We’ve all seen it: The woman who faints at the entrance of a villain (gasp!), or because she’s heard shocking news (“Johnny’s not dead?!”), or because they’re serving black tea with blueberry scones when everyone knows black pairs best with lemon (massive swoon accompanied by self-righteous shattering of teacup). I’m trying to be open minded, but all this swooning in the face of trouble so that a man can gallop in and save the day—instead of the woman just maintaining consciousness and dealing with it—feels false. I’ve known quite a few women and never seen one swoon, so I have to ask: Did all this swooning really happen?
Yes, swooning is a thing.
In Jane Austen’s time, upper class women definitely thought swooning was real. Victorian homes often had a fainting room and couch where women could retreat if necessary. (Isn’t that an great way to get away from unwanted company? “Excuse me! I’m off to swoon. Not sure how long I’ll be. Go ahead and let yourself out, will you?”)
Regency and Victorian women also carried smelling salts in decorative containers to ward off fainting spells. Known as lady revivers, they consisted of ammonia dissolved in vinegar or perfume. The ammonia irritated the lining of the throat and nose to revive the victim.
Fainting rooms and special cases just for smelling salts—were these women really swooning?
A recent study reports that 20% of young adults have fainted at least once—that’s 1 in 5. The medical term for fainting is vasovagal syncope, and it occurs when the nervous system malfunctions, causing the heart rate to slow and blood pressure to drop. That reduces blood flow to the brain and causes a temporary loss of consciousness.
Fainting peaks at certain times in life. Women are more prone to fainting from ages 15-30 and then again when they are older, and men are more susceptible around age 60. It can also be caused by an emotional reaction.
So swooning is much more common than I thought, both today and in the past. But the women I know generally leave home without their smelling salts. Was fainting more common in the Regency and Victorian eras? Below are a few theories on why it might have been.
Those corsets were a doozy.
Girls started wearing corsets from a young age, and both women and girls used corsets for waist training—shrinking the waist with tight laces. The tight laces restricted airflow, one of the common causes of fainting. The corsets also compressed organs, and women could ingest very little while wearing them. This led to another common cause of fainting: dehydration. All those women in the movies, drinking tea and eating sweets with ramrod straight posture! Who knew the posture was the only accurate part of that?
Corsets caused other damage as well. They permanently deformed the rib cage, caused back muscles to atrophy, and shifted organs into places they didn’t belong. Doctors of the time published articles on their dangers, and The Lancet, a medical journal, ran a letter in 1890 entitled “Death by Tight Lacing.” Society read these articles and collectively agreed that, while death was not ideal, we really didn’t want a bunch of pudgy women running around the ballroom.
There were too many clothes.
Another fashion culprit that may have led to swooning was the layers and layers of clothes women wore. There were undergarments, bustle pads, petticoats, and bonnets. Some theorize that all of this clothing caused women to overheat or to collapse under the weight of their garments. How funny that, today, women are criticized for wearing too little, while in earlier eras, they fainted from being expected to wear too much.
And then there was the poison.
Arsenic was everywhere in the 19th century. It was in wine, wallpaper, paints, women’s makeup, and even paper used to wrap food. A common symptom of arsenic poisoning is—you guessed it—fainting. Lead was also prevalent and could be found in hair dye, makeup and wine. The wealthy had access to these arsenic and lead-laced luxuries, which could explain why upper class women fainted—or, possibly, suffered from seizures labeled as fainting spells.
Or was it society’s gender expectations?
Upper class women, especially young women, were expected to be delicate and easily distressed. Fainting was seen as feminine and ladylike—and there was a lot of pressure on young women to be ladylike. Perhaps some women fainted not because they needed to but because society expected them to, because a lady who hears bad news is supposed to faint.
It’s tempting to say that this idea of the feminine, fainting woman is a thing of the past, but it’s still with us. From art to opera to books to Hollywood, we love the image of the delicate woman fainting into a man’s capable arms.
Treatment
How did Victorian doctors treat these fainting spells? Since the condition affected mostly women, they labeled it hysteria and claimed it could be cured through sexual release. Women were told to repose in their fainting rooms, while midwives and doctors gave them “pelvic massages” to treat the condition.
There is so much in this that’s uncomfortable that I’m not sure what to say. Maybe just that I have a new appreciation for modern healthcare.
So…
To summarize, Regency women probably did swoon more than modern women, and women in general are more susceptible to syncope than men.
Further, Regency swooning was caused by lack of oxygen (corsets), dehydration (corsets), overheating (corsets and other clothes), and society equating femininity with weakness. So, sexism. Regency swooning was caused by sexism.
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Thanks for reading. I’d love to hear your thoughts below–either on your personal history with fainting or your thoughts on it in novels or movies.
A few interesting sites I found while looking into this topic:
Outspoken & Freckled: This one has some great images of women fainting in film.
The Dangers of Tight Lacing: The Effects of the Corset: This site includes an image of a rib cage deformed by a corset, in case that sounds like intriguing viewing for you. (Spoiler: It is!)
The Corsets Are Gone, So Why Are Women Still Fainting?
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