000			02335nam a22002417a 4500
999			_c37863 _d37863
020			_a9780367555313
041			_aeng-
082			_a305.4094109034 _bSTO-B
100			_aStone, Pamela K. _eauthor
245			_aBodies and Lives in Victorian England : _bScience, Sexuality, and the Affliction of Being Female / _cPamela K. Stone, Lise Shapiro Sanders.
260			_aNew york : _bRoutledge, _c2020.
300			_a146p. _b30 illustrations
504			_aIncludes bibliographical references and index.
520			_aThis volume offers an overview of what it was like to be female and to live and die in Victorian England (c. 1837-1901), by situating this experience within the scientific and social contexts of the times. With a temporal focus on women’s life experience, the book moves from childhood and youth, through puberty and adolescence, to pregnancy, birth, and motherhood, into senescence. Drawing on osteological sources, medical discourses, and examples from the literature and cultural history of the period, alongside social and environmental data derived from ethnographic and archival investigations, the authors explore the experience of being female in the Victorian era for women across classes. In synthesizing current research on demographic statistics, maternal morbidity and mortality, and bioarchaeological evidence on patterns of aging and death, they analyze how changing social ideals, cultural and environmental variability, shifting economies, and evolving medical and scientific understanding about the body combined to shape female health and identity in the nineteenth century. Victorian women faced a variety of challenges, including changing attitudes regarding appropriate behavior, social roles, and beauty standards, while grappling with new understandings of the role played by gender and sexuality in shaping women’s lives from youth to old age. The book concludes by considering the relevance of how Victorian narratives of womanhood and the experience of being female have influenced perceptions of female health and cultural constructions of identity today.
546			_aEnglish.
650			_aManners and customs.
650			_aSex role.
650			_aWomen.
650			_aGreat Britain.
650			_aSex.
700			_aSanders, Lise Shapiro _eauthor.
942			_2ddc _cBK