Were Victorians Prudes?

Were our ancestors really that uptight?

People of the Victorian period (until 1901) and the Edwardian period (1901-1914) have acquired a reputation—if countless television programs and movies are any guide—as dull, stuffy Puritans who fainted dead away at the sight of a naked ankle.

The first thing to note is that cultural taboos—the things Never To Be Uttered—change over time. Today, any speech interpretable as racist or sexist will get one banished from decent society. Clearly that was not the case in the Gilded Age, which had very different ideas about those things than we do today. Then, it was public discussion of one’s sexuality that was considered beyond the pale, and going on about it at a dinner party, for example, would mean you’d likely not be invited back.

Or worse—if you committed your sexy thoughts to paper—you might wind up in jail.