Lee Jackson’s Victorian Dictionary contains a multitude of passages that deal strictly with the “proper” diet of a woman living in the Victorian era. In The Lady’s Dressing Room, Baroness Staffe lays out her comprehensive ideas on what exactly a woman of the time should and should not eat. She writes, “In order to avoid growing old (that bankruptcy for the sex!), nourish yourself with food, light, but nutritious and varied, according to the seasons” (Staffe 254). Here Staffe is promising the maintenance of youth, or at least the appearance of youth, by proposing a simple dietary regimen. This promise of youth is problematic because she immediately aligns it with women by saying that aging is the ultimate bane of the sex. She isn’t validating her diet by its health benefits but by how it will keep dieters looking young, and therefore more palatable for a male audience. She goes on to describe a meal that is so sparse, it should hardly count as a meal at all. She recommends only a glass of milk for the first course of the day, followed by “an egg and a vegetable” (254) for the second breakfast. Finally she proposes to dine at six at night, and to “not have too great a number of dishes”. With a meal plan like this it’s shocking that any women survived the Victorian era at all. Staffe values fruits and vegetables, which is commendable, but she goes on to so urgently detest other foods on the bases that they will somehow mar the complexion, that her overall premise is laughable. After discussing a woman who lived almost solely off oranges for forty years she writes, “I cannot say I advise such a diet, but certainly the prettiest women are generally as frugal as camels in their food” (259).
Staffe urges moderation but then goes on to cite and commend various women who eat nearly nothing, in apparent contrast with some of her earlier advice. She operates under the guise of a helping hand; she offers her ideas as a way of attaining beauty and youth, and while she has a few sound concepts, the rest of her advice is so unhealthy that it taints everything else written. Her ideas are often contradictory, and as a result, the only logical conclusion that can be gleamed from her advice is that while she may view her proposed diet positively, it would be both difficult and unhealthy to implement it in Victorian times. The result is a telling piece of indoctrination that tries to compel its readers through manipulation and fable rather than solid rationale.
Works Cited
Staffe, Baroness. “Feminine Diet: Nourishment.” The Lady’s Dressing Room. Victorian London Dictionary. Web. 14 February 2016.