Filthy Victorians 2012 - Sunday Best and Churchgoing

So here we have it, my first day wearing a bustle and corset. It wasn't unpleasant. In fact, i quite enjoyed it, and thanks to the joys of linen clothing, I did not so much as sweat in the gorgeous spring sun.

 

I'm also using this for the facebook competition because, to be honest, i finally felt interesting!

cats attacked my skirt and made it uneven.
Luckily, they are cute and it's easy to
fix.

Damn yellow light.

 So, here's what I'm wearing.

-Hat from Corsets-au (they are the BEST for tiny hats)
-Lovechild Boudoir skirt, strung up.
-Home-made muslin shirt
-My sister's black crow jacket
-60" strand of pearls from I-Love-Pearls
-Funtasma granny boots
-Gallery Serpentine custom corset.

I literally did the best I could
photographing this.
Apparently, I live in a house
without pens.

What I did today was head into Huskisson (the next town over) while my sister got her tattoo touched up. I sat in our favourite cafe and read for three hours, and then I went outside and sat at the wharf to read. Quite a lovely day!

The Victorian era idea of Sunday was rather like the idea of Sunday in previous centuries - church. Hence came the idea of your "sunday best" - the best clothes you had, you wore to church. Women who were not in mourning wore creams and pastel colours as well as headcoverings, and men wore their best day suits. The idea was that you were supposed to be showing reverence by looking your best at church, but really, I think it was just another way for bored housewives to show off to each other. Sunday Best was - and often is - a contest.

If you attend church, or plan to for 2012 (in the interest of historical accuracy, as I am considering finding a good, suitably grand cathedral) then having your Sunday Best is essential - from your best bustle to your bonnet, I am sure you will look fabulous! However, if you are a Woman of Science (and not fanciful things such as religion), or perhaps you're just Granny Weatherwax, you should have suitable attire for sunday in any case.

Accidental buttpic! I liked it though. XD

A good church-going bonnet, for any practising religious folk amongst you, can be purchased from a good internet site, like Covered for Him or the Mennonite Maidens. Such businesses are usually only too happy to make custom things, so if you can give them an example of what you want, they can make them. Headscarves are also appropriate, and can be made easily. I often MacGuyver my shawl into a headscarf for when it's raining heavily or if I'm just not having a good hair day. It's easily done with bobby pins and clips.

Your best corsetry is to be worn on sundays - your smallest waist - but being conservative with your bustles on a sunday is a good idea. Make sure your clothing is not mostly stark-white, but off-white and pastel colours. A straw bonnet (which you can make from a straw hat) decorated with pink ribbons and pretend flowers is also appropriate for church-going.

Today's waistline. Any comments?

In summary, churchgoing in the 19th century was much as it is today: a pointless and rather ongoing affair that relies on pomp and circumstance.

...should I introduce the Catholic Church of Melbourne to Hurricane Kitty, do you think?

;3

Party on, Goths. :D

PS: Here's a picture of my hair after I took it out. And no, I'm not naked. That's what shaun thought and I figured I would just end that right there.

Sea air+bun. Also, why do I always look like I have
grease paint on?! Stupid room!

Do you know what REALLY grinds my gears?

Rant post: ENGAGE.

I fucking hate it when I'm on the bookface (mine is here if you so wish to befriend me and found out how terrible I am in real time - just put who you are in the optional message thingy!) and someone posts a status, usually about something that just plain isn't right. I respond to it, giving valid arguments, and then I get a response.

Eagerly, I click it, ready to read the bullshit I have started - only to see that the person has responded to something - just not what I have written. They literally make up their own response to argue against.

I had a friend who did this ALL THE TIME. She'd post something about how birth control was BAD EVIL WRONG (and how her paternal grandfather, a devout catholic, used the "rhythm method" of contraception, and thought nothing of how that resulted into him having eleven children - totally believing that they had that many kids from choice and not because they used bollucks contraception). I would point out that no, that's not how the human body works, or has ever worked. I'd then get a response that had....nothing to do with the point i'd just made. Here's an example.

Her: CONDOMS DON'T WORK. ONLY THE RHYTHM METHOD WORKS 100%!

Me: The fuck? No. No it doesn't. Women can get pregnant at any and all times of their cycle. Please do some research.

Her: PILLS ARE WORSE, THEY NEVER WORK EVER!

Me: Well, yes they do. I would know. I take them. Mostly for my horrible period pains that literally nearly kill me.

Her: WELL I USED TO HAVE PERIOD PAIN. I CUT OUT RED MEAT AND DAIRY AND IT WENT AWAY!

Me: I'm a vegetarian and lactose-intolerant. I doubt that's the problem.

Her: ABORTION IS WRONG.

Literally. Lit. Er.Al. Ly. that was her response. She also said she opposed abortion because her father tried to force a miscarriage by making her mother drink turpentine. And this is a valid reason to oppose abortion - "my mother was scared and tried to miscarry in a way that could have killed her. Ergo I will take away the save avenue for women in these situations, so as to cause more of these stories". What the fuck is the LOGIC behind that? If I found out my mother had done the same thing, it would only make me support abortion more.

She actually deleted me from facebook after I asked her if she even actually read what I was saying to her, several times, after she just kept arguing a point that wasn't brought up.

People who do this can't comprehend a valid argument, and those they make themselves make no sense.

Not to mention, the points she was making were totally stupid.

SPEAKING OF STUPID, here's some more.

I follow a blag of a woman who is usually interesting, if a little too aroused by Jesus. Her grandbabies are cute, and she posts good recipes, but occasionally, she posts some severely retarded shit. Recently, she posted about how girls probably shouldn't keep diaries or journals (on her personal blag, the irony is delicious) because it wasn't teaching them housewifery skills. 

(to her credit, she was responding with "probably not but everyone is different" to someone saying no girl, under any circmstance, should have a journal or diary because they don't learn to be good wives and adolescence is so confusing. don't know where the teenager part fits in, but there we go, because apparently comprehending your repressed sexuality, personality and emotions caused by parents viewing you as cattle rather than a daughter is a terrible thing)

I commented sarcastically with "This just in, women not people, do not have feelings". Then what did she do?

Went on a tirade about me being brainwashed by the government and schools.

....what the fuck?

She believes that the government is out to get her and her family. She is dead-set on conspiracies that say that "big pharma" is trying to murder her grandchildren.

Oh, and she believes the Nazi party were communists. Yeah, that explains the berlin wall, lady - it was to separate the communists from the communists!

Firstly, lady, I'm in Australia. I've stated this. The American government does not brainwash their own, let alone Australian students.

Secondly, lady, I went to public schools, but generally everything I learned about the world, and politics, and my beliefs? I learned from my mother. Brb. Calling my mother, because she's the government.

Thirdly, lady, dear god, you're insane. You homeschooled your children and forced them into your beliefs - but that's not brainwashing.

Pure and simple; I fear for you, America.

Party on, Goths - at least, until the communazi Obama comes and takes away your guns and gives people affordable healthcare, God forbid the poor have human rights!