oh god why is this in Sex and reproduction
- Read the first paragraph of the article. --OuroborosCobra talk 21:41, 1 September 2007 (UTC)
- Although it's probably accurate in the fictional Trek universe, since it's been portrayed this way, this is actually a misrepresentation in real life; most of the prudish behaviors usually attributed to the Victorians arise from misunderstanding or outright untruths. For example, the "so-prudish-they-insisted-covering-table-legs" thing is untrue, as is the "a woman showing her ankles is a scandal" (at least, for most people in most parts of the Empire). The biggest and best known of all, that male homosexuality was outlawed whilst female homosexuality was not because Queen Victoria could not bring herself to admit the possibility of it is demonstrably untrue if you know even the slightest thing about how British Parliamentary democracy works. Whilst "Victorian" is a shorthand for the types of attitudes believed to have prevailed in this era, it is an inaccurate one. In terms of Trek, Janeway Lambda one in particular is an example of this mythical "Victorian" age as it is based on a novel published four years after Victoria's coronation, a novel published three years before her death, and another published thirty-seven years after her death, all of which were fictions to begin with (and therefore took certain liberties with accuracy in favour of shorthands, just as Trek does with "Victorian"). I doubt much of this would be of use in the article, but it's sometimes worth pointing such things out. Although strictly speaking, rather than "Earth's 19th C", it's 1837-1901 CE., the dates of Victoria's rule, and she was apparently quite a happy woman until Prince Albert's death. 172.207.251.92 11:07, 21 February 2008 (UTC)
PS. Thinking about it, Sherlock Holmes was written originally as a sort of "Golden-Age-That-Never-Was" (although I suspect the TNG episodes owe more to the films than the books, not that they were any more accurate) and Dickens made a point of exaggerating character traits and condensing society's ills to make a more grotesque world which was based on real life.