J. Chancey's Jane Austen tour

[MamaJunebug]

You can't spell Jentrepreneur without Jennie Chancey!!

sensibility.com/2013tour/Welcome.html

The demurest of demure work at home mommies invites you to 2 weeks with her for all things Austen at $2,700 (give or take) but that's only ground expenses. You still need to get your sinnin' butts to the island.

[gingernut]

I am sick in bed with a fever and a bit delirious. Due to my fevered state of mind, all I could imagine was one of the Serven or Botkin boys or one of the VF interns making reservations and going in drag....Regency drag, that is. Then he could disrobe in the middle of the high tea and make them all choke on their scones.

[stum_ble]

That sounds agonizingly dull.

[Hane]

MamaJ comes through for us once again!

Oh, and here's our Jennie: yet another fundie who doesn't get it. Jane Austen's world wasn't some kind of ideal she dreamed up and promoted: it was a virtual social jail for women. If a woman of the upper classes wasn't lucky enough to have an estate "entailed" on her (cf. Lady Catherine deBourgh and her daughter Anne), the only thing that would keep her from starving was marrying money or facing a lifetime of abuse as a governess. And let's not even mention the lives of working class women--Austen didn't (to speak of). And our fundie lasses pay no attention to the merciless snarking Austen aims at the clergymen of her novels (with rare exceptions; Edward Ferrars' vocation barely registers in Sense and Sensibility.)

No, Jennie et al. just want to live in a fantasy world of pretty dresses, tea parties, and no fucking.

[Claddagh]

A lot of these people fail to realize life was like that for very few people. A great deal of servants were abused and/or raped in their lifetimes.

I wish I had $2,700 to spend. I could pay a lot of bills with that amount.

[hoipolloi]

What a racket. At those prices, what are the chances that tour-goers subsidize Jennie's trips?

[MamaJunebug]

What a racket. At those prices, what are the chances that tour-goers subsidize Jennie's trips?

Danged good odds, I'd say/wager.

[Wolfie]

What a racket. At those prices, what are the chances that tour-goers subsidize Jennie's trips?

Isn't that the point of trips like this?

[prairiemuffin]

Has she even read Austen's works, for fuck's sake? It's not like we're talking about some really hidden symbolism. I mean, doesn't the feminist threads running through her writings kinda go against everything dipshits like Jennie Chancey champion?

Oh, wait. I forget, it's all about tea and pretty dresses.

[julie paradox]

Jane Austen, whose withers were wrung at the thought of two poor women who had only one maid to do all their work - but remained unmoved by the plight of the maid.

(I cannot remember where I read that. An introduction to some classic or other, perhaps. Maybe Hilary Mantel)

[MamaJunebug]

Jane Austen, whose withers were wrung at the thought of two poor women who had only one maid to do all their work - but remained unmoved by the plight of the maid.

(I cannot remember where I read that. An introduction to some classic or other, perhaps. Maybe Hilary Mantel)

Hadn't read that about Jane, but the parallels to the anti-feminist attitudes of the Jentrepreneur and her cadre are awesome.

[snarktastic]

Wooohoooh!!! Some of this is happening VERY locally to me. If I'm not working that day I'll be keeping an eye out for a troop of Americans in full faux-regency dress. I'm thinking they may be quite easy to spot :D :D :D

If I get get a report and photos I will.

Also - Berwick St, the "secret London alleyway" where they'll be doing their fabric shopping - is slap bang in the middle of a very obvious red light district. :lol: :lol: :lol:

Edited to add - for a giggle go on google maps and look up the streetview of Berwick St where it meets Peter Street and Walkers Court, let's just say it's pretty obvious what goes on round there. You get a nice clear view from the shops down that end of the street. :dance:

[Just Not Good]

I can't imagine anything worse than "cozy accommodations" with these nutjobs and their poorly rendered Regency glad rags. Who pays money for these basically illiterate literary tours?

[Claddagh]

Isn't that the point of trips like this?

A lot of fundies view Jane Austen as the woman and the Regency era as the time to be in. It's total a total romantic view of history that never was but they want.

ETA:

I just remembered a story from a woman in her 20's I met once. She was/is an anti-feminist and said she wanted to live in the Edwardian era because, quote, "Women knew their place and men had balls back then!"

Crack open any history book and you'll find, in fact, the era was not nearly as glamourous or as guilded as they like to think.

However, a lot of these people are convinced they'd be in a social status where all they'd do is wear pretty dresses and drink tea all day. Reality was something entirely different. My great-grandmother used to tell stories of growing up back then and they were not pretty.

[Wolfie]

A lot of fundies view Jane Austen as the woman and the Regency era as the time to be in. It's total a total romantic view of history that never was but they want.

ETA:

I just remembered a story from a woman in her 20's I met once. She was/is an anti-feminist and said she wanted to live in the Edwardian era because, quote, "Women knew their place and men had balls back then!"

Crack open any history book and you'll find, in fact, the era was not nearly as glamourous or as guilded as they like to think.

However, a lot of these people are convinced they'd be in a social status where all they'd do is wear pretty dresses and drink tea all day. Reality was something entirely different. My great-grandmother used to tell stories of growing up back then and they were not pretty.

Oh, I know all of this. My point was that the point of trips like this was for the organizer to get their way paid and a little more money on top of it if possible.

[constantgardener]

Wooohoooh!!! Some of this is happening VERY locally to me. If I'm not working that day I'll be keeping an eye out for a troop of Americans in full faux-regency dress. I'm thinking they may be quite easy to spot :D :D :D

If I get get a report and photos I will.

Also - Berwick St, the "secret London alleyway" where they'll be doing their fabric shopping - is slap bang in the middle of a very obvious red light district. :lol: :lol: :lol:

Edited to add - for a giggle go on google maps and look up the streetview of Berwick St where it meets Peter Street and Walkers Court, let's just say it's pretty obvious what goes on round there. You get a nice clear view from the shops down that end of the street. :dance:

I used to work in central London. I agree they should probably be careful what sort of 'costume shops' they visit around Soho :lol: .

Luckily for me I have arranged to be out of the country during their visit.

[Claddagh]

Oh, I know all of this. My point was that the point of trips like this was for the organizer to get their way paid and a little more money on top of it if possible.

My apologies for misunderstanding.

I agree that odds are the organizer(s) are definately getting their trip paid for them.

[Kate]

No sure if I'm just missing the nuances here and stating the obvious, but Jennie does these every year or so sensibility.com/englandblog/

Edited to break that darn link :doh:

[WonderingInWA]

Jenny Chauncey tries to make herself sound so British, it's disgusting. I know how she loves to dress up and has studied the fashions ad nauseum, but I never realized she would potentially have such a following that anyone (a) believes she knows what she's doing since I don't believe she's actually ever lived there, and (b) shouldn't she be at home with her 10 kids or something? What does she gain from this trip? I get such mixed messages from her (I don't follow her, but last I knew she had 10 kids and was still homeschoolin' away but on the Barbary Coast or something like that, hiring natives for pennies a day to make her fantasy costumes for her clients).

She's just awful. And $2700 for this tour? Daily English breakfast (but really no other meals to speak of). Don't suppose any of those proper ladies on the trip will be tempted to take dinner at a pub, will they? LOL.