From Goodreads description "Ladies, welcome to the 19th century, where there's arsenic in your face cream, a pot of cold pee sits under your bed, and all of your underwear is crotchless. (Why? Shush, dear. A lady doesn't question.) UNMENTIONABLE is your hilarious, illustrated, scandalously honest (yet never crass) guide to the secrets of Victorian womanhood, giving you detailed advice on:
~ What to wear
~ Where to relieve yourself
~ How to conceal your loathsome addiction to menstruating
~ What to expect on your wedding night
~ How to be the perfect Victorian wife
~ Why masturbating will kill you
~ And more"
I like the tone of the writing, it is informative and a bit snarky. It provides and insight, I mostly already knew, life was hard in the 19th century. But is also provides some tidbits I didn't know. Pantaloons were crotchless!
I know that for the most part women had little say over their own lives, but even one of the worst mysoginistc writers of the time, felt they should have some say. “Of all the rights to which a woman is entitled, that of the custody of her own body is the most indubitable.” Ladies' Guide in Health and Disease: Girlhood, Maidenhood, Wifehood, Motherhood By John Harvey Kellogg, published 1884
Maybe some of our politicians etc should listen to that wisdom.
I learned that the Comstock law of 1873 changed what could and could not be mailed. No advertisement for products relating human sexuality or contraceptions. It didn’t make contraceptions themselves illegals but the ability to obtain them was. It started the idea that contraceptions were in equal footing with abortions, an idea we are still having debates over 146 years later.
On cooking in the 19th century “Unless you are excruciatingly careful and sometimes even if you are, look forward to intestinal worms, lead poisoning, and four-day-old unrefrigerated pork with a side of botulism.” Well no one said good food easily obtained.
I know that for the most part women had little say over their own lives, but even one of the worst mysoginistc writers of the time, felt they should have some say. “Of all the rights to which a woman is entitled, that of the custody of her own body is the most indubitable.” Ladies' Guide in Health and Disease: Girlhood, Maidenhood, Wifehood, Motherhood By John Harvey Kellogg, published 1884
Maybe some of our politicians etc should listen to that wisdom.
I learned that the Comstock law of 1873 changed what could and could not be mailed. No advertisement for products relating human sexuality or contraceptions. It didn’t make contraceptions themselves illegals but the ability to obtain them was. It started the idea that contraceptions were in equal footing with abortions, an idea we are still having debates over 146 years later.
On cooking in the 19th century “Unless you are excruciatingly careful and sometimes even if you are, look forward to intestinal worms, lead poisoning, and four-day-old unrefrigerated pork with a side of botulism.” Well no one said good food easily obtained.
Overall it was a fun book, I enjoyed the facts, nothing was really mind-blowing news though.
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