Throughout my search in Lee Jackson’s “The Victorian Dictionary” i found quite a few things that interested me. Some of those following topics would be but are not limited to the food and diet portion, the childhood life, crime rate and activity, the type of disease that were present, and my favorite the actual people of the Victorian age. Since I am only limited to one topic in my blog post this evening, i am going to make it about the lifestyles of the Victorian Age, including how men and women were treated differently and what their  roles were in the society.

Where do i even  begin in the Victorian age, well women were set for one job, to be a mother and to take care of the beloved ones of the house hold. yet, why were women not allowed to do a mans job. its not like we are unable to do those said actions that only a “man can do”. as quoted in the article under the women category in the Victorian Dictionary “t is quite fair to argue that, if Women are to have their rights of citizenship, they must accept their duties, and that the acquisition of the elective franchise ought to he accompanied by the condition of liability to serve on juries, and to act in other capacities heretofore solely masculine.” It is quite apparent that women are not :made: to do a mans job, but if thy were to do a mans job they have to accept any repercussions, such as getting injuries or even sick from all the manual work, that they are not used to doing.

The diary in this link http://www.victorianlondon.org/index-2012.htm has made me realize that growing up in the Victorian age a a women would be difficult but you have to accept the fact that women are as strong or better yet strong and can handle the same amount of work, it is just how you set your mind to it, to see how far you will get.

Lee Jackson’s Victorian Dictionary gives a range of various articles and writings created in that time period which gives anyone a look into what living in that time period consisted of. I started looking into women’s roles and the details such as etiquette, demeanour, etc. I found some things very interesting like in one drawing from a Punch article published in 1880 what  women should dress like as they grow older, a kind of What Not To Wear of the day. It’s a little offensive because it shows a young woman at her prime, beautiful and dressed daintily and then another of what seems to be the same women, yet older, dressing more modestly, and has obviously lost her youth. The last is what a woman should be dressed as an old maiden, covered head to toe in black garments and almost looks like a widow and the caption says “As she might (and should) be”. Obviously here we see a very structured life that a women would have to live up to in this world. And in a way I can compare it with the world we live in today, there are standards on what girls should wear compared to young women, to middle aged women and then to the elderly. At least we don’t have any mainstream magazines outwardly bashing on them. Another article that was rather rude one, another from Punch that explains how women can now be employed in the Telegraph industry because “to talk as quickly as lightning is a luxury that the women have not yet been able to enjoy”. It explains how they can gossip and do whatever girly things they want to.. Thanks. One from Richard Carlile’s Every Women’s Book explains how if a women hasn’t married by the time she is 25, she starts sagging and withering away, because she has basically failed her only true task in life. Oh well. The last I looked over from Punch is a drawing of a single women trying to buy herself a single train ticket, and gets very offended when the clerk questions her. Obviously Punch had some hilarious pieces for the ages. I’ve never not hated a magazine more. All I learned was that women are good for nothing… But I didn’t expect a lot from 1800’s England.

I found an interest in the music and musicians portion of Lee Jackson’s “Victorian London Dictionary”. Although the article, “concerts” states that music isn’t widely spread throughout England, the article, “private concerts”, states the opposite, vocal and instrumental performances are a large attribute to entertainment especially at evening parties. When hosting parties, the host looks to a professor of music to provide input on which musicians should be hired for the gathering without overpaying for the entertainment. The professor is also expected to pick the music that is to be played at the party; the songs can be charming glees, ballads, duets, and trios.

Controversy over evening gatherings with musical entertainment has risen. Some guests come to listen to the music, whereas other guests come to socialize with other guests. Once a large group of people begin to talk hushing or dirty looks will no longer stop them. When a party is hosted in a larger area with multiple room there is less of a problem with guests talking, the guests who want to listen to the music will stand in the same room as the musicians and listen respectfully and the guests who would prefer to socialize are able to gather in adjoining rooms so there is just a soft murmur of talking that leaks into the room with the music. But if a party is hosted in a smaller area, there is a higher chance of complaints.

It is rude to enter or exit a room while a piece is being played. It is also rude to leave a party before the concert is over unless there is a break for refreshments. Rustling of programs or tapping of fans is the only applause women are supposed to get after a performance, but using the term, “bravo” is unnecessary.

After reading a handful of articles from the 19th Century Dictionary of Victorian London, one diary entry by Arthur Munby from April 1872 appealed to me the most. This blog post was interesting to me because I did not know that during the Victorian Age there were typically only male waiters. I found this insulting because I am a waitress where I live and I could not imagine being unable to work in a restaurant or “saloon” because of my gender. Munby describes his experience of his night at a large restaurant that advertises themselves as having a female wait staff rather than male. He wrote his thoughts upon entering the saloon, “A wholesome innovation, and we may as well see whether it is attended with good results’, as it should be.” This line made me infer that it was extremely uncommon to have women waitressing. Throughout the diary entry, Arthur explains the inappropriate actions a table of three older men were instilling on these females as they were serving them. I’m sure this kind of behavior still happens in restaurants today but it is rare. The disrespect these men were giving the women in the saloon may have been why they were there.”The girl, accustomed perhaps to such treatment, received his caresses with passive simpering acquiescence”, Arthur describes the way she responded to his actions. As I was reading, I thought about the possibility of the restaurant advertising their female staff to lure men in to eat and drink. Using women as a selling point to a restaurant is wrong. This article made me think of places like Hooters, where attractive women serve men wings and such as they make cat calls and flirtatious comments. I did not fully understand the inequality of women of the 19th Century until I read a few of the entries under the “Women” tab. Our society has grown since then and women are treated a lot more equally in the work force.

