'Risqué' Newspaper Column Reveals Victorian Women Weren't So Timid
A newspaper article captivated all of 19th-century New York City. The New York Evening Newspaper hosted a rather risqué competition, where women in the Big Apple could write in answers to the question: "How Are Husbands Managed?" The 1892 advice competition had the judges reeling for reasons you must read to believe.
May The Best Opinion Win
There was even a prize for The New York Evening Newspaper's competition: Whoever submitted the best tips for "husband management" won a whopping $20 — that's the equivalent of about $570 today. All that for writing your opinion on men and sending it into a newspaper? It sounded like a good deal to women of the 19th century.
Lady Experience
One woman using the nickname "Experience" submitted an answer. "Like other animals of the omnivorous species," she wrote, "you can best win their gratitude through their stomachs — but the mischievous species... can never be relied upon." Lady Experience didn't win. But she was one of many entrants.
Pleasing The Beast
She also had more to say. "Make yourself personally as attractive," Lady Experience continued, "and [minister] to his material pleasures." Plenty of women shared in Lady Experience's warnings against the "animals" called men, but one contestant was a bit more direct with her answer to the question.
J. Nowett
"Feed the brute." That was all J. Nowett had to say on the subject! (She didn't feel the need to use quite as many words as Lady Experience). Women's submissions continued to flood the judges.
