"Ware dem debyootants be at?"
“When I met you in the restaurant you could tell I was no debutante”
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 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.
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.
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.
Thank goodness.
This is about upper class women.
our ancestors went out to work in the fields, or as maids, cooks, nannies, weavers, or factory workers at age 14.
now, the french are a bunch of black guys running around setting cars on fire- kind of like St. Louis. Oui oui- let me grab my beret
Is the first photo, Evelyn Nesbit Thaw, the supermodel of the 1900s? It seems so.
Interesting... I met Mrs Deplorable at a Shop-Rite...
Thanks for posting. This is a time period that fascinates me.
She looks depressed.
When Ruthie says come see her
In her honky-tonk lagoon,
Where I can watch her waltz for free
‘Neath her Panamanian moon.
An’ I say, “Aw come on now,
You must know about my debutante.”
An’ she says, “Your debutante just knows what you need
But I know what you want.”
Oh, Mama, can this really be the end,
To be stuck inside of Mobile
With the Memphis blues again.
Bob Dylan