Hey, what ever happened to....

[blade runner]

A few years ago, my wife, daughter and I were at the Renaissance Festival near NYC and I took my daughter into their "dungeon" where they would show you various devices and methods of torture using props and dummies. When we got to the fourth or fifth one, I looked over and saw that my daughter (around age 15 or 16 at the time) was very pale. I asked if she was all right and she said "I can't see". I helped her to a bench to sit down and somebody got her some water and she eventually felt OK. I think she had been a few seconds from going down in a heap. It wasn't a shock that did it, but she felt empathetic toward the torture victims and used her imagination a little too much. Needless to say, we didn't finish that little tour.

We also had a wedding fainting in the family. Several decades ago, when my oldest brother got married, my older brother was best man. We in the wedding party had to stand through the whole ceremony for some reason. My older brother started leaning forward and taking little steps ahead. I didn't know what he was doing but I grabbed his sleeve to pull him back before he walked into the alter railing. My father and someone else realized he was fainting so they got up and helped him sit down. After a little while he got up again and joined us. About half a minute later, he just fell straight back like a ton of bricks. My father managed to reach out and catch his head just before it smacked into the pew. It's just a funny memory now, but it could have been a bad scene.

 

[annet]

i used to faint all the time, during my growth spurts. my blood pressure would get low and whenever i got up too fast i'd just pass out... it even included some kind of spasms, making it look like i had a seizure. it was like epilepsy but i knew perfectly when i would have an attack.

these days i still get this during stressful times when i get up in the morning. sometimes everything goes black and i have to lie down again for a while until i can see again. a few years i lied down too close to the edge of the bed and started shaking again-it is very annoying to be banging your head into a wall and not being able to stop doing it.

 

[jdbenson]

....Fainting?

In all of the 30's and 40's movies women fainted all the time at the first sign of bad news.
A perfectly plausible response to female sensory overload.

The most recent time I can remember Hollywood using this cliche was in Cast Away, when Hellen Hunt learns that Tom Hanks is still alive.

 

[MikeBravo]

Well, it is an old tradition to laugh at others as long as it isn't you. An old Chinese philosopher once said happiness is getting your hair cut every few weeks and watching your neighbor fall off his roof. So being entertained is nothing new.

A man slips over on a banana skin

From a distance it's comedy, up close it's tragedy

 

[HadleyH]

I have never fainted in my life! what does it feel like?


I think it's silly when women faint in old movies.


what for?


It's a sign of weakness.... is it not?


Slip over a banana skin? sure, fun...! but to faint just like that? OMG no please!!!

 

[p71towny]

Heck, if I take too long tying my shoes and stand up quick I get all dizzy and starry vision. I'm 6'3 tho, so it might take a little longer to reach my head. I had tunnel vision when I rode the millennium force at Cedar Point. That was interesting. When I donate plasma I usually have low blood pressure.

 

[MikeBravo]

It all started when women used to wear restrictive corsets. It was hard to breathe at the best of times. Any shock or disturbance could result in a fainting spell.

It probably didn't happen that often, but did become a bit of a cliche in novels of the time and from there period movies

Many people carried around smelling salts to revive said lady in distress

 

[Nik Taylor]

I have fainted. I was standing at "attention" and locked my knees. It was a hot summer day, I got woozy and down I went.

 

[Pompidou]

Real life medical trauma leaves me on the verge of passing out. I've been first aid and CPR certified in the past, but I have to wonder how much help I'd actually be.