Well for starters that’s not how you phrased it. No mention of Europe or Europeans, just “white” which is an overly broad modern invention. There are people we’d consider white who had minimal influence from that era of European/Victorian culture.
Secondly, not all Europeans who wore such elaborate clothing were white. France, Spain, Italy, and most all of southern Europe had populations of varying degrees of melanin (not to mention foreign dignitaries, mixed families, etc…). The populations in their colonies sometimes adopted or were forced to wear these styles.
Thirdly, AFAIK there’s not much to back up the personal hygiene myth. It’s true that city sewage infrastructure was far behind some peers at the same tier of development, but you don’t need modern plumbing to wash yourself off when you stink. Other cultures did have different hygiene standards but there’s many unique factors (access to hot springs, religious ritual cleansing, climate, etc…) which weren’t mirrored in Europe.
Taken at face value you turned “it’s funny how people wore elaborate outfits and didn’t have our modern hygiene concepts” into “white people have dirty ancestors”
Well for starters that’s not how you phrased it. No mention of Europe or Europeans, just “white” which is an overly broad modern invention. There are people we’d consider white who had minimal influence from that era of European/Victorian culture.
Secondly, not all Europeans who wore such elaborate clothing were white. France, Spain, Italy, and most all of southern Europe had populations of varying degrees of melanin (not to mention foreign dignitaries, mixed families, etc…). The populations in their colonies sometimes adopted or were forced to wear these styles.
Thirdly, AFAIK there’s not much to back up the personal hygiene myth. It’s true that city sewage infrastructure was far behind some peers at the same tier of development, but you don’t need modern plumbing to wash yourself off when you stink. Other cultures did have different hygiene standards but there’s many unique factors (access to hot springs, religious ritual cleansing, climate, etc…) which weren’t mirrored in Europe.
Taken at face value you turned “it’s funny how people wore elaborate outfits and didn’t have our modern hygiene concepts” into “white people have dirty ancestors”