Pics of "exotic dancers" from the 1800s

[PennLady]

A friend of mine shared this on Facebook and I thought it was neat. I always find it amusing to see what used to be considered "scandalous" or sexy from way back.

http://www.retronaut.co/2012/01/exotic-dancers-1890s/

 

[TxRad]

A friend of mine shared this on Facebook and I thought it was neat. I always find it amusing to see what used to be considered "scandalous" or sexy from way back.

http://www.retronaut.co/2012/01/exotic-dancers-1890s/

"scandalous" with no skin showing. But from what I've read, a lot of men had never seen the female form without full clothing. Especially out west.

 

[PennLady]

"scandalous" with no skin showing. But from what I've read, a lot of men had never seen the female form without full clothing. Especially out west.

Oh I know. I also notice that these women are more full-figured, if you will. No waifs or cocaine-chic models in these pics.

 

[mynameisben]

That website has a lot of great old pics. I think my favorite is the Computer Hard Drive from 1956. It has to be seen to be believed.

 

[PennLady]

That website has a lot of great old pics. I think my favorite is the Computer Hard Drive from 1956. It has to be seen to be believed.

That's excellent.

When I lived near DC, I loved to go through the "Information Age" exhibit at the American History museum. They had parts of the ENIAC and UNIVAC computers there.

 

[lance gt]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTEIWK9CaEs

I was always captivated by Fan Dancing when I was younger and thought it was the most sensual/sexy thing I'd ever seen. How times have changed.

 

[R. Richard]

Alas, sometimes the old ways are not the best ways.

 

[mynameisben]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QTEIWK9CaEs

I was always captivated by Fan Dancing when I was younger and thought it was the most sensual/sexy thing I'd ever seen. How times have changed.

I have a video clip of myself dancing naked while holding a 12,000 BTU window mount air conditioner, in case you're interested.

 

[Cruel2BKind]

I read the comments section. It was a mishmash of guys (assuming they were men) exclaiming how fat and short the women were, others (presumably a mix of men and women) assuring that back then, a little meat was sexy, and others (most assuredly women) talking about how beautiful these women were without the need to starve themselves.

Only a few noted that organ-rearranging corsets were a large part of the touted 'curves'

 

[mynameisben]

Only a few noted that organ-rearranging corsets were a large part of the touted 'curves'

What have you got against organ rearrangement? I adjust mine all the time.

 

[sr71plt]

I have a video clip of myself dancing naked while holding a 12,000 BTU window mount air conditioner, in case you're interested.

It was way before videos, but in the "what are you going to grow up to be" section of my mother's high school yearbook, it says she would go on to become an electric fan dancer.

 

[Cruel2BKind]

What have you got against organ rearrangement? I adjust mine all the time.

Depends on the organs

 

[3113]

Well, now we know where pony play started....

What is the one in the top hat holding?

 

[mythtrav16]

A friend of mine shared this on Facebook and I thought it was neat. I always find it amusing to see what used to be considered "scandalous" or sexy from way back.

http://www.retronaut.co/2012/01/exotic-dancers-1890s/

Oh my god! Look at some of their waistlines! Is that from corsets? Those poor women! To think, that that was the style at the time, so half the women of means probably felt the need to squish themselves up like that. And we fret and fuss today about young women with body issues? Apparently, it's nothing new. Looks like the media isn't quite the corrupting demon that... the mediaconfused makes it out to be.

That website has a lot of great old pics. I think my favorite is the Computer Hard Drive from 1956. It has to be seen to be believed.

LOL! 5 Megabytes! I've got a 32 gigabyte micro SD chip in my tablet, that's the size of my fingernail and holds 6,400 times as much data as that behemoth! It's incredible when you think about how much data storage has changed.

But data was used much more economically back then, too. So you would've been able to fit an awful lot of it on a 5MB drive. I remember on my first PC, my word processor fit onto a 360KB floppy disk with heaps of room to spare. I just checked MS word and it's 1.3MB in size - and that's just the program itself, not counting all the dll files it requires, nor the Windows opperating system it also requires. The word processor I mentioned before ran straight out of dos.

 

[lovecraft68]

I read the comments section. It was a mishmash of guys (assuming they were men) exclaiming how fat and short the women were, others (presumably a mix of men and women) assuring that back then, a little meat was sexy, and others (most assuredly women) talking about how beautiful these women were without the need to starve themselves.

Only a few noted that organ-rearranging corsets were a large part of the touted 'curves'

I am willing to bet that on average the guys complaining of the extra weight on the women have at least 40 extra pounds hanging over their belts and need a mirror to find their cock.

I'm the opposite, personally, although women of all sizes are beautiful, I enjoy a curvy woman. On the other hand I have nothing but disdain for grossly out of shape men.

