So recently I stumbled across an article that was written back in 2007 by the New York Observer called "The New Victorians." I actually stumbled across this from having Googled the term "New Victorian" from a book I was reading on dollhouses. It mentioned a particular woman who makes dolls (I forget her name, but the book mentions that she calls herself a "New Victorian").
Here is a link to the article: The New Victorians
I found it very interesting because I think in many ways I am fit the description of being a New Victorian plus it is the description of the type of woman I like in many ways. To put it simply, New Victorians are people for whom being anti-establishment and revolting (i.e. flitting away one's twenties through drinking, parties, constant sex with different partners, and a general lack of discipline) has become so establishment that they are "revolting" by reverting back to the "old" ways (prior 1960s: discipline, hard work, focus, concentration on career, maybe starting a family early and marrying early, etc...).
New Victorians admire and adhere to traditional values. Now this does not mean that they are reverting back to the old ways of Victorian England or 1940s and 1950s America, where a woman's place was strictly in the kitchen. But basically that they are taking the best of the Old and mixing it with the best of the New.
There were many good, traditional values of the old days. That said, there were some bad values as well, most notably the limits women were placed under. With the start of the 1960s, there were many good things that came with that, namely a liberal attitude that was very open to women in the workplace, women being equal to men in most* respects, and so forth. With this came some bad attitudes as well, such as a constant attitude of having to revolt against any and all forms of authority, a lack of discipline, partying away one's life, getting high on drugs, being stupid, and so forth.
New Vics take the best of the New and mix it with the best of the Old. New Vics do not have to be Republican or Democrat, one can find New Vics on both sides.
New Victorian women are likely not to dress in revealing manners and definitely not in the bare open fashion that many women today dress in. This is, again, a revolt against the current, which at it's beginning was a revolt itself, but has now become so normal, that it is a revolt to go back to conservative dress. The argument given by the people who like to "show off" the human body is that "the human body is a beautiful thing and there is nothing sinful or dirty about it." Well this I agree with, and at the time when this first started, it was truly revolutionary. But now it has become so much the norm to see women in skimpy dress that to find a woman who dresses conservatively and more covered up actually seems like the "anti-establishment" means of dressing.
However, among New Victorians, this form of dress can actually be very sexy, but in a different fashion. Basically it's the mystery of "what's under there." The allure of what the woman has hiding beneath that prim and proper clothing.
In this regard, both conservative dress and "skimpy" dress are very sexual and about the human body, but in different ways. It is interesting to think about, too. If all the women are dressed conservatively and it becomes a norm, then seeing a woman dressed with skimpy clothing is very sexual. But when the skimpy clothing becomes the norm, then seeing a woman dressed conservatively can be incredibly sexual, because unlike with the other women, a man is left with the mystery of what is under that clothing, as I mentioned above.
So anyone out there consider themselves to be a New Victorian? I do not know if there is an actual "movement" of people who call themselves New Victorians or if the Observer is just giving an official name to what is a group of people that have technically always existed, but I find it cool nonetheless.
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