go.
No Irish Goodbye
One Bite At A Time
Nowadays, if we try to feed quickly, nothing will deter us – with the possibility of choking. In the 1950s and 1960s, though, scarfing down a meal was not the proper way to an end. Instead, diners were instructed to eat one forkful at a time, as chewing on extra-large mouthfuls was considered lousy behavior by etiquette specialists.
One Bite At A Time
Women Can’t Get An Order
Consider heading to a diner, perusing the selection, and deciding what to serve… After that, have somebody else order the food for you. That was the case for women in the 1950s when male diners were expected to inform the waiter what food to offer. How annoying!
Women Can’t Get An Order
Social Distancing
Unsurprisingly, there were several laws for Victorian-era daters. One of the oddest? Courting couples needed to walk apart. That implied a man could only reach out to a high-society lady if she were about to step in an invisible puddle. We believe so many people go to the waterlogged paths only to share a brief moment.
Social Distancing
Men Had To Be Clear They Are Leaving
Simply stopping by to visit a loved one? On the other hand, Victorian citizens had to make it known what they intended to do precisely. They’d arrive at buddies’ houses wearing caps and holding riding whips to prove that they’d be on their way quickly. Today’s man will need to keep his hat, house keys, mobile, passport, shades, and so on close at hand.
Men Had To Be Clear They Are Leaving
Handshakes Weren’t Enough
In the 1960s, just holding out a hand to meet anyone was not enough. Instead, you had to meet your handshaking buddy in the center of the room between you and at elbow height. Aside from that, protocol dictated that people travel quickly and decisively. Simply put, get it out of the way and get back to normal.
Handshakes Weren’t Enough
No Dancing Until Formally Introduced
Still, we have clubs full of strangers boogieing into the early hours of the morning. A group inspired by the Victorian period, on the other hand? That would never have happened in that manner. Before the couple might dance together at a soiree, an interested individual will have to make a formal presentation to a lady – and gain the consent of her kin.
No Dancing Until Formally Introduced
Only The Host Can Serve A Meal
It will be friendly to assist the host at a dinner party, but in the 1950s, such an event would be frowned upon. Only the individual in control of the event will carve and serve the beef. And, though they could sit back and relax if they had a maid to do the work, no visitors were allowed to reach for the knife.
Only The Host Can Serve A Meal
Ladies First
This etiquette rule may have originated in a more recent period, but it seems quaint today! In essence, men in the 1960s were supposed to be courageous to protect the ladies in their care. So, if a pair entered a dark space, the guy had to go first, ostensibly to shield his female partner from whatever lurked inside.
Ladies First
Women Walk On The Left Side
This protocol has been in place since feudal days when men were more likely to carry swords. Back then, a man needed his sword arm – the one on the right – to be free if he decided to battle. He would accompany a lady to his left side if he ever had to. This maxim is still in use today, but it is not as widely followed as it was in the 1950s.
Women Walk On The Left Side
Pregnant Women Can’t Travel
Today’s expectant mothers will board planes to travel to far-flung locations far into their pregnancies. Pregnant mothers, on the other hand, did not have the option of traveling somewhere – seriously, somewhere – about a century ago. It was considered impolite for ladies to move by a car when carrying an infant.
Pregnant Women Can’t Travel
Women’s Hairstyle
Victorian-era women had to dress their best all the time because their spouses wanted them to. As a result, they retained their hair in polished updos that they wear in public and at home. The only spot where they could let their hair down? That was it. They were in their beds. That must have been exhausting.
Women’s Hairstyle
Diamonds Aren’t Appropriate Gifts
If you enjoy jewelry – particularly obtaining it as a gift – you should be grateful to live in the twenty-first century. A Victorian lady, you know, couldn’t tolerate baubles as a gift unless they came from a family member or her husband. And, although a single girl being courted may accept roses, sheet music, cookies, or books as presents, none of these can compete with diamonds.
Diamonds Aren’t Appropriate Gifts
Never Ask How Someone’s Doing
Today, asking someone’s whereabouts is considered friendly small talk, but such direct inquiries were frowned upon by the Victorians. So, no, there will be no questions regarding a person’s emotions back then. Instead, a Victorian would suggest something along the lines of “I hope you are well.”
