[throwaway_pdp09]

I don't get you. You want perfection and aren't willing to give any leeway to a book that is over a century old. Things were very, very different back then and I'm not sure you recognise that, or seem willing to recognise that.

> ...in father knows best clothes

Both books were written by a woman https://www.amazon.co.uk/Blanche-Ebbutt/e/B0034NHXDW

> It's not clever manners to refrain from controlling your spouse's individuality

I just don't know what to say. It's not acceptable, but people tried to then, they try to now, what is your complaint about pointing out it's wrong?

Your last sentence doesn't help - what minority are you in and why does it matter? The rest seems so negative and helpless

Not meant personally but I am confused by your response.

[dougmwne]

My entire point is that we need to give people from centuries past some leeway and make an effort to view their lives through the lens of their time. And we should view them through our current lens as well but we're not likely to learn anything but that we think our morality is the best morality.

My chain of responses is meant to highlight this tension. That I can personally find something reprehensible in 2020, but taken in it's cultural or historical context, also find it enlightened or inspiring. In the USA we have an increasingly militant progressivism and we close ourselves off to our own history if we can only judge things by one set of standards.