Common Women's History Myths We Need To Let Go

that's a cool photo of an edwardian lady let me see the comments [Music] hi and happy women's history month the internet is a wonderful place but it is also a place where misconceptions grow faster than mold on that trash that you've been forgetting to take out for the past two weeks and unfortunately we love things being simple and easy to comprehend and with history it doesn't really work because making it easy and simplifying things erases a lot of fascinating nuances and details and turns historical facts into weird stereotypes so today let's have a look at the myths that we should let go just a disclaimer that they may not necessarily have to be untrue just the people's perception of them can be a little bit off right now one of the most common jokes i get on my channel is about showing my ankles and this one comes from the giant difference between how we see our bodies and consider some parts to be private and the other ones not necessarily versus how people used to do it back in the victorian and edwardian times first thing that isn't really taken into account here is the class differences so a high society lady could easily rock trained skirts every day but this would definitely not work for a woman working on a farm or in a factory victorian and edwardian women were also very much into sports and long walks be it in the city or in the countryside were a very popular pastime and for all those physical activities wearing a skirt that is floor length could be a serious hazard so shorter skirts were worn those that would show your ankles basically shorter skirts were also worn by basically any girl before the age of more or less 16. so there was actually a lot of ankles and sometimes calves to be seen in the streets not to mention anytime a woman had to get on a carriage or walk upstairs or walk through a muddy path she would have to take the skirt and raise it a little bit showing off her ankles and calves also there were particular styles in the western high fashion that exposed ankles and it wasn't that big of a deal for example a lot of 1770s styles were relatively short and exposed ankles and this trend had a huge comeback in 1820s and 1830s does that mean women's legs were not sexualized of course not it was still something that was mostly covered most of the time and while an occasional flash of an ankle or a calf was considered more or less appropriate if a grown-up woman wanted to walk around the city in a kneeland dress she would most likely ruin her reputation speaking of modesty a common misconception is that since a lot of the body was covered in yield times that means that basically any any piece of skin showing would be considered inappropriate and that's not necessarily true while legs especially thighs were considered a huge taboo at the same time nobody cared about female boobs to be honest it just wasn't a thing for example in 17th and 18th century a nip slip wasn't that uncommon nobody cared and as a female aristocrat you could basically have a portrait taken with your bare breasts showing and nobody would bat an eye and while in the 19th century garments did cover most of the body it only applied today where not necessarily evening wear evening gowns were usually quite generous when it comes to showing off the shoulders and the babaji which is pretty ironic because in a lot of places nowadays exposed shoulders could be clashing with the dress code so some necklines could be extremely low like this one on a photograph of a polish aristocrat so we know she wasn't like a loose woman or anything it just wasn't really that it was it wasn't really considered sexy to be honest i'm not gonna lie by modern standards it does seem pretty weird to get excited by a side of a knee instead but also it kind of shows that considering breast sexual isn't like a natural thing it's just something that society taught us to do in the most watched netflix series of all time aka bridgerton all the girls have no clue how babies are made which leads to some serious issues later on while it is obviously true that sex ed wasn't really a thing back then it was a huge responsibility of parents mostly the mother to make girls aware that's the phrase that has been used in a lot of like polish 19th century magazines that i've seen i'm not sure if it translates to english but that's that's a phrase they used there were literally dozens of books on making girls aware like advising parents how to make girls aware at what age so by the time women were teenagers they may not have had the best understanding of things but they certainly knew about the existence of sex and possible consequences of it so because of the strict morality of the times that was also a way to prevent them from getting themselves into a scandal or messy situations in order not to do the wrong things they had to have a tiny understanding of what the wrong things were of course it was still the absolute minimum and they probably did not know any technical details similarly to daphne in the series but they definitely knew it is something that happens and i'm not sure if you remember what happened at school but basically a lot of the spicy details were distributed girl to girl and since in the 19th century you basically interacted with a lot of people your own age even if your parents failed you there was still a chance one of your friends saw something or was told about something and she did not hesitate to share it with you again it was probably very basic very naive knowledge but it was there if you read jane austen novels which were written around the time that bridgeton is set there is a lot of