I rather enjoyed that. It was at smallest amount a marvelous change to see Victorians presented as young and lively and sexy. For far too long we have been in thrall to the Bloomsbury view of them.As one of my alter egos, Professor Strange, once wrote:The Victorians do not get a good press these days. A chance trawl of the Internet finds the American AIDS Czarina complaining of a ‘Victorian society that misrepresents information, denies sexuality early, denies homosexuality particularly in teens, and leaves people abandoned with negative place to go.’ A sermon tells us that ‘Thanks to the 1960s, we have known up Victorian hypocrisy when it comes to ourselves.’ And a journalist announces that ‘Victorianism nowadays is usually interpreted to mean little additional than an atmosphere of sexual oppression and hypocrisy’.
Well, I knew Victorians; I worked with Victorians; Victorians were friends of mine. (Indeed, I cannot completely rule out the possibility that I was a Victorian myself.) And I do not believe that they were any additional repressed otherwise hypocritical than we are today.
Yet this libel persists. So much so, that a lot of otherwise clever people are convinced that the Victorians were so frightened of the power of sexuality that they felt obliged to cover up the legs of their pianos. Perhaps you believe it too?
If you want to form a additional balanced view of 19th century Britain I recommend Matthew Sweet's Inventing the Victorians.Incidentally, during the programme some people landed on the blog after penetrating for John Ruskin pubic hair.
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