Alternative Lives

G'ma Crys is watching "Becoming Jane".  I'm not really watching but it is making me especially thankful that I was not alive during that era. 

Women had no opinions that mattered, they had no viewpoints they could share without censure, if they wrote a book, they had to use a male pen  

name, had no professional value beyond embroidery or reading aloud 

or playing piano or singing skills, oh, and let's not forget, procreating,

they had to follow archaic rules of etiquette, they frequently had to

settle for loveless marriages which they were stuck in for eternity, 

or I'm sure it seemed like it anyway.

They were not allowed to inherit any property or money, they had to wear breathtaking clothes (literally), and of course, there were the many modes of discomfort they 

dealt with on a daily basis, no central heating or cooling, no vehicle shocks or springs to speak of and horsehair cushions (have you ever sat on one?).

I think it's one of those eras that generally appears like it must have been very romantic and perfect in a movie or in a television program, but reality 

was truly the opposite, as I've just stated.  

Although if you think about it, there were definitely some high points to living in that era as well. Many fewer extinct species, much less air pollution, no preservatives in the food, few or no prescription drugs introducing potentially lethal chemicals into their bodies, no 50-60 hour work weeks (unless you were a child of course), no styrofoam or other non-biodegradable substances, fully functional rainforests, no polluted water (if you don't count human waste) 

and no real ability to travel great distances unless you had lots and lots of time and the means to do it.

Still, Jane Austen with her superlative skill at illustrating the most

fascinating aspects of everyday life, rocks!