very subtle sexual context in it for example when lydia runs off with mr wickham and lives with him without being married first and that's a huge scandal or when willoughby seduces colonel brandon's word and leaves her with a baby so the reaction of the characters shows you that it was definitely not something that women were clueless about while we're still in the topic of innocence and modesty there is a certain myth that women in history were all well behaved quiet proper innocent and i mean that was the common social ideal but that doesn't necessarily mean it was successfully implemented if we read biographies of famous women or classic literature it is quite obvious that following social norms and having a pleasant calm disposition did not necessarily go hand in hand a person could be following social rules while at the same time being a plotting evil queen and if you were a rich preferably old woman on the top of your family tree you could basically do anything you didn't have to follow manners you could have odd habits you could swear you could commit fashion atrocities nobody could tell you anything and if we're talking about women in lower classes they definitely did not care about being proper and about manners or anything and hopefully this quote from a research paper on 18th century insults illustrates this well this happened in the mid 18th century by the way anna birnatska in a quarrel with her neighbor while lifting her skirt demanded to be kissed and may i remind you that they did not wear underwear at the time speaking of being a ceo of kiss my ass one of my biggest pet peeves is people assuming that just because women lived in a patriarchal society they didn't enjoy any independence and were basically locked in their houses constantly giving birth i think it's definitely important to underline that neither the law nor the society did anything for women in most of the western history and yes by modern standards it's obviously absolutely awful but at the same time i feel like if we only focus on the oppression it's easy to forget the fantastic women that fought for themselves in the times that many didn't even know they can because unfortunately most of the women didn't even know they were oppressed they were brought up in a particular very strict society they had to take care of their families they had mouths to feed they had work to do they couldn't even read and for most of those women political activism was simply something out of their reach this is why seeing overly feminist characters in movies kind of doesn't always work for me because no your average becky the baker's daughter will not be delivering a speech to her seamstress cousin about how men treat her as an object she simply wouldn't have time for that but that being said women had their ways maybe they didn't go around shouting feminist slogans in the 17th century but a lot of women were able to go through their lives like a badass battering ram and i'm not only talking about like scientists and queens and famous women maybe your average becky the baker's daughter couldn't become a lawyer but that doesn't mean she didn't take over her dad's baking business after he passed away and become the most successful baker in the neighborhood and maybe her seamstress cousin couldn't attend the university but that doesn't mean she didn't completely rule her household or teach her husband to respect her for who she is some women completely dominated their households and there wasn't that much their husbands could do about it on the other hand maybe the rich lord's wife from your area is treated badly by him but at the same time she's a part of the women's anti-slavery movement or or she's a part of the women's animal rights group while it is true that there were virtually no opportunities and the majority of women led simple restricted uneventful by modern standards lives that doesn't mean they weren't fighting for happiness and just because women were expected to be passive it doesn't mean they weren't active and just because women were expected to be quiet it doesn't mean they didn't raise their voices women were speaking up all the time they just weren't necessarily hurt i am still glad that we live in in times where i'm not the only female youtuber that made it if you know what i mean and on this inspiring note thank your ancestors for having the energy to fight for the present us dramatically it doesn't make a lot of sense does it anyway these are all the myths that will fit in today's video thanks for watching and remember that you can become a member of this channel and help me produce more content like this and while enjoying some cool perks in return more information can be found on my channel right next to the channel name see ya

Channel: Karolina Żebrowska

Views: 1,984,832

Keywords:

Id: WMB-wnD8azg

Length: 11min 18sec (678 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 07 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/agreed44]

MEME MOM!!!!

[u/SeattCat]

I’m loving this crossover of Karolina and FSU

[u/Normal-Philosopher-8]

Fundamentalism came to be as a reaction against 1920’s cultural changes. Their reactions of things like “skirts for women” and “nuclear family is best” were about trying to push people back into Victorian mores.

It gets adapted with the years, but it started there.

[u/guayaba_and_cheese]

Meme Mom is the best!!

[u/[deleted]]

No, this is wrong. We all know that LIBERALS invented sex in 1960 as part of their Sexual Revolutionary War on Christmas.

[u/abbyanonymous]

I 💗💗💗her

[u/WheelbarrowQueen]

I LOVE KAROLINA!!!!

[u/amanecita]

Her videos are the best!!

[u/Teege57]

I love her!!