I THINK WE'RE ALONE NOW
In a world where women and men work together every day, (hopefully soon in real offices again!) it’s rare to even think twice about being alone with a colleague of another gender. Usually, we only notice it if there’s a reason, whether innocent or – occasionally – inappropriate.
But in the 19th century, men and women who were not either married or related to each other would not have been alone together in a room without considerable risk to their reputations. BOTH their reputations, by the way.
While chaperonage wasn’t as strict as it might have been in earlier centuries, women, whether married or unmarried, were still expected to be extremely cautious about their behavior, and anyone in charge of them was expected to keep a good eye on the proprieties. By the late 19th century, that extended to the work environment, as women moved into offices and factories.
Early factories, like the New England mills, made a careful point of assuring parents that their daughters would be well supervised. That faded as time went on, but it was still very clear that a “respectable” employer would never allow a male boss to be alone with a young female worker.
The same applied to the young lady clerks and typists who were starting to take jobs in offices. Their bosses would have been carefully formal, and careful to avoid being alone with them. Part of that was also the simple fact that men weren’t entirely sure how to deal with female co-workers. They hadn’t had them before, after all!
All of this, we should note, is not simply out of a desire to protect the ladies’ reputations. Victorians were exceedingly concerned with virtue and respectability for men, too. A “bad reputation” would not be the same kind of social death for a man as a woman, but a man who could not be trusted with women could not be trusted in other areas, either.
These mores are very much in play for Ella Shane. She’s a woman who has made a successful life for herself in a respectable opera career, to be sure, but one who plays men on stage and hasn’t troubled to marry. So, it’s not just for love and companionship that she lives with her cousin Tommy Hurley – or he with her.
He provides her with the appropriate male protector that a woman is expected to have. She provides him with a reason for not being married, so people don’t, as Ella puts it “ask questions they don’t really want answered.” Modern readers figure out pretty quickly that Tommy is gay, and that it’s simply not discussed in his world. (Tommy’s orientation and his life are a whole different #ThrowbackThursday post!)
But everywhere Ella goes, she’s with either Tommy, or her dresser Anna.
In A FATAL FINALE, the Duke visits Ella in her dressing room, and they have a very personal conversation about the murder – and other things. During the editing process, someone asked me if Anna should be in the room during that talk. I assured them that not only should Anna be there, she had to be. Neither Ella, nor the Duke, would ever risk being alone together, especially not in such an obvious place as her dressing room.
Though for them, it’s not just the forms. In the case of Ella and the Duke, those suspicious Victorians are entirely right to worry about what might happen if they’re ever really alone!
Got a #ThrowbackThursday idea? Drop it in the comments.
But in the 19th century, men and women who were not either married or related to each other would not have been alone together in a room without considerable risk to their reputations. BOTH their reputations, by the way.
While chaperonage wasn’t as strict as it might have been in earlier centuries, women, whether married or unmarried, were still expected to be extremely cautious about their behavior, and anyone in charge of them was expected to keep a good eye on the proprieties. By the late 19th century, that extended to the work environment, as women moved into offices and factories.
Early factories, like the New England mills, made a careful point of assuring parents that their daughters would be well supervised. That faded as time went on, but it was still very clear that a “respectable” employer would never allow a male boss to be alone with a young female worker.
The same applied to the young lady clerks and typists who were starting to take jobs in offices. Their bosses would have been carefully formal, and careful to avoid being alone with them. Part of that was also the simple fact that men weren’t entirely sure how to deal with female co-workers. They hadn’t had them before, after all!
All of this, we should note, is not simply out of a desire to protect the ladies’ reputations. Victorians were exceedingly concerned with virtue and respectability for men, too. A “bad reputation” would not be the same kind of social death for a man as a woman, but a man who could not be trusted with women could not be trusted in other areas, either.
These mores are very much in play for Ella Shane. She’s a woman who has made a successful life for herself in a respectable opera career, to be sure, but one who plays men on stage and hasn’t troubled to marry. So, it’s not just for love and companionship that she lives with her cousin Tommy Hurley – or he with her.
He provides her with the appropriate male protector that a woman is expected to have. She provides him with a reason for not being married, so people don’t, as Ella puts it “ask questions they don’t really want answered.” Modern readers figure out pretty quickly that Tommy is gay, and that it’s simply not discussed in his world. (Tommy’s orientation and his life are a whole different #ThrowbackThursday post!)
But everywhere Ella goes, she’s with either Tommy, or her dresser Anna.
In A FATAL FINALE, the Duke visits Ella in her dressing room, and they have a very personal conversation about the murder – and other things. During the editing process, someone asked me if Anna should be in the room during that talk. I assured them that not only should Anna be there, she had to be. Neither Ella, nor the Duke, would ever risk being alone together, especially not in such an obvious place as her dressing room.
Though for them, it’s not just the forms. In the case of Ella and the Duke, those suspicious Victorians are entirely right to worry about what might happen if they’re ever really alone!
Got a #ThrowbackThursday idea? Drop it in the comments.
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