Couple ridiculed for trying to live like actual Victorians

(Sarah Alma Chrisman/Facebook)

pA couple who have chosen to ignore modern luxuries in favour of a “Victorian existence” have been criticised over their unique lifestyle choice./p pSarah and Gabriel Chrisman from Washington State, USA are historians who have chosen to explore their subject through attempting to live like people did during the time of Queen Victorias reign./ppWriting on a href=http://www.vox.com/2015/9/9/9275611/victorian-era-life target=_blankVox/a, Mrs Chrisman detailed her life, describing her and her husband’s use of oil lamps, kerosene heaters and toothbrushes made from “natural boar bristles” as well as their shunning of cars, in preference of penny farthings./ppSarah writes: “My husband and I have slowly, gradually worked to base our lives around historical artifacts and ideals because — quite frankly — we love living this way./ppPeople assume that the hard part of our lifestyle comes from the life itself, but using Victorian items every day brings us great joy and fulfilment.”/ppThe couple have documented their experiences by writing books and updating their website: a href=http://www.thisvictorianlife.com/ target=_blankThis Victorian Life./a/ppThe criticism the couple have received since she wrote the article resonates with what Sarah describes as the negative consequences of their lifestyle, saying: “The truly hard part is dealing with other people’s reactions.”/ppUnder the headline ‘Annoying white couple insists on living in Victorian times even though it’s 2015’, GQ a href=http://www.gq.com/story/white-couple-insists-on-living-in-victorian-times-even-though-its-2015 target=_blankwrites /athat “only a white couple could insist that life was preferable in any previous decade”./ppTwitter was also rife with criticism, although the absence of the internet during the Victorian era means the couple are theoretically unlikely to have seen it./ppblockquote class=twitter-tweet lang=enp dir=ltr lang=enLiving in the past is a thing only well-off white people can dream of/p— Mara Wilson (@MaraWritesStuff) a href=https://twitter.com/MaraWritesStuff/status/641646633537642496September 9, 2015/a/blockquotescript charset=utf-8 src=//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js/scriptblockquote class=twitter-tweet lang=enp dir=ltr lang=enJust to be clear, the Victorian woman doesnt allow herself to vote, right?/p— Michael Darling (@FutureHasbeen) a href=https://twitter.com/FutureHasbeen/status/641663926724227072September 9, 2015/a/blockquotescript charset=utf-8 src=//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js/script/pblockquote class=twitter-tweet lang=enp dir=ltr lang=enThe whole neighborhood mocked those Victorian hipsters, but when the next blackout came, everyone suddenly wanted to borrow an oil lamp./p— Declan Heyse (@MrTungstn) a href=https://twitter.com/MrTungstn/status/641793946796949504September 10, 2015/a/blockquotescript charset=utf-8 src=//platform.twitter.com/widgets.js/scriptp /p