This suffragette’s brilliant advice on marriage has gone viral

Life


This suffragette’s brilliant advice on marriage has gone viral

By Sarah Shaffi

7 years ago

If you must risk marriage, this suffragette has some sage words…

There is no shortage of places offering up dating advice, from teen magazines and the bestselling book He’s Just Not That Into You to endless Reddit threads.

But perhaps it’s time to now turn to a rather more unexpected source – the suffragettes.

In the run up to Valentine’s Day, comedian Jason Manford shared a series of tips penned in 1911 by “a suffragette wife” – and, somewhat unsurprisingly, the post has gone viral.

Titled “Advice on Marriage to Young Ladies”, the tips are no-nonsense and take no prisoners, as one would expect from someone who fought for women’s right to the vote.

Despite its title, the first tip tells women “do not marry at all”.

But, it continues, if you must then there are a number of men you should avoid. These include “the Beauty Men, Flirts, and the Bounders, Tailor’s Dummies, and the Football Enthusiasts”.

Good marriage prospects include a “Strong, Tame Man”, and the emphasis is on practical professions such as “Fire-lighter, Coal-getter, Window Cleaner and Yard Swiller”.

The suffragette warns that we shouldn’t expect too much from men, because most are “lazy, selfish, thoughtless, lying, drunken, clumsy, heavy-footed, rough, unmanly brutes, and need taming”.

So how to tame these men? The advice to keep a man happy can also be applied to keeping a dog happy, says the suffragette - feed him.

The final tip from the suffragette harks back to her first – she advises “you will be wiser not to chance” marriage, as it “isn’t worth the risk”.

This isn’t the first time the suffragette’s advice on marriage has gone viral – it was shared by thousands of people last year as well.

It might be controversial and more than 100 years old, but its continuing popularity leads us to believe that it has definitely struck a chord.

Image: Getty

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