Touch and sociability [ Communication ]
… claims a degree of female agency and acknowledges the excitement that forms of touch can generate in a society that was wary of bodily contact between men and women. Her comment should encourage reflection on the conditions under which this … Johnson explained, ‘I am so near-sighted, and I apprehended making some mistake,’ Then drawing me very unexpectedly towards him, he actually kissed me! (in front of Mrs Thrale) […] he held both my hands; and when Mrs Thrale went, he drew … with the French fille de chambre in his Sentimental Journey (1768). Women in contexts of polite sociability could ward off at least some of these advances when they wished to. Nonetheless, on many occasions norms of propriety might be …
Conduct | Conventions | Dance | Gender | Kissing | Propriety | Touch
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