Does anyone have any great quotes from times past about how a true lady doesn’t, say, show her knees or ankles, or blah blah types of things? I want to do a photos series of women strictly following this type of ladylike etiquette rules while breaking bunches of others.
For example, a woman sitting something like http://images.inmagine.com/img/bananastock/bs269/bs269035.jpg this sort of position, on a curb or park bench, leaning forward with her elbows on her knees, smoking a cigar… wearing something extremely revealing (like a bikini) or even nude… except for having something very modest covering her knees or ankles or whatever it is that the rule in question is on about.
If your time frame isn’t too rushed I could have some stuff for you by the weekend. I have a few different ettiquette books from the '30s. I also have a book series from the 60s called the Life Cycle Library with some great stuff about why girls shouldn’t call boys, and what to do if your friend is a tomboy. Is that too recent?
I probably won’t be able to post much over the next few days. Would the weekend be soon enough?
I think back in the day (Civil War era), a woman was only supposed to be mentioned in the newspaper twice…the first upon her wedding day, the second upon her death.
So, I would think any newspaper article outside these parameters might qualify.
My idea would be the photographs, with the title of each being something along the lines of “a lady never shows her ankles in public – Miss Manners” or something along those lines.
Any preferences as to time period? Are you willing to read through etiquette manuals yourself? Because there’s a whole pile of primary sources from the early 1800’s into the 1930’s online: Google Books HEARTH Project American Memory at the LOC - search for “etiquette” brings up 202 hits
I could easily dig up an endless pile of quotes as to what you shouldn’t wear and do, but most of them are more situation-specific; i.e., no low boots in winter, or kid gloves with evening dress, or yellow silk except by gaslight, or diamonds in daytime… probably not what you are looking for?
As to body parts, that’s much more time-period-dependent; the attitude to, say, necklines has gone back and forth between low and high several times since 1800. Mostly the manuals warn readers not to adopt the latest or most extreme fashion, whatever that may be at the time, in rather more general terms that would have to be edited down quite a bit to work as a punchline. If you are looking for broad condemnation of specific areas of skin, you might be better off looking at advice manuals, collections of sermons, and “proper living” books rather than etiquette manuals per se.
IAs a first pass you could search Google books for something like etiquette knees date:1700-1950, which brings up the following (among others):
[ul]
[li]To sit with the knees or feet crossed or doubled up, is awkward and un-lady-like. - Florence Hartley, 1872[/li][li]No lady should cross her knees so that her skirts go up to or above them; neither should her foot be thrust out so that her toes are at knee level. - Emily Post, 1922[/li][/ul]
Yeah I don’t really care what era they’re from, the main point is that at some point in time X was considered unladylike, and I have a lady who, were that the ONLY rule, would be totally fitting the rule, however would be unladylike in every other way. Mixing up the time periods would probably actually be more interesting.
I don’t really want to sift through hundreds of pages of books, though, no… I was hoping that people here might have a couple that they’d heard and could pass on. (I don’t need more than maybe 3 or 4 total)
Women should ride sidesaddle. Gloves should be worn in the evening if you are a lady of fashion and high standing. A lady should also use a cigarette holder.
