Musings on Victorian Double Standards

Bending down to pick up ten dollars which dropped from her hand, she felt a jolt to her bottom-someone had kicked her. She looked up only to see that the violator had run off laughing at her. His laughter was a physical response to his amusement- her body bent over and her choice of life. …

A Tale of Two Prostitutes-Notes on the Victorian Social Order

In the nineteenth century, a woman who owned property, made high wages, had sex outside of marriage (or outside the missionary position) and was not ashamed may well have been involved in nineteenth century sex work. These “public women” challenged and subverted the Victorian cultural universals that upheld traits of purity, piety, domesticity and submission …