Never Ask How Someone’s Doing
If You Break Something At Someone’s House, Ignore It
Som Victorian-era rules made little sense, no matter how prim and proper they seemed to be. And this is a good case. It appears that if you were meeting someone and smashed something in their home, it will be inappropriate to admit your behavior. It would be as unacceptable for your host to point out your error. They were supposed to behave as though this had happened. To us, this seems like a license to break…
If You Break Something At Someone’s House, Ignore It
Giving Back Handmades
We’ve also discussed the blessings that women were unable to embrace. Let us now discuss the gifts they were unable to have in exchange. Surprisingly, a lady is supposed to reciprocate with something homemade, inexpensive, or both. Yet, she still couldn’t be the one to initiate a gift exchange. The guy had to be the first to buy.
Giving Back Handmades
Women Can’t Hold A Drink
Vogue’s 1948 Book of Etiquette had a lot to tell regarding drinking women – and none of it was good. According to the guide, “‘She will definitely keep her liquor’ is not a compliment.” Is it easier to wobble about after only one beer, then? We doubt it.
Women Can’t Hold A Drink
Never Speak To A Smoking Man
A gentleman from the Victorian period will never light up in front of a lady. But it would also be impolite for a lady to engage in discussion with a guy who had already begun puffing on his preferred cigar. That’s because he’d have to throw out the stogie, and no guy would be pleased with such waste.
Never Speak To A Smoking Man
You’re Rude If You Don’t Have A Cigarette
Sixty-ish years ago, so many people smoked tobacco that you were supposed to get them on you – even though you didn’t drink. Men, too, carried lighters because it was considered impolite not to light a lady’s cigarette for her.
You’re Rude If You Don’t Have A Cigarette
Hair Brushing Is The Key For Shiny Hair
Hair-brushing existed until the days of dry shampoo, leave-in conditioner, and long-lasting blowouts. In the 1940s, people had to wash their hair at least 100 times a night to keep it shiny. In reality, they were instructed to do so before the skin underneath began to prickle, which almost sounds like a negative thing…
Hair Brushing Is The Key For Shiny Hair
Never Shovel Your Salad
In her 1944 guidebook Future Perfect, Bernice Morgan Bryant mentioned that you couldn’t just spit lettuce leaves into your mouth. Instead, she said, “First, try cutting your salad with a fork.” Then, if you find it challenging, pick up your knife and use it calmly.”
Never Shovel Your Salad
Ultimate Offense
Cassell’s Household Guide was published in 1869 and detailed the intricacies of Victorian living, including, of course, many of the social dos and don’ts. The book also found the so-called act of “cutting” – failing to acknowledge anyone you meet whenever you encounter them on the street – “the most ill-mannered act imaginable to perform in civilization.” Let’s face it: we’ve all achieved it in the twenty-first century with no consequences.
Ultimate Offense
Salt And Pepper
Diners took their salt-and-pepper collections very seriously in the 1940s. They believed that the two shakers could never be divided on the platform. So, if anyone asks for salt, you’d have to offer them both salt and pepper. It seems to be a hassle for the individual who only needed one seasoning.
Salt And Pepper
Never Burp In Public
A post-meal belch is a big compliment to the chef in Taiwan and China. Victorian-era diners would be mortified to learn this when they scoffed at even the slightest inconspicuous burps or passing of steam. One such blunder, according to Reader’s Digest, “might imply societal ruin.” That was how serious it was.
Never Burp In Public
Smile On The Telephone
Given that telephones were comparatively modern technologies in the 1940s, we’ll want to offer 1940s etiquette expert Bryant a break. That being said, it seems a little ridiculous to suggest she told people to smile when talking on the call. If she could just see us grumpily looking at our cells now…
Smile On The Telephone
Don’t Eat Asparagus The Wrong Way
Have you ever asked if you’re consuming the asparagus incorrectly? We didn’t either, although there were once laws in place to protect it as well. In a 1975 updating of Post’s 1922 book Etiquette in Society, Company, Politics, and at Home, she said that slicing the vegetable will save you from “the ungraceful sight of a bent stalk of asparagus dropping limply into someone’s mouth.” Oh, and “the fact that moisture is… apt to leak from the end.” We can’t get it right now, can we?
