Happy Valentine’s Day!
Illustration by Maria Cordata (https://creativemarket.com/Tilia)
It’s Valentine’s Day today, and I hope it’s a happy one. May you all have all the love in your life you can possibly hope for!
However, as Atlas Obscura reminds us, today is the day when we are forced to deal with an ugly question: what if you don’t love the person who has set their eyes on you?
Trust the Victorians to come up with an appropriate response: the vinegar valentine. Also called penny dreadfuls or “comic valentines,” these unwelcome notes were the very anti-spirit of Valentine’s Day.
Vinegar What?
Vinegar valentines were commercially bought postcards that were less beautiful than their love-filled counterparts and contained an insulting poem and illustration. They were sent anonymously, so the receiver had to guess who hated him or her. As if this weren’t bruising enough, the recipient paid the postage on delivery.
Some vinegar valentines were playful or sarcastic and sold as comic valentines to soldiers, but many could hold a sting. One vinegar valentine titled “Old Maid” is more than a little harsh:
’Tis all in vain your simpering looks,
You never can incline,
With all your bustles, stays and curls,
To find a Valentine.
Vinegar and Suffrage
The women’s suffrage movement of the late 19th and early 20th century brought another class of vinegar valentines, targeting women who fought for the right to vote. It is clear from their context that an interest in women’s rights was an inherent part of one’s distorted personality, depicting such women as preachy or ugly abusers. It isn’t known whether these were sent directly to troll women’s rights activists or if they were sent to like-minded friends who disagreed with the movement.
Valentine to a Suffragette. NEW YORK PUBLIC LIBRARY DIGITAL COLLECTION/PUBLIC DOMAIN, via Atlas Obscura
However, suffragists did have their own pro-women’s rights valentines to pass around on February 14. One threw shade on anti-suffragists with the phrase “no vote, no kiss.” But, in light of the supposed unattractiveness of suffragists according to men, many 19th-century women enticed would-be lovers by sending cards that denied support of the women’s rights cause. One of these cards depicted a pretty woman surrounded by hearts, with a plain appeal:
In these wild days of suffragette drays, I’m sure you’d ne’er overlook a girl who can’t be militant but simply loves to cook.
A Once Booming Business
Valentines and vinegar valentines alike were once a booming business; in 1905 San Francisco, 25,000 valentines were delayed because of overworked clerks. The more surly cards weren’t always welcomed by postmasters, however; another 25,000 valentines were held in a Chicago post office for being unfit to send, due to the many rude and vinegar valentines in the haul.
Snake of a valentine. VINTAGE CARD, C. 1870 / PUBLIC DOMAIN, via Atlas Obscura
As adult valentines declined in lieu of expensive dinners or gifts, however, the vinegar valentine became less popular. And while some might mourn the romantic February 14 of the past with its long poems and declarations of love, at least it’s much less likely we’ll get a nasty note in the mail as a Valentine’s surprise!
For the full story and more examples of vinegar valentines, check out Atlas Obscura’s full post.
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Very interesting, but how nasty – yuk! I guess trolls were around even before the Internet! LOL 😛
My thoughts exactly!!! Trolling is much older than we thought…
Our society seems to be more rude and certainly less kind. These vinegar valentines might find their way back in to public acceptance once again.
Well, Charles pointed out that Internet memes probably already fulfill that role…
Wow…Vinegar Valentines…who knew! Interesting history. Hope this kind of ugly meanness never returns. I’m just a hopeless romantic! Keep Valentine’s Day full of love,hearts and flowers…please! Happy Valentine’s Day to you and family, Nicholas! ? Christine
And chocolate! Don’t forget chocolate 😀
Hope you had a lovely one, Christine 🙂
How interesting! And mean! I’m glad these went out of style. There’s enough bitterness and rudeness in the world already. Fascinating, though.
Oh dear Diana- you won’t approve of my seasonal ( and dated) socio/ political rudeness!
Oh no! Ha ha. I’m all for honesty, Philippa. But I own it – nothing anonymous here. I imagine you do too. It’s the anonymous insults that felt especially graceless to me.
Yes. I confess Nicholas’s post prompted mine. At the time it was written I had a Santa sac full of insults all a-simmer It was another economy of effort.
I’ll have to head over to read. Sound like fun. 🙂
It really was. Philippa is quite the writer!
Isn’t it just? 🙂
Fabulous post! How do you come up with these things, Nicholas!
And there was I thinking I had been original in devising a story based on an anti-Valentine theme. For a short present for literary friends here it is: just freshly out of the oven! https://philipparees.me/2017/02/14/a-vinegar-valentine-present-have-a-taste-explosive/
Many thanks for sharing the link, Philippa! Heading over now 🙂
Gotta love those Victorians! They have something for everyone. Happy Valentine’s Day to you and your family! 🙂
To you too 😀
Not nice. These have bite. Who knew? Not me. Thanks for sharing, Nicholas. 😛
I know, right? And there I was, thinking those Victorians were nothing but true gentlemen…
Ha ha ha.
You learn something everyday, Nicholas. I’ve never heard of the vinegar Valentine.
Leslie
Ah, the intricacies of those Victorians!
A very complicated lot….
Very interesting post! And thanks for reminding me that there are worse things than not getting a valentine card from some sweet admirer this year. At least I haven’t received any vinegar valentines either!
Well, not yet; I suppose there’s still time, ha ha! Happy Valentine’s Day, Nicholas!
Not true. Consider yourself offered one sweet Valentine’s card from me 🙂
Aw, thank you! 🙂
I wasn’t aware of ‘vinegar’ valentine cards. However, I do recall the ‘cruel’ boys sending anonymous lovey-dovey cards to ‘unfortunate’ girls, just to get their hopes up!
(Not me of course…)
Best wishes, Pete.
Kids can be so cruel. Always have been, always will be, I guess!
HAPPY VALENTINE’S DAY TO YOU 😀
To you too 😀
Wow, I’ve never heard of this practice before – I think i was happier in my ignorance. Sigh… man’s inhumanity to man.
Lol – quite right. What particularly fascinated me was the suffragette angle.
Indeed – the suffragettes were not viewed favourably by men in those days!
I’m always fascinated by how attitudes change, and things we used to consider extreme are now mainstream – and vice versa. Makes you wonder what things will be like in the future. What things we take for granted will be shocking to future mankind? And what things we frown upon they will consider normal?
Think these need to make a comeback. Though I tend to see a lot of memes and messages about hating the holiday. No real finesse to most of those, which is a shame.
Huh, Internet memes are today’s vinegar Valentines. Now, there’s a thought.
Makes some sense since a lot of them are used for snark. Similar level of meanness too.
Some things never change, I guess.
Not sure if that’s a good or bad thing.