The Ideal of a victorian woman

Fashion 

The mid-nineteenth century lady was a vision of elegance and grace, women wanted to look like fragile ladies and wanted a beauty like a flower. New machinery and materials changed clothing in many ways.  Like the  new clothing matertials from british colonies came and new tequnic in dying the clothes med the clothes brighter. Clothes was  made in different colors, from pastels to darker colors. Different shades of green were very popular

Women's fashions changed enormously and rapidly through the 1800s.  A typicall Victorian dress was trimmed with frills, flounces, lace, braid, fringe, ruche and ribbons.  Petticoats, corsets, chemises were worn under gowns. By the 1850s the number of petticoats was reduced and the crinoline was worn. The Bell-shaped skirts became wider and wider. 

Woman putting on a crinoline. Looks very cumfy. I can imagine how it must be going to the toilet.

Day dresses had a solid bodice and evening gowns had a very low neckline and were worn off the shoulder with shawls. The neckline was worn in a high V-neck. The dress was worn in two pieces and connected with hooks and ties. The sleeves changed many times throughout the era. They used boots/ shoes with heels and pointed or squared toes.

Accessories they were was : 

-          Shawls, cloaks, mantles, scarves and little aprons. 

-          Gloves and parasols.

-          Large brooches were worn at the throat

-           large and small earrings.

-           fans , Boas made of feathers or fur.

 

-          But the most popular accessorie was the hat:

-          Hats were primarily used as a protection from the sun, they wanted to be pale... In the late years, hats became a symbol of style statement and authority.

 

Found a bit funny video on youtube about the how the Ideal victorian woman should act and dress. 

I dont think I would be to happy living in that time. It seems like they did not have a lot of indenpence and their lifes went from living at home with their parents and straight to living with your husband and then lving for your children. Constantly pleasing others.

Family life

By the Victorian era, the concept of "pater familias", meaning the husband as head of the household and moral leader of his family, was firmly entrenched in British culture. A wife's proper role was to love, honour and obey her husband, as her marriage vows stated. A wife's place in the family hierarchy was secondary to her husband, but far from being considered unimportant, a wife's duties to tend to her husband and properly raise her children were considered crucial cornerstones of social stability by the Victorians. Women seen as falling short of society's expectations were believed to be deserving of harsh criticism.

Sexuality

The ideal Victorian woman was pure, chaste, refined, and modest. This ideal was supported by etiquette and manners.

Women were expected to have sex with only one man, their husband. However, it was acceptable for men to have multiple partners in their life. If women did have sexual contact with another man, they were seen as ruined or fallen.

 I find these picture very sad. It really hit me. The Outcast by Richard Redgrave, 1851. A patriarch kicking his daughter and her illegitimate baby out of the house. . Victorian women had few legal rights to protect them, including child support or secure employment.

Frederic Watts, c.1850, depicts a woman's body washed up beneath the arch of Waterloo Bridge, drowned after throwing herself in the river to escape the shame of being a "fallen woman"

Education

Women were not freely offered  the opportunity to study subjects of an extended, classical, and commercial nature. This made it difficult for a woman to break free from the societal constraints to achieve independent economical status. Education was specialised by gender. They could study history, geography and general literature which would give them interesting but noncontroversial topics for discussion. The male subjects was law, physics, engineering, science and art. It was said studying this was against their nature and they could get ill from it.