Don’t Eat Asparagus The Wrong Way
Hold Your Dress Properly
After reading that, you’re perhaps picturing some kind of heinous fashion malfunction, such as a dress being twisted and revealing a lady’s thighs. So you’d be mistaken! Instead, we’re talking about a 19th-century law that specified how women could wear their gowns to make walking easier. And they couldn’t do the job with just two paws. Instead, they had to raise the skirt with just their right elbow, exposing only the right amount of ankle.
Hold Your Dress Properly
Dead Fish
Consider needing to be concerned with how the hands dangle while you’re standing still. This was the condition of women in the 1950s, who had a plethora of educational manuals asking them how to do everything, including carrying her head. The one to avoid was the “dead fish hands” look, as we all do every day while our arms are parallel to the sides of our bodies. Also, people felt it did nothing to highlight a woman’s shapely curves back then.
Dead Fish
Only One Glass Of Champagne Allowed
A woman was only allowed to receive one glass of champagne in Victorian times. So yes, she couldn’t get more than one flute of fizz. Otherwise, her colleagues would judge her as impolite. So on this one, we hope we’ll hold to our 21st-century maxim of drinking as much bubbly as you want. Best wishes!
Only One Glass Of Champagne Allowed
Shocking Victorian Habits
Although the Victorians were a strict bunch, they had certain behaviors that will astound and even disgust you. They did, indeed, partake in some utterly odd activities, ranging from snacking on sheep’s trotters and limping for fashion to delivering gratuitously rude Valentine cards. Continue reading to learn about any of your ancestors’ odder behaviors…
Shocking Victorian Habits
Alexandra Limp Trend
Most people have probably experienced a temporary limp as a consequence of a mild accident; of course, others still limp due to a long-term illness. But limping in the name of fashion? That is insane! And the Victorian women in the United Kingdom did just that. The strange craze also had a name: the “Alexandra limp.” And it was just about impersonating royalty.
Alexandra Limp Trend
Toxic food additives
It seems to have been a true free-for-all in Victorian days, before the stringent rules regulating food additives that we now take for granted. According to the Royal Society of Chemists, chalk, alum, and sawdust were also used in baking. So what you take home from the bakery seems to have been a question of chance.
Toxic Food Additives
Metal In Beers
Things were much worse when it came to beers. Surprisingly, certain brewers included strychnine in their ale. According to the Royal Society of Chemists, this was done “…to ‘improve’ the flavor of the beverage thus saving money on hops.” As a motivation, cost-cutting seems plausible. So what about improving the flavor? We have our doubts. Such horror tales involve the sale of used tea leaves laced with a mixture of additives and sheep dung and sweets laced with metallic substances containing toxic elements such as copper, arsenic, and lead.
Metal In Beers
Vinegar Valentine Cards
When you give a Valentine card, you’re expressing your feelings for another, right? However, it points out that this was not always the case as Victorians mailed a letter to celebrate St. Valentine’s Day. There was also a subgenre of insulting cards. Any of these cards, dubbed Vinegar Valentines, were blatantly insulting.
Vinegar Valentine Cards
Hardly Shakespeare
The Smithsonian magazine included a few samples of Vinegar Valentines in a 2017 post. One card depicts a woman dumping a bucket of water on a man. “It tells as plainly as it may speak, Old fellow you’d better stop away,” the caption reads. Certainly not Shakespeare, but the message is plain. According to author Ruth Webb Lee, by the middle of the 1800s, almost half of all Valentine cards were vinegar-based.
Hardly Shakespear
Rat Poison Runners
We’re all too familiar with reports accusing top athletes of using performance-enhancing substances. But this isn’t something special. The distinction in the Victorian period was that no one tried to mask their usage of performance-enhancing drugs. And the variety of additives and intoxicants used is mind-boggling. The most shocking of all procedures would have been strychnine injections, also used as rat poison.
