Monthly Archives: June 2010

Puberty: You Better Not Screw It Up

“The foundation of old age, says a distinguished author, is laid in childhood; but the health of middle-life depends upon puberty. Never was there a truer maxim. The two years which change the girl to the woman often seal for ever the happiness or the hopeless misery of her whole life. They decide whether she is to become a healthy, helpful, cheerful wife and mother, or a languid, complaining invalid, to whom marriage is a curse, children an affliction, and life itself a burden.”

–The Physical Life of Woman

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That’s weird — I always thought Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret was more about boys and bras ‘n stuff.

Green Peas Are the New Green M&Ms

“The department of agriculture in Washington, with its leguminotherapy doctrine (whatever that is!), as a recipe for good human temperament— and for cutting down the ‘high cost of living.’

Vegetables are to be taken, according to the leguminotherapists in quantities and varieties that suit the person that eats them.

Boiled carrots are prescribed for bad tempers; green peas should be denied to girls with a tendency to flirt; overindulgence in potatoes is apt to produce apathy and laziness; spinach should be taken, particularly by the young because it produces energy and develops constancy, and French string beans are said to constitute an ideal diet for poets and artists.

White haricot beans should be eaten by intellectual workers, because they restore the nervous system and should, the science hold, be preferred as a strengthening food to any sort of meat and especially beef. Disraeli, Carlyle, Daudet and Ibsen fed on haricot beans.

Cauliflower and cabbages are very nourishing, but are not advocated, because they have the drawback of producing vulgarity of character and slowness of perception.

The leguminotherapists declare that these vegetables have all the good qualities that are embodied in either meat or eggs without having, however, their inconveniences . . . The absence of meat, it is held, prevents persons from becoming vicious and bloodthirsty.”

–The Virginia Enterprise, Friday, March 11, 1910

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As I’ve always said: Sometimes a cucumber is just a cucumber.

(Found by Brenda on HometownFocus.us)

Of Hatpins and Billiard Balls

“As to the objects used by women, both married and unmarried, for the purpose of masturbation, their name is in true legion… the commonest object is the woman’s most handy implement, the hairpin or hatpin. We have often had to remove hairpins and hatpins from the female bladder and vagina.

Corks, ointment jars, pocket knives, rubber balls, paraffin candles, pessaries, perfume bottles, spoons, billiard balls, apples, carrots, etc. etc. are a few of the things which the poor girls and women use to induce an orgasm…”

–Woman: Her Sex and Love Life

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The last list of Items That Can Go Up One’s Bum and/or Urethra went over so well, that I thought I’d include Items That a Woman Can Shove Up Her How-Do-You-Do.

You’re welcome.

Gettin’ Hitched (via Awful Library Books)

Here’s a little somethin’-somethin’ to add to the Hersteria shopping list.

Gettin' Hitched When You Marry Duvall & Hill 1953 Submitter: I’m a ref librarian at a community college & I thought you might like to consider this book for your blog. It’s a GREAT one from 1953 called “When You Marry” & it’s really AWFUL!!! %-) We have a collection that we’ve been weeding for several years now & my boss always seems to find these great tomes – I think the worst one he found was called The Negro in the Meat Packing Industry – tha … Read More

via Awful Library Books

June Hussy of the Month

My lands and stars, I don’t even know where to begin. Look at the lady on the right. A handsome woman, sitting modestly on a public bench, knitting something for the boys overseas, no doubt.

Then look at the trollop on the left. The sly look, the slovenly saddle shoes, the legs akimbo, the bikini top (!!), the trousers . . .

That she’s sitting outside an establishment called “Eatmore” does not escape me. She is clearly the first hussy of summer.


(Photo found at The Sartorialist by the lovely Miss Micada.)

How to Hold Onto Your Husband

“1. Don’t interfere with, or object to, his going out with his men friends, when he wishes to do it. His desire for this is deeper than his own understanding.

2. Inject an element of uncertainty in your relations with him. Don’t give yourself too easily. Attract him constantly with every means, then give him the satisfaction of a little struggle before he makes his conquest.

3. Cater to his idiosyncrasies! Such odd desires are not all abnormal, and you need not let any element of fear or shame interfere.

Follow these rules faithfully, and you will be well insured against marital infidelity.”

–Mothers and Daughters

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I’m fairly certain that the author didn’t intend this to sound as kinky as it does.

Hey, Honey – Thanks for Making It Consensual

[On complimenting men for their sexual performance to build their confidence] “Perhaps more important (and certainly more frequently neglected) are compliments for gentlemanly conduct of less directly satisfying bouts . . . Take the bridegroom who gives his partner a comfortable and easy introduction to sex, for instance; he deserves appreciation for his tender and well-managed attentions, even though his wife has known no joy and manifests no evidence of his success. Or take the impassioned husband who conducts himself in such a way that serving him becomes a comfortable communion instead of legalized rape. Can his wife not properly commend his skill and consideration?”

–The Marriage Art

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I can’t really tell what the author is getting at, and it’s making me really uncomfortable. (Mind you, this is the same guy who told wifey to just wait her goddamn turn for an orgasm.) Ah, the early ’60s. Watching Mad Men will never be the same. :(