Letters from Uniform Girls 13

Dear Editor, I wonder, have you ever considered the interesting paradox of the sweet, innocent, Victorian teenage Miss, and her many ‘sisters’ scattered throughout the world? In the far East a girl would be sold as a wife at twelve or thirteen, or even into slavery. In African tribes she would be initiated into womanhood, in the wild west of America she would be handling a gun, perhaps shooting Indians, hunting, and skinning her quarry. In India the equivalent social class might be given servants of her own to control as she wished. In the south of America she could whip her own slave. In England the same girl was severely disciplined, birched and caned for the slightest fault, until she was nearly eighteen. All these differences were merely because of variations in local cultures. The point I wish to make is that despite her soft pale skin, demure manner, submissive obedience, perfect deportment and unworldliness, the English Miss was tougher than all her contemporaries. I will ...