Sentimentalism

Abstract

A central part of Victorian middle-class culture from about 1830 to the 1870s, sentimentalism shaped cultural constructions of gender by prescribing types of bodily conduct, including speech, posture, gestures, dress, and proper etiquette among both men and women. The goal of these prescriptions was the same for men and women: to foster perfect sincerity, truthfulness, and candor in social relations. But Victorian sentimentalism had different practical implications for men and women because middle-class Americans assumed women to be naturally expressive of their feelings, and therefore naturally sincere, while men were assumed to be naturally more rational, better able to control their emotions, and therefore less sincere.