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Upper-class ladies in Victorian Era England put on a fake limp as a fashion statement. It was just one of many ways they emulated the beautiful Alexandra of Denmark, Princess of Wales who went on to become Queen of England, wife of King Edward VII. In this episode, we talk about the "Alexandra Limp," some other stupid fashion contagions and then we quiz Dan R Morris from the "Tracing the Path" podcast.\xa0\n\nBonus content available at http://patreon.com/michaelkent\nGet 20% Virtual Presenter Course at http://virtualpresentercourse.com/30\n\nVisit Dan R Morris's Podcast "Tracing the Path" at http://tracingthepath.com\n\n\n\nIn France, King Louis the Fourteenth reigned from 1643 until his death in 1715. He was known as \u201cThe Sun King\u201d or \u201cLouis the Great.\u201d And the guy had butt problems. Specifically an anal fistula. Listen - don\u2019t google that. Just understand, it\u2019s a butt problem. And at this point in history, physicians didn\u2019t perform surgeries where they cut into people. But barbers had blades they used to cut hair, so a barber named Charles Francois Felix created a special blade-like tool that he called \u201cThe Royal Probe\u201d and used it to perform a surgery on the Sun King to cure him of his anal fistula. It was a huge success, Louis was fistula-free and the result is that his courtiers and subjects who wanted to appear king-like tried to get the surgery too - whether they had the ailment or not! Even people who didn\u2019t get the surgery wrapped their butts in swaddles to appear as if they\u2019d gotten the surgery.\xa0\n\nThat\u2019s maybe the grossest example of a monarch becoming a trend-setter. Cleopatra had all of the upper-class women in Rome wearing their hair in a bun at the back of their neck, and wearing eyeliner. If you know the rule about men\u2019s three-button suit coats? You know, Sometimes, always never? Meaning you never button the bottom button on a suit coat? That goes back to King Edward the seventh when he was Prince of Wales and he was too fat to button the bottom button. It started a trend that exists today.\xa0\n\nSo I guess it\u2019s not surprising that a trend started by a monarch had women walking irregularly.\xa0\n\nLet\u2019s go back to the guy who couldn\u2019t button the button. England\u2019s King Edward the Seventh. His wife was Alexandra of Denmark, so she became Princess of Wales, then Queen of England. She was a beautiful woman, she was known to be very charming and joyful person. When her 3rd child was born, she was stricken with rheumatic fever and almost died. After the birth, she had to use walking sticks to get around, and after a year, had began to walk again without the crutches and - for the rest of her life - had a permanent limp.\n\n\n\nAlexandra of Denmark had already become a trend-setter as Princess of Wales. She was a huge fashion influencer and the women in England would copy everything she wore. She had a small scar on her neck from a childhood surgical procedure and she often wore choker collars and jewelry high on her neck to cover the scar. English women started wearing similar style chokers. And -just as they had been influenced and tried to mimic royalty before, they did so with her. Even going so far as to imitate her permanent limp.\xa0\n\nHere\u2019s a quote from an 1869 Edition of the North British Mail newspaper: "Taking my customary walk the other day, observant of men, women and things, I met three ladies. They were all three young, all three good-looking, and all three lame! At least, such was my impression, seeing as they all carried handsome sticks and limped; but, on looking back, as everyone else did, I could discover no reason why they should do so.\u201d\n\nIt was the \u201cAlexandra Limp\u201d and it caught on like wildfire. A faked limp that was put on by women in the upper-class areas of London in order to appear more like Alexandra of Denmark. Women would walk with a pronounced limp and go so far as to use a cane that they didn\u2019t need. They didn\u2019t have any ailment. They faked it. And in order to do so, they started wearing shoes of two different type