Victorian Women Revealed Why They Stayed Single, And Their Reasons Are Surprisingly Savage
You probably think of the Victorian era as a time when everyone – especially women – strived to be as prim and proper as possible. But the ladies who wrote to the 19th-century magazine Tit-Bits were, let’s just say, pretty savage – especially when it came to men. These members of the so-called fairer sex gave refreshingly frank, surprisingly witty and occasionally heartbreaking answers to the question “Why am I a spinster?” And even now, their responses are bound to strike a chord.
20. I can’t be tamed
Let’s face it: not everyone is cut out for marriage. Some would rather spend their lives on their own, making their own decisions without anyone else’s input. And even in the Victorian era, Sarah Kennerly considered herself to be one such free spirit. She explained her choices to Tit-Bits using a wild horse metaphor.
Stuck to stitching
Yet while, as Kilbride claimed, these crafts were accepted “with much pleasure” by potential suitors, the guys never returned the favor – or, you know, wanted to marry her. Instead, she wrote, she had become “a derelict cargo of treasure on the shore of the nuptial sea.” No wonder she stuck to stitching.
19. I just wanted to win this contest
The women who submitted their stories to Tit-Bits were, on the whole, very much single. Londoner Lilian Harris claimed, by contrast, that she had found her “beau ideal.” But according to the 21-year-old, she still found herself alone – and for a hilarious reason.
'Spinsters Prize’
Harris admitted – seemingly as a joke – that it was the magazine’s very contest that had convinced her to part from her perfect boyfriend. The single lady wrote, “Then why am I a spinster? ’Tis Tit-Bits to blame. I long to gain the ‘Spinsters Prize’ and so be known to fame.” She at least got her name in the magazine, so mission almost accomplished.
