Slouching Young Women Critiqued

To rest a cheek in the palm of a hand supported by a dining table is not only one of the etiquette laxities peculiar to the present decade, but it is a long stride toward habitual lounging.

PRACTICAL TALKS BY THE APRIL GRANDMOTHER

“YOUR American young girls either pose or lounge whenever conscious that the gaze of the public is upon them.” That was Lady Critique-cliffe's comment as she directed her lorgnette across the diamond horseshoe the evening she sat in my opera box, and I bad to admit the justice of her criticism. “Self-conscious débutantes,” continued the April Grandmother, “are apt to sit up like little ramrods throughout an entire act or -and it is infinitely more undignified to half recline in a chair, leaning sidewise against an arm or resting one hand on the box rail. The girls who lounge in this manner are the most hopeless, as, unlike those of the ramrod type, they do not realize that neither at school nor at home have they been taught to sit correctly.”

While at school the average girl is permitted to sit on the edge of her chair and almost bend double as she curves her back above her desk when writing. Usually she rests her unoccupied hand on the paper, thus raising the left shoulder into an unnatural position and further rounding the back. Whereas, when not actually in use, the left hand should lie in the lap, and the practice of so placing it - palm upward - will help to keep the back straight. Meanwhile the head should be bent directly forward, instead of being slightly inclined to left or to right, and the chin held well away from the throat.

The kittenish pose of curling up on a sofa which so many young girls adopt when reading will do an immense amount of injury to the back as well as to the eyes. If a girl is really fatigued she should lie at full length, with lids closed, until thoroughly rested; but if she is inclined to stoutness she should be particularly wary about lounging, and as one means of remaining slender is to keep the spinal column erect, it is obvious that the back should be held straightly whenever its owner is in a sitting posture. 

An excellent way in which to acquire this vertical line is to practice balancing a small book on the crown of the head. This will force one to hold the head erectly and the spine will involuntarily imitate the good example. Another method of learning to sit correctly is to hold the stomach in and carry the head thrown backward, while an attitude that may conveniently be exercised three times daily is that of keeping the elbows as far as possible from the top of the table while at meals. To rest a cheek in the palm of a hand supported by a dining table is not only one of the etiquette laxities peculiar to the present decade, but it is a long stride toward habitual lounging.

To sit correctly the soles of both feet should rest firmly upon the floor, the elbows should nearly touch the hips and the hands should lie on the lap. The shoulders will then assume their natural slope, and if the base of the spine nearly couches the rear of the chair seat it will be easy to lean backward in a restful and graceful posture. But the moment a girl sways against one side of her chair, grasps its arms with her hands, throws one arm across its back or props her chin on her knee-braced elbow she is in a fair way to contract the lounging habit which my English guest criticized.

The remark of an old fashioned beau of antebellum days anent the inherent vulgarity of the feminine person who crosses her knees is quite as worthy of consideration to-day as when it was first uttered. Yet the number of refined young girls who habitually sit with crossed knees and with well developed feet plainly in evidence is astounding, particularly to those gentlewomen of an elder day who, living in fear of exhibiting even their insteps, invariably sit with knees meeting and toe tips drawn beneath the skirt.– The Los Angeles Herald, 1908

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