"Ware dem debyootants be at?"
Posted on 04/09/2017 1:14:10 PM PDT by NRx
“When I met you in the restaurant you could tell I was no debutante”
Blondie! :-)
That is the actress and pinup girl Evelyn Nesbit, who wound up in a messy love triangle that culminated with Harry Thaw (her husband) shooting architect Stanford White dead at the Roof Garden cabaret in NYC.
"Stanny White died, but my fate was worse. I lived."
- Evelyn Nesbit Thaw
I noticed only the polar bear’s toothy grin.
I really like this stuff, and I enjoyed the article.
That being said, it glosses over much of society in a way which (I feel) feeds into the Leftwing meme of “oppressed women”.
Most women worked. Most women had jobs. Factory girl, milk maid, parlor maid, whatever. The idea that being a debutante and then a “wife” was your sole career option is just ridiculous.
Very few women were ever debutantes. Most women had ordinary lives. The trope that women were oppressed and forced into extremely constricting roles by a patriarchal society is an error.
Yes,I knew that picture looked familiar.
Nowadays "Coming Out" means something entirely different.
Wonder what the hard core feminazis think of this?
"Ware dem debyootants be at?"
I enjoyed this article and hope you post more! I like reading about those times, and all strata of society. From Laura Ingalls Wilder’s life as a pioneer’s daughter to the life of the American aristocrats. It is interesting thought that from lower to upper levels, it was understood that honorable young men and women obeyed societies rules. I think our society was much safer and more stable as a result.
Blondie. Great song.
Hurry up
Hurry up
Hurry up and wait
I was doing some family history stuff, I noticed that women married between 16 and 18, in more civilized times.
LOL. She had a very distinctive face, and she was “the” girl at the turn of the previous century. Charles Dana Gibson based the “Gibson Girl” on her.
Have you read the books about her (THE GIRL IN THE RED VELVET SWING and AMERICAN EVE and PRODIGAL DAYS:THE UNTOLD STORY OF EVELYN NESBIT ) and/or have you seen the movie ( THE GIRL IN THE RED VELVET SWING ), with a very young Joan Collins?
Agreed.
Though they hint at American style with the chaperone discussion. However, I for one think chaperones are a good idea - unless you’re over 18, maybe.
Women - and children - had to work, in some way. Only the wealthy generally didn’t work a “job”, getting $, or even tending to back-breaking details of homemaking.
Well..........to some extent you are correct; however, there was a LOT of sub rosa goings on. I don’t want to go OT and ruin this delightful thread, so send me a FRmail, if you’d like a book list that would enlighten you to some of the tawdry/under the radar stuff and some books that deal with the more “normal” and benign stuff. :-)
When I first started teaching in the late 60s and early 70s in the South, I found that some of my female students (age 18+) talked about their debutante balls and coming out parties. I don’t know if that is still common. But in the Hispanic community the quinceañera is similar. Cubans in Miami make a big deal out of it and try to outdo one another with how lavish they are.
IIRC,the movie, “Ragtime”, was about the Thaw - Nesbitt story — loosely, I expect. Very interesting, in any case.
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