Victorian fallacy

The Victorian fallacy described the tendency of large proportions of western civilisation to equate the notion of history with the Victorian era.

Examples of the Victorian fallacy include the belief that society tended to suppress female sexuality throughout history and in all parts of the world and the notion that women throughout history have tended to remain largely confined to the home and with highly restricted rights. Cultures around the world and at different times have varied widely in their approach of female sexuality. Many cultures, including western Europe during the middle ages, have regarded female sexuality as stronger than male sexuality. Women throughout history and around the world have varied in their legal rights, with some societies greatly restricting the rights of women and some allowing them rights similar to those granted to men.

Similarly responsibilities for raising children were often unlike the father as breadwinner, mother raises the children model that many people today apparently perceive as the historical norm. The nuclear family is quite a new idea. Even in Western culture many people were involved in raising children in centuries past. For the last few thousand years the bulk of humans lived in agricultural communities. The men would farm near their home. The children would have spent a lot of time with their father as well as their mother.