It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a woman in possession of a love of history, must be in want of a blog.
There are many legends about the possible origin of foot binding. One story relates that during the Shang Dynasty (c.1600-c.1046 BC), the concubine Daji, who was said to have clubfoot, asked the Emperor to make foot binding mandatory for all girls so that her own feet would be the standard of beauty and elegance. Another …
Recently I came across two curious 1840s lithographs from the Library of Congress online image collection. Titled "Stages of Woman's life from the cradle to the grave", both lithographs portray the ideal trajectory of a woman's life according to the prevailing European and North American social norms. The principal feminine virtues depicted are chastity, religion, …
Continue reading Stages of Woman’s life from the cradle to the grave
Although we are regularly reminded of the potential health risks of drinking too much coffee, to my knowledge no-one has yet argued that men ought to cut back on coffee because it makes them impotent. However, that is exactly what one bawdy pamphlet from 1674 claims. Given the catchy title of The Women's petition against …
Continue reading Does coffee make men impotent? a 17th-century perspective