Brighton Argus on Victorian Contempt for Mannish Women

Public Domain Old Postcard Wikimedia Origin Unknown

Bicycle-riding, divided-skirt, short-haired, cigarette-smoking mannish women - how dare they model themselves on men, on their physique and independence! 

On 19 June, 1895, an article appeared in the Brighton's Argus newspaper entitled "Women Past or Present." The article consisted of a scathing attack, which was a comparison of the current modern woman with "our grandmothers." The author, an upper-class Victorian lady, gives full vent to her fury.

Author, Lady Greville, says that she has great contempt for the mannish women of the day, who should look to the women of the past for a lesson in ladylike behaviour.

"Many women have wished they had been born men, with man's physique, his independence, his strengths, his advantages and capabilities, but surely no sensible woman could wish to resemble an emasculated man, or what is commonly called a masculine female? To be advanced nowadays means to have thrown every shred of femininity to the wind, to ignore tradition, heredity, all the teachings of science and most of the lessons of experience."

Academic Excellence of Women Past

Most of the article emphasises the academic excellence of woman of the past. What it doesn't mention, is that this "excellence" depended largely on the privileges gained by a few women with access to money and to education. Since Lady Greville is protecting a point of view, she deliberately ignores this disparity. Instead she asserts that women's rebellion in the present day was found in the "sturm and drang" of life.

"Sturm and drang" means "storm and impulse," a popular German movement in literature and music which ran from 1760 to 1780. This movement was in favour of the free expression of emotion, and was intended to counter the rationalism of the Enlightenment.

Bicycle-Riding, Divided Skirt, Short-Haired, Cigarette-Smoking Mannish Women

Lady Greville continues her tirade:

"The bicycle-riding, divided-skirt, short-haired, cigarette-smoking females of today may feel themselves immensely free and congratulate themselves on their immunity from the shackles of conventionality, but is their triumph so great, is it not easily discounted when we sit down soberly and ask what it has gained in the sum of human happiness?"

Then Lady Greville roundly emphasises the "disabilities of women including stays and tears" which, she said, could not be discarded so lightly, leaving only cynicism, unreality, revolt and discontent.

Two of Lady Greville's "mannish" contemporaries were Angela Burdett-Coutts (1814-1906) a lesbian philanthropist and Harriett Rowell, also known as Miss Elphinstone-Dick, (1858-1902) who taught swimming in Brighton in the 1870s before emigrating to Australia with her lover.

Sources:

• Lady Greville "Women Past and Present" The Argus, Brighton, 19 June 1895.
• Adapted from: Cameron, Janet, LGBT Brighton and Hove, Amberley Publishing, 2010.