When taking a look at the Victorian era, it’s plain to see – when compared to today’s modern viewpoints – that a conservative outlook was fairly commonplace. Dress code and gender norms were quite rigid, and not abiding by those societal standards could very well place an individual under public harassment, or even in a court of law. Women during this time faced many more restrictions than men, and with these rules came an even stricter code when it came to gender norms. This Victorian-London article on women’s sexuality shows the ways in which women refused to adhere to these norms through their sexuality and the alternative ways that they dressed.

During this period in time, queer sexualities were considered taboo and unnatural – people were often ostracized, humiliated and even murdered for not adhering to the heteronormative. Women in lesbian relationships would often need to disguise themselves as men, so as to not be subject to a cruel public.
In the 1834 case of the “man-woman,” Mary Chapman – who’d been under the alias “Bill Chapman” – was a cross-dresser who’d been in a relationship with a woman named Isabella Watson for several years. “Bill” had been arrested for being a “common cheat” and causing a disturbance, and no one knew what to make of Chapman’s unconventional attire. During Chapman’s time of arrest, a dialogue was recorded:
“Prisoner [Mary]. “Isabella has lived wish me as my companion for many years.”
    Mr .Bennett. “Why do you dress as a man?”
    Prisoner. “I own I am disguised, and it was owing to the cruelty of a father-in-law that I first dressed in this manner. I never did harm to any person. I have been all over the kingdom, and never was in prison in my life before.”

Due to being rejected simply because of her sexuality,  Mary Chapman had to disguise herself as a man so as to not be chastised by Isabella’s father. It’s also worth noting that Isabella refers to Mary as ‘he’ even when Mary had revealed her birth name to the police. Could Mary “Bill” Chapman have also been a transgender man?

Aside from gender and sexuality reasons, many women had also cross-dressed simply so that they’d have the same opportunities as men. In an 1867 Southwark Trial, Arthur Munby records a particular case in which a barman turned out to be a woman, incognito.
“No one suspected her, indeed; she confessed her sex to avoid the prison bath. She was a ship’s steward two years, before she was a barman: and before that again, she was errand boy, & afterwards light porter, at a cheesemonger’s in the New Road. When I arrived, the cheesemonger was charging her with not repaying him some of her receipts as his porter . . . And thus poor Thomas, who only said ‘Nothing Sir’ in a low tone when asked if she had ought to say, was committed for trial…”

This case is similar to a recorded 1875 case in which a Liverpool woman, “disguised her sex, dressing in male attire, and earning a living as a cabdriver” for nine years.

These cases show us the lengths women had to go to in order to make a living – or simply live – in a society that rejected and restricted them from living as equally as the privileged.

Source: http://www.victorianlondon.org/index-2012.htm (Women – Sexuality – Cross-dressing)

Victorian London was quite lonely for plenty of people. So lonely, that in fact, depression claimed many lives. Lee Jackson’s “Dirty Old London” website cites sections and sections of catalogued suicides. Even in a city overfilling with people, plenty were lonely and depressed. The victorian era has a lot to teach us in terms of social isolation and the impacts on the mental state of mind. In the world we currently exist in so dependent on technology it is easy to forget that the problems we now face aren’t any different than the ones we use too. A example of suicide in victorian text shared by Jackson speaks to the lonely epidemic spread throughout London, describing it as

“‘Alone in London,’ in a modified sense, is a phrase that would describe tens of thousands. The married men amongst them might, or might not, be mourned by their families, if they did not come home, or were brought home dead, at night: under similar circumstances, laundresses and landladies, and their slaveys, might pump up a tear for the bachelors, and then begin at once to provide for the next tenant of the chambers or lodgings.”(Episodes in an Obscure Life; Richard Rowe, 1871 XXI)

The lonely were expected to off themselves, in a sense. The overworked could be dead, and in a nonchalant way this was expected. The tone is present in other victorian pieces regarding suicide from Jackson’s web page. The stories are the same as they are now, evident in the example section of the webpage, where the story of a heartbroken 19 year old girl is described her grandfather in the hours before her suicide as her grandfather remembers,  ” He had no knowledge of her condition. He had often heard her say of late “She wished she was out of the way,” but he did not ask why, nor did she voluntarily assign any reason for her wish.” (The Times, February 20 1890). The fear of not speaking up at the right time or making a mistake and feeling guilt through this is not observed in just victorian London, but also in a modern setting.

-Maisie Miller online assignment #1