 

[lance gt]

I am willing to bet that on average the guys complaining of the extra weight on the women have at least 40 extra pounds hanging over their belts and need a mirror to find their cock. I'm the opposite, personally, although women of all sizes are beautiful, I enjoy a curvy woman. On the other hand I have nothing but disdain for grossly out of shape men.

Sounds like a really bad case of dicky-do.

 

[oggbashan]

Photos of 'arabian' and 'berber' dancers from that time are much more revealing.

The asking price for half, or completely nude, postcards from North and West Africa pre-1914 is much less than that for European nudity because the African nude postcards are very common.

 

[KlaytonFrost]

Haha, bizzare and scary waistlines aside, some of them are actually pretty sexy... even by "today's standards"

 

[ishtat]

Photos of 'arabian' and 'berber' dancers from that time are much more revealing.

The asking price for half, or completely nude, postcards from North and West Africa pre-1914 is much less than that for European nudity because the African nude postcards are very common.

Og, I have two thick albums of French postcards and letters my great grandfather sent my great grandmother from the western front between 1914 1918. The post cards are not particularly revealing but are surprisingly erotic.

Their correspondence however is frank and smokin' hot, and clearly tho' they weren't married at the time, Grandma hadn't been left wondering should Great Grandad not make it through the war! Yet to us as very young children many years later, this elderly couple were the models of Victorian rectitude; I suspect that the people of that era knew how to enjoy themselves, but perhaps were a bit more discrete.

In case you are wondering, great grand- dad was able to avoid the military censor because he was the censor for the correspondence of the men within his command

 

[The_Young_Swell]

In France of 1839, Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre introduced the photographic process developed by Nicéphore Niépce, which he call the Daguerreotype method. Two years later, in England, William Henry Fox Talbot introduced his calotype process of photography. The Daguerreotype method was superior in clarity, but Talbot’s process, which used a negative\positive process, allowed the photographer to make multiple copies.

Within two decades the Daguerreotype was obsolete, while Talbot’s calotype had been accepted and improved.

The Talbot method’s ability to make duplicate images led to a fad, beginning in the 1850s, for photographic carte-de-viste (2 1/2 by 4 inch cards with one’s photograph and name upon it, to be left during social visits) alternately known as card portraits.

And by the early 1970’s, a brisk trade in pornographic photographs had been established using Talbot’s process, but with larger images and, hopefully, never given by mistaken as one’s carte-de-viste. Artists models, prostitutes and actresses were usually the subjects of these photographic studies.


Carte-de-Viste



http://www.city-gallery.com/learning/img/cdv-1860-1.jpg




19th Century Porn



http://i1068.photobucket.com/albums/u454/The_Young_Swell/Literotica/fineartamericacom2012-5-319-44-29.png


Nude and Mirror, circa 1850





http://www.jacobsonphoto.com/images/gallery/mainimages/1319210145.jpg


Leda & the Swan, Albumen print, circa 1870





http://www.fototime.com/photos/st/7FD0EAD3811C4BC789EF46841DD5EE93/1880s%20-%20Early%20french%20nude%20bathing%20-%20postcard.jpg


French post card, circa 1880

 

[3113]

Artists models, prostitutes and actresses were usually the subjects of these photographic studies.

Really cute ass that one with the mirror has.

And I ask again...what is the exotic dancer with the top hat holding?

 

[The_Young_Swell]

... And I ask again...what is the exotic dancer with the top hat holding?

http://cdn3.retronaut.co/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/453-520x775.jpg

I do believe that is the 19th century prototype for the double-headed dildo.

 

[HeatherVivant]

I almost get the sense that from the first set of pictures that the extra weight was a much muscle as fat, given the fact that they might have been more active than the typical couch potato today.

But aside from that, most seem rather homely.

 

[lance gt]

http://cdn3.retronaut.co/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/453-520x775.jpg

I do believe that is the 19th century prototype for the double-headed dildo.

I was thinking along the lines of a double ended torchierre used in twirling performances. She has that style of stage attire on.

 

[3113]

I almost get the sense that from the first set of pictures that the extra weight was a much muscle as fat, given the fact that they might have been more active than the typical couch potato today.

I was thinking along the same lines but even more so. If you've ever worn costumes of that time or earlier, you find that the layers of skirts are very heavy. When I wore such costumes and walked around a lot, it was exhausting, and your hips--weighed down with those skirts--and legs hurt.

If you think about a world of where pretty much everyone has to walk or run everywhere (no hopping into a car), climb stairs (no elevators), slog through mud, over hill and dale and such, and do so while wearing heavy clothing, well, you end up with nice strong legs.