Vinegar Valentines: The Victorian Era's Insulting Postcards

• Vinegar Valentines were commercially produced postcards used to insult and mock recipients during the Victorian era, contrasting with traditional romantic Valentines.
• These cards featured crass poems or illustrations, often sent anonymously, and recipients had to pay postage upon delivery.
• They targeted socially disliked individuals like drunkards, unmarried people, and flirtatious women, gaining popularity by 1847.
• Later, Vinegar Valentines took on a political edge, depicting suffragettes negatively, though their exact use (harassment vs. internal sharing) is debated.
• The popularity of both romantic and Vinegar Valentines declined as expensive gifts and dinners became preferred, with social reformers condemning the practice, leading to their disappearance by the 1940s.