Deportment - a lost art?

mollie if you had to wear the corsets/stays and tight clothes they wore I don't think you'd be lounging anywhere either its just isn't possible to do anything other than stand or sit straight up or get stabbed by the whale bone in your corsets.

And surely young ladies had deportment lessons at their finishing schools those days? Walking around balancing books on their heads...

in those days

Oh - Ana. We had the odd walking in a circle, head up, shoulders back session, with our slightly loony headmistress. #delusions

Didn't do me a lot of good. I've still got a hump.

Though that's probably not postural!

Her maj. seems to sit very upright. Can't imagine her slouching like me.

She probably slumps when she's watching Corrie.

My school awarded red deportment sashes to pupils who er, not sure but I think they had that certain something that most of us didn't have.

A friend and I decided we'd try and get one so we spent a whole term walking as though we had a broomstick up our backs and spent ages polishing our shoes.

What a waste of time!!

You are probably right jing as she does suffer from a back. That is probably from bad deportment - so a secret slumper

Vertebrae in the spine get crushed with ageing, or with trauma. That causes a hump. And a sticky-out stomach (which I have too). Perhaps Queenie has a bit of osteoporosis.

I have both - crushed vertebrae from falling out a caravan in France, and sticky out stomach because I am somewhat portly.

I tripped on a threshold in our house () tottered across the room, and land heavily on my outstretched hands on the bed, jarring my back. Agony for weeks. Sigh.

You never know if there is internal fat with a sticky-out tummy. Although I call mine 'relaxed muscle'.

Jings, I had pictured you fighting fit and cycling everywhere!

I've got a relaxed tummy too jingls

I was just thinking the other morning that so many of our youngsters walk really badly. I was driving past the local senior school as they were going in and they slump, shuffle, turn toes in, round their shoulders etc. Not all of them of course, but a fair number. In fact a lot of adults are very poor walkers as well. DF would never have tolerated that, I can still hear him....'straighten up' or 'stop slouching'. The one embedded in my brain though is 'feet!'. I used to throw my right foot out and he spent a year after my surgery reminding me to turn my foot into the front. It worked!

I am fighting fit! Just with a slight hump and a sticky out tummy. (My aunt used to claim we were 'high stomached' in our family)

This is me with DD on a recent trip to Paris.

The bells, the bells J !!

Jingle. Pissing myself. Thank you so much, that's hilarious.

I always remember 2 things an old headmaster said in junior school. One being:-

'Stand up straight, shoulders back and keep your eyes looking straight ahead of you'. His ploy was if somebody had dropped a shilling you would find it first.

Didn't stop me getting osteoporosis damn it.

My Victorian granny used to tell us about the backboards that made them stand up straight and they had to walk around with heavy books on their heads. Her husband's side of the family tend to develop 'dowagers' humps'.

And I always thought you were a woman jings (you looked like one on the profile thread) now

We used to get a mark for deportment and posture at the end of each term on our reports.
I rarely got more than a C and would probably get an E these days (the lowest mark).

His ploy was if somebody had dropped a shilling you would find it first.

How would you do that, POGS, if you were staring straight ahead?

Depends if you had been to Specsavers or not
(staring ahead but glancing down so you don't trip over the shilling)