fandomsecrets | [ SECRET POST #3172 ]

⌈ Secret Post #3172 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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(Ollie Locke)

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[Forever]

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[Doctor Who]

Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 013 secrets from Secret Submission Post #453.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 1 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

But if you actually check out their website, and how she describes how they came into living the lifestyle they do, they admit that it's their method of study. Who says you have to throw out /everything/ to be authentic? They aren't trying to meet someone's particular standards, but do what makes them happy. So many people seem to be missing that. She talks about how she enjoys using less, and how taking the steps to prepare things herself makes them more mindful of what and how much they are using. You don't have to forego vaccines, live through all the suffering, and whatnot to experience the good parts of things. Nor does excluding those mean you aren't aware of how hard it really was for others. These people are historians, though not in the same sense as many are used to.

I think it's fascinating what they can learn by going through at least half of the motions of living through that time, even if not all of it is 100% accurate. She talks about how it began with a love of the clothing, and grew from there. So isn't it a transformative process? Isn't it very personal to them? I don't know that I'd call it hipster because they aren't telling other people what to do, and they get enough hate. There are other people who live like this too, and are very happy. Who cares if it's just 72% accurate, it's not like they're trying to make Victorian of the year or something.

This is like cosplayer elitsm or something, like if you aren't a good fan of something and don't wear every last accessory, you did it wrong...

she wrote a book about how her husband's gift of a corset transformed her life and turned her into a gracious Victorian lady...except that the book is apparently full of ungracious jabs at women who don't share her love for Victoriana. Not very gracious, if you ask me.

But otherwise, I tend to agree with you. Yes, she's chosen a slower lifestyle that requires a substantial commitment in time and (at least up front; I don't know about the long run) money. Some of the posters on this thread have labeled this the act of someone who's "massively privileged and with too much time on her hands." But the same could also be said of the rather sizable fraction of fandom people who spend 20 to 40 hours a week on TV, social media, gaming and fic. But just imagine the tremendous howl of outrage that would go up to heaven if you did! People are massively hypocritical about stuff like this: "HVDU judge me for how I spend my discretionary time and money...but I'm going to side-eye the fuck out of the way this other person spends their discretionary time and money!"

Oh gosh, I didn't realize the book thing. :( That's disappointing.

But yeah, I prefer the live-and-let-live approach to hobbies. If no one's forcing their hobby on me, who the hell cares what they do for their own? She seems really happy doing it. It's her passion, it doesn't matter how accurate or not it is.

Who cares if it's just 72% accurate, it's not like they're trying to make Victorian of the year or something. This is like cosplayer elitism, like if you aren't a good fan of something and don't wear every last accessory, you did it wrong.

Less criticizing her for not being authentic enough, than calling her on what they perceive as hypocrisy: "So you want to live in the past? You think it was better back then? Okay, missy, no antibiotics, tetanus shots, tampons, high-tech emergency medical interventions, or voting for you! How do you like your bygone era now?"

I think you can cherrypick parts of the past for fun and as a personal project, without taking it 100% seriously. Like, I listen to Viking metal and enjoy some of the imagery etc, but I don't actually want to *live* like the Norse, lol, I'd probably *die* like the Norse pretty quick. If people want to cosplay the romantic aspects of Victoriana that's great, but if they start insisting that everything was way back better then like that tumblr Tory wanker, I'm gonna laugh at them.

You said it all so much better than me. What I got from the article is that she enjoys the better parts of it. People would sideeye her just as much for trying to live 100% by the bad parts if that was what she focused on, so there's no harm in focusing on the good as long as she's not professing that's all there ever was.

It sounds as if she's also defending some aspects of the era, and I think that's understandable: this is also an age of activism against slavery and for women's rights, an age that saw the birth of socialism and quantum theory, the age of Darwin and Edison. Books were cheaper and more widely available than ever before, literacy was becoming more widespread, and even the fashions that our Luddite blogger loves so much were becoming accessible to a much wider public than ever before. Everyone keeps saying that the standards of gracious living we think of as "Victorian" were only available to the wealthiest, but IIRC, standards of living were improving even for the poor.

Oh yeah it wasn't the worst, it was a fascinating time of change leading to today! I suppose I'm talking about rose-tinted brass-goggled people who might think it was all better and more ~authentic than today (in terms of rights, health and wealth).

"Rose-tinted brass-goggled people" is a beautiful phrase.

[ SECRET POST #3172 ]

Re: Oh, seriously (neo-victorian hipsters)

Re: Oh, seriously (neo-victorian hipsters)

Re: Oh, seriously (neo-victorian hipsters)

Re: Oh, seriously (neo-victorian hipsters)

Re: Oh, seriously (neo-victorian hipsters)

Re: Oh, seriously (neo-victorian hipsters)

Re: Oh, seriously (neo-victorian hipsters)

Re: Oh, seriously (neo-victorian hipsters)

Re: Oh, seriously (neo-victorian hipsters)