Rat Poison Runners
Strychnine Injections
One such instance occurred in 1904, just three years after Queen Victoria’s assassination. At that year’s Olympics, American athlete Thomas Hicks won the marathon after receiving two strychnine shots, which was provided during the event. It’s worth noting that Hicks just won gold because the guy who reached the finish line before him, Fred Lorz, was disqualified. He’d arranged a portion of the route by car. So strychnine was fine, but automobiles were not.
Strychnine Injections
Jailed For Laziness
Many frankly bizarre explanations might contribute to a stay in a lunatic asylum in Victorian days. For example, records from the West Virginia Hospital for the Insane from the Victorian period list an absurd list of symptoms that led to committal to the institution’s tender mercies. But, of course, any of them are rational, such as “being kicked in the head by a horse” and “doing an opium habit.”
Jailed For Laziness
Laziness Symptom
However, one of the symptoms listed is clearly “laziness.” To be sure, laziness may be regarded as a negative trait. So what are the criteria for being sent to an asylum? How many American adolescents would be celebrating their rights if it was widely accepted? In reality, laziness might not be the most surprising of the symptoms mentioned. Novel reading, poor business, and greediness both make an appearance.
Laziness Symptom
Beauty Arsenic
Today, white people longed for good, tanned skin, but in Victorian days, the paler, the richer. And women were willing to go to incredible, perhaps deadly, lengths to obtain the alabaster look. Mrs. S.D. Powers prescribed a nighttime layer of opium on the face and a morning scrub of ammonia in her 1874 book The Ugly Girl Articles. It’s terrifying.
Beauty Arsenic
Arsenic Cookies
Dr. Rose’s Arsenic Complexion Wafers, a makeup product from Sears & Roebuck, is much scarier. Yes, you read that correctly: arsenic cookies. Surprisingly, they could be able to assist in achieving the desired deathly pallor. According to the website Business Insider, these treats were marketed as “absolutely harmless.” But that’s all right. However, as a courtesy to our subscribers, we would like to mention unequivocally that eating arsenic is never appropriate.
Arsenic Cookies
Selling Wives
Divorce was mainly reserved for the elite under Victoria’s rule due to the high legal expenses involved. Still, at least for adults, there was another way to divorce an unhappy partner. A wife for auction. Surprisingly, this did occur. Here’s a real-life example of the phenomena.
Selling Wives
Wife Auction
The year was 1847, and the location was Barton in the English county of Lancashire; the disgruntled husband’s name was George Wray. He led his wife to the village marketplace, where she was auctioned off to William Harwood. She seems to have been pleased with the transaction, which appears to have been pre-arranged. Whatever the fact was about that specific transaction, the process came to an end after divorce rules were revised in 1857.
Wife Auction
Dark Humor Christmas Cards
In modern times, standard Christmas cards commonly depict a winter wonderland scene or a religious theme referencing Jesus’ creation. On the other hand, the Victorians have a very different conception about what a Christmas greeting could appear like. They loved cards with a dark sense of humor or a macabre twist.
Dark Humor Christmas Cards
Dead Robin Cards
According to the History website, one card contained the greeting “May yours be a happy Christmas.” However, the photograph that accompanies the anodyne letter contradicts it. A robin that has died. Another card depicts a cheerful Santa Claus. The only problem is that he’s attempting to cram an obviously frightened kid into a bag. Some cards were simply bizarre. A mouse riding a lobster or a frog dancing with a beetle are also possibilities.
Dead Robin Cards
Self-Electrification
The Victorians have an odd proclivity for electrocuting themselves. It seems that there was a strong conviction that the practice could heal a wide variety of illnesses. According to the BBC, the archetypal Victorian Charles Dickens was one of many obsessed with self-electrification. He purchased a device for the reason, unveiled in 1851 at the Great Exhibition in London.
Self Electrification
Hydroelectric Belt
Isaac Pulvermacher invented the hydroelectric belt. It was essentially a belt with several batteries that could be activated to produce an electric shock. Indeed, Dickens’ final letter was to Pulvermacher & Co., thanking them for the unit. But did he make use of it? Unfortunately, we don’t know – he purchased the belt on June 3, 1870, and died six days later. Thus, we have no proof that the belt was the cause of the accident.
