#breaking expectations

Expectations and status

Victorian women were expected to marry, but since her parents were dead and she was the head of the Phantomhive estate, who could actually force her to do much of anything expected of her... besides perhaps the queen? But only to an extent, even then. And I don't think she was particularly into doing what was expected of her....

I don't believe she ever married Cedric, as she never took the Ros-- name, nor was his name ever given to their children. Which means her children would have been born out of wedlock, a naughty thing to do on its own, anyway.

So, I do not think she paraded around with Cedric, or if she did it was in pure defiance. The Victorian era was honestly full of women "behaving badly". A Victorian lady "should" marry young, bear numerous children, be graceful and the epitome of one's "fairer sex". However, many titled ladies took lovers, and some even offered their paid... services... to others within the peerage.

It was also increasingly common for the nobility/aristocracy to sport body piercings at this time. The more private the better, for it was a sign of good breeding and hygiene to keep such piercings clean and healthy. It's not at all impossible that Prince Albert actually sported a "Prince Albert"....

Pierced ears were not terribly common with women, particularly if they were intending to wear heavy earrings for the evening (also not as common as we like to think), so clip-on earrings were already a thing. But men did sometimes carry on the old fashion of a pierced ear, usually the left (the right ear being pierced would label the man as homosexual), typically just sporting a simple stud.

We already know the Phantomhive men have a tendency to wear a stud earring in one or both ears, and Cloudia/Claudia also seems to have worn earrings. Oh, the image in ch116 makes it canon she at least had her left ear pierced (I think that's a piercing and not just a clip-on), so chances are both ears were pierced.

Anyway, we could headcanon that Vincent, Rachel, and even Cloudia/Claudia had body piercings and it wouldn't be anachronistic or at all unacceptable! Hell, even Francis/Frances and Alexis! So, as unusual as Undertaker's more extreme ear piercings are, they aren't exactly outside the range of possibilities, especially when he usually keeps them hidden under his hair and hat.

But, notice he isn't even wearing those captured ball rings when he's under cover as the Headmaster of Weston. In fact, he has probably removed all the gauged cartilage jewelry, as well. Ch82, for example:

And when Cloudia/Claudia was alive, he could easily have left out his piercings to be in public with her. Let's also keep in mind that we don't know exactly when he started working as an undertaker, which is a lowly position in Victorian England. In ch151, he tells real Ciel he has no clue about managing an estate, but that doesn't mean he's never run around in aristocratic circles, even if it meant pretending to be in the peerage.

We also don't know when he started getting his ears pierced. In ch149, it's hard to tell, with his hair the way it was, but he might not have had those earrings at all back then, as an active reaper.

For all we know, he didn't get into piercing his ears until after he met Cloudia/Claudia... maybe not even until after her death. Writers could easily work into their fanfics that Undertaker's ear piercings are just as symbolic as the hair lockets. Maybe births, instead of deaths, and the industrial bar in his right ear could even denote a set of twins?!? 🤔 Who knows? 🤷🏻‍♀️

What I'm slowly getting at is the fact that Undertaker could be Cedric and just didn't present himself back in Cloudia/Claudia's time the same way he does now. More like when he's incognito at Weston. And that Cloudia/Claudia could have had children with pretty much anyone if she really wanted to, even with someone not in the peerage, because she was the defiant sort to begin with. Due to all the risks, she probably would have tried to keep as much a secret as possible. But much of what's happened/happening to the Phantomhives might be consequences of her and Cedric's actions back then. In other words, having children out of wedlock and with a reaper quite possibly led to her death and has continued to cause problems for her progeny.

It opens with a scream and steps into a world where judgment is louder than truth. This piece is a sharp, darkly observant meditation on perception, power, and the defiance of someone who refuses to be sorted, diminished, or explained away. Moving through suspicion, absurd fear, and everyday struggles, it exposes how systems label what they do not understand and how dignity survives in the…

We’re hiding behind smiles and promises, behind ‘I love you’s and ‘How do you do’s. We’re breaking and crumbling and screaming so loud no one can hear, and we’re smiling. We’re smiling because that’s all we’ve been taught to do, not how to confide, or how to repair. Only how to fall apart behind walls of titanium while the world goes on. We’re taught not to be burdens, to stay silent, to not trouble others.

The little boys are taught that crying is bad, that showing weakness, feminity is bad. They grow up learning that the only emotions left for them to embrace are cold smiles and misplaced pride. They grow up calloused and bruised, locking everything away behind a front of masculinity and disguised terror.

The little girls are taught not to stand up, not to speak for themselves. They learn that they’re porcelain dolls with too wide smiles etched onto their faces while they scream and shout and cry and yell with the ferocity of a dying star. They grow up desiring perfection and waiting on others, wondering if their fragile fronts will ever break.

The little kids are taught that stupid questions are not to be tolerated, that the wonders of the imaginary are to be stowed away in the depths of the forgotten. They grow up, and as they do they get beaten down, told to sit down, to mind their place, to be the best, but not out of place. They learn what’s needed of them and how to provide, they learn that they’re just the next product of the assembly line, and any sign of imperfection will get them sent back to the factory.

We’re being told who to be and what to think. Told how to exist and why. We’re being taught we don’t matter unless we fit the mold. We’re being taught that we don’t understand anything, we’re little kids, with tiny minds and tiny, insignificant thoughts. Our opinions are irrelevant unless we grow up to be a white, straight, cisgender man. We’re taught that we are not worthy until they deem we are.

But they’re wrong.

We’re worth more than we’re led to believe. There’s more to us than cheer captain and star football player. There’s more to us than makeup and battle scars. There’s more to us than barbie dolls and football trophies. There’s so much more to us than that.

We’re filled to the brim with thoughts and ideas and love. We’re scribbling page after page of ways we’d like the world to change so that we can survive amidst this tidal wave of expectations. We’re screaming so loud about how we want to survive and exist that the world is struck deaf.

We cannot fill the mold that society stuffs us in. We cannot fit through the people-shaped holes that lead to success in the adult world. We are not perfect. We are striving to be amidst our self-destruction but we can’t.