No single mother could be described as a layabout and, so far the prejudicial impact of the 19th century carries on and, the Victorian epoch inflicted unthinkable expectations on women that are still with us and; it’s up to us to put them to sleep.
Being in the family way at sixteen meant that the mother was ignored, whether she was married or not. In Victorian culture, the whole schmear had to be of good repute. One was at no time allowed to go to school looking scruffy and, friends were not allowed to come over to visit without a weeks notice and, women didn’t go drinking alcohol for being afraid of being labeled a whore.
There’s still a shortfall of female emancipation in the British governmental and mainstream comprehension of women; it’s been there since the Victorian epoch which inflicted deep-seated, impractical expectations on women and, it still remains, for when you consider it, it wasn’t that long ago.
If you consider your grandparents, their parents were Victorians, it’s so immediate, that there’s a living memory of it, it’s under our noses and under our skin.
No mother should be named a good-for-nothing and, we can speak about the awe of the 21st century till we’re lying in technological landfill, but there will still be mothers embarrassed by their pregnant daughters, telling them they’re not of good repute.
Ethical morality shouldn’t be forced down our gullets, particularly when it brings about such an unconscious misogyny on both sides of the gender divide.
Respectability attained its summit in 1834, three years prior to Queen Victoria becoming Queen, yet its spectre is encountered all through her rule as something which is so inherent, so underhanded, that it’s believed to differentiate the middle class of society.
Although its phraseology is without doubt levelling off in 2013, its Victorian presence remains and, it remains in the way people instinctively behave in the expression of a single mother, or family of six on benefits in the mainstream media.
The unmarried mother is viewed all through Victorian creative writing and neo-victoriana as avoided and adversity and, conformity on the subject from that time shows this facet and, an aspiration to help but as well displays the flip side that a great deal were panicked by the belief that women got in the family way to obtain financial benefit and, to trap a man, because they were idle.
There aren’t many professions that are more arduous than being a single mum, no single mother should ever be hailed a loafer and, when the tabloids stigmatise single mums on benefits good-for-nothings they’re strengthening those Victorian views, but not only that, they have little to no concept of how their views and, the societal climate their views generated, then affected that family.
THE MONTHLY MOSQUITO 