Know Your Sofas: The Fainting Couch

When I was in design school many, many years ago and had to take a multi-semester course called "The History of Furniture," I rolled my eyes and thought, "This is going to to be a torture class...how interesting can the history of furniture possibly be?" But that was shortsighted of me and once the class started, I saw that it was much like my Art History classes I took many, many years before that: nothing exists in a vacuum, whether it's art, furniture, clothing, novels, architecture, or design. Everything springs from a certain time period which is connected to a certain cultural and societal perspective, which naturally must be interwoven with politics and how people see themselves or wish to present themselves. By studying what people surrounded themselves with, one gains insight and understanding into what was happening in a single country, a continent, or the world at that time. I don't think it's an exaggeration to say that studying furniture--or art or literature--is a way of studying and tracking human evolution; it is actually quite fascinating.

So with this in mind, let's look at a variation of the sofa from the Victorian era called a "fainting couch." This version of a chaise longue (previously here) is asymmetrical, featuring a raised backrest at one end. And of course, this being the Victorian era, the wooden section of these backrests were ornately carved. Upholstery was in the rich jewel-toned heavy velvets of the time, and the fainting couch could be finished off with tufting.

But why was it called a fainting couch? Well, there are a few concepts going on here at once...
Women of the Victorian era were considered fragile and delicate, so they often retired during the mid-day, to escape the heat of the sun when it was at its highest, or its merdian. Because of this reason, these sofas were also called Meridiennes.

But it wasn't just sexism or perception that women were delicate... the fashion of the day dictated that women wear corsets, not allowing them to breathe properly or take full breaths, which could literally cut off up to 29% of oxygen to the body. No wonder women would become light-headed and need to lie down!

But there was another, deeper, and indeed psychological reason for fainting couches. The piece of furniture would often be placed in "fainting rooms," a salon or parlour that could be closed off, so that the woman could rest...but the real reason for a fainting room is connected to an exclusively female "ailment" of the time, something called "female hysteria." Symptoms of this vague ailment included shortness of breath, irritability, vaginal leakage, sexual fantasies and "a tendency to simply cause trouble." Of course the underlying cause of such symptoms are now seen as sexual frustration but in the repressed Victorian era, such things could not be recognized or spoken of. So doctors or midwives would come to a patient's home for "treatment" which included fully clothed pelvic "massages" until a "hysterical paroxysm" (or orgasm) was reached...all in the privacy of the fainting room. Later, massages were replaced with mechanical means which could be used by a doctor or a patient alone. This odd moment in history was captured in a marvelous stage play by award-winning playwright Sara Ruhl called "The Vibrator Play."

Happy designing!