gladdylock

[gladdylock]

I really need to

this is your sign to make some goofy art

[gladdylock]

життя сьогодні підтерлось вашою газетою.

[gladdylock]

Can you explain why they were trying to make syringes appeal to women specifically in the Victorian era? Thank you!

Morphine was absolutely the drug of choice for your Victorian lady of means. This is mostly because (like almost everything else in the Victorian era) drug/substance use was highly gendered. Drinking and smoking (both tobacco and opium) were coded very male. Men socially drank and smoked apart from the ladies, and most drinking establishments and 'opium dens' only allowed men though the door. I love using Sherlock Holmes as an example of Victorian culture, since the stories were very popular and represent a decent cross section of English society, and "The Man With the Twisted Lip" begins with Doctor Watson going to an opium den looking for the husband of one of his wife's friends.

Women were more likely to take laudanum, a mixture of alcohol and either opium or morphine mostly marketed as medicine, or to inject morphine intravenously, which is why you get these very, for want of another word, pretty 19th century syringes. Men would as well, but when they injected morphine recreationally it seems to come off as a little artsy/bohemian/eccentric/deviant. Injecting morphine intravenously is Sherlock Holmes' delivery method of choice, and that is absolutely supposed to make him seem a little strange.

Sources for further reading:

[gladdylock]

Very true, Mrs Huddson would take his phone away though tbh

It looks like Watson is trying to take a selfie with Holmes and Lestrade but Lestrade isn't ready and Holmes doesn't understand what selfie is and what the actual f Watson doing is but still putting a little smile on his face because he loves his Watson anyway.