WI: No Victorianism

What if we butterfly away Queen Victoria and the puritanical code of conduct she inspired in Britain?
 
I do not mean to deny that there would be social and other butterflies from a different monarch - for Victoria, coming to the throne in an era when the monarchy still had some political clout and proceeding to become such a towering figure in the popular imagination, they would be enormous; but the puritanical standards of the British middle-classes were not her sole doing. If there's a single simplified explanation, it's that the early-Victorian middle-classes were anxious to prove their moral supremacy over the degenerate aristocracy (and the common people, but that goes without saying), and that one of the ways in which they demonstrated their refinement and sophistication was in making sure the female members of the tribe didn't do anything except play the piano.
 

Thande

Donor
If there's a single simplified explanation, it's that the early-Victorian middle-classes were anxious to prove their moral supremacy over the degenerate aristocracy (and the common people, but that goes without saying), and that one of the ways in which they demonstrated their refinement and sophistication was in making sure the female members of the tribe didn't do anything except play the piano.

Indeed, and as well as being a class thing (perhaps related to the middle classes now being able to vote after the Great Reform Act) it was a case of embarrassed reaction against the decadent debauchery of the Georgians and the Regency in particular.
 
Indeed, and as well as being a class thing (perhaps related to the middle classes now being able to vote after the Great Reform Act) it was a case of embarrassed reaction against the decadent debauchery of the Georgians and the Regency in particular.

Oh, absolutely. We're regency rakes/And each one of us takes/A personal pride/In the thickness of hide/That prevents us from seeing/How vulgar we're being... :D
 
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