These Victorian women had some great answers to the magazine that asked why they weren’t married
We’re grateful to Bob Nicholson for sharing some of the answers women sent in to Tit-Bits in 1889 after the magazine invited them to answer the question, ‘Why Am I A Spinster’.
In 1889, Tit-Bits magazine offered prizes to single, female readers who sent in the best answers to the question: ‘Why Am I A Spinster?’ Here are some highlights… pic.twitter.com/7gRG0kVbUO
— Dr Bob Nicholson (@DigiVictorian) February 17, 2018
And here they are.
And the story didn’t end there.
The inclusion of readers' addresses makes it possible to find them in the census. Florence Watts, for example, worked as an 'artist / painter' in 1881. However, one year after entering Tit-Bits' competition, she abandoned spinsterhood and married a writer named Herbert Flowerdew!
— Dr Bob Nicholson (@DigiVictorian) February 17, 2018
Here's the census record for Florence Flowerdew (née Watts) from 1911. No occupation listed for her, but women's work was often under-reported. Sadly, her husband died 6 years later after reportedly struggling with depression and (possibly) a suicide attempt. pic.twitter.com/8Ztbq7IOwv
— Dr Bob Nicholson (@DigiVictorian) February 17, 2018
One of the reasons I enjoyed the witty, self-confident responses to Tit-Bits’ competition is that Victorian depictions of spinsters were usually the exact opposite. Take this joke from Answers magazine (1891), for instance… pic.twitter.com/EcA02fZqAE
— Dr Bob Nicholson (@DigiVictorian) August 30, 2018
This joke appeared on the front page of Tit-Bits a few days later…
[cc: @VictorianHumour] pic.twitter.com/BEF7MfPFBl— Dr Bob Nicholson (@DigiVictorian) February 18, 2018
Love this one! pic.twitter.com/6eGEtJyLio
— Cave Monsters Now on #Kickstarter (@cavemonsters) February 17, 2018
Yes! That one and this one. pic.twitter.com/K4vFBtJDyJ
— Heather of Vegas (@HeatherofVegas) February 17, 2018
The Miss Annie Newton one: do you think it’s real or put there by the editors?
— atypicallinguist (@atypicalinguist) February 17, 2018
I suspect it was submitted by a reader, but deliberately written as a parody of working class dialect/literacy. Cooks often appeared in 19thC jokes, and usually with comic dialect like this. The competition invited funny/witty responses; think this is an attempt at a joke.
— Dr Bob Nicholson (@DigiVictorian) February 17, 2018