Hydroelectric Belt
Dentures from hippo teeth
Acrylic resin, a plastic composite well-suited to the purpose, is used to make most modern dentures. However, it was not conceived in the nineteenth century. So the search for suitable material began. In a grotesque irony, the deceased’s teeth were used early in the century. Living individuals have also donated their molars on occasion.
Dentures From Hippo Teeth
Limited Supply
However, the decidedly grim tradition did not appeal to everybody. In any event, there was a small availability. As a result, one choice was to use the teeth of mammals rather than humans. The hippopotamus does not come to mind as the most apparent cause of fake teeth. Their molars, though, were carved into human shapes and used. According to a 2017 article on the Bristol Live website in England, a local dentist advertised dentures made from hippo teeth in the early nineteenth century.
Limited Supply
Asphyxiating Corsets
Victorian women had a lot on their shoulders, including their underwear. We’re specifically talking about corsets. The look of having a tiny waist was standard, and one way to achieve it was to wear ludicrously tight corsets. These were so tightly laced that you required a helping hand to pull them on properly.
Asphyxiating Corsets
Whalebone Corsets
To ensure that the corset remained sufficiently secure, they were often strengthened with rigid strengtheners, also constructed of whalebone. In reality, Victorian corsetry may be so close that it permanently altered the skeleton. Forbes magazine quoted a thesis by Rebecca Gibson, an anthropologist at American University, in 2015. She investigated ten female skeletons dating from the 18th and 19th centuries. Their ribs and spines were both bent and weakened. It’s upsetting.
Whalebone Corsets
Exploding Lights
When you flip a light switch nowadays, you expect nothing other than a flood of light. When you switched on the lights in a Victorian house, though, there was still the risk of causing an explosion. This is because early domestic illumination, like its street cousin, was fuelled by gas rather than electricity. And it was far from optimal in terms of protection.
Exploding Lights
Gas Lighting
Of course, the new-fangled gas lighting was a vast upgrade on what had come before – essentially torches. However, there were some inevitable drawbacks. Coal gas posed the danger of asphyxiation due to the carbon monoxide it emitted when burned. Worse, there was an unfortunate outbreak of fires and explosions in the early days of electronics. So thank your lucky stars because, in the twentieth century, electricity surpassed petrol for illumination.
Gas Lighting
Prude Bathing Suits
When it came to swimming in the water, the famously prim Victorians had a severe challenge. The problem emerged as a result of their obsessive prudence, especially concerning women. If men were permitted to bathe in plain swimming drawers, women were required to wear voluminous bathing suits. This was not out of place in a regular setting.
Prude Bathing Suits
Bathing Machine
And undue modesty led to the creation of an entirely different type of vehicle: the bathing machine. It was a kind of hut on wheels that could be rolled straight up to the beach, allowing women to change in total privacy. They will then reach the water as far away from the prying eyes of interested men as possible. Aren’t you relieved that you can now easily strip down to your swimsuit and plunge into the water?
Bathing Machine
Head Lumps
It was named phrenology, and it had to be one of the most bizarre “science” ideas you’ve ever seen. It entailed looking at the lumps on a person’s head. Phrenologists appeared to be able to predict someone’s personality based on this. The idea was developed by a German doctor, Franz Joseph Gall, who became widespread throughout the Victorian period. It also lasted into the twentieth century before being thoroughly debunked.
Head Lumps
Lumpy Wives
The whole idea would be completely ridiculous if it weren’t for the reality that individuals were still categorized based on the contours of their skull. Certain Victorian men also used phrenology to support them select a companion. And the so-called psychology infiltrated the criminal justice system, with suggestions that felons’ bruises on their heads were a precise measure of their criminality.
Lumpy Wives
Fashion Killed Wildlife
Victorian ladies’ caps were often a vivid explosion of bird feathers. In a gruesome twist, they also included whole plush birds. Whatever your thoughts are on the appearance of those feathered caps, they did have a sinister purpose. We’re talking about the wholesale killing of wildlife, which has driven specific bird populations to extinction.
Fashion Killed Wildlife