do people do this?

Women in particularly (yes they're people too).

In old movies, they faint a lot

In some old books, they faint

Even sometimes I read news about an old trial or murder or even a scary movie that premiered, and a woman, or more than one, is mentioned as fainting.

So what's the deal?

Myth?
Exaggeration?
Clothes were tighter for women (corsets and stuff)?
Women were more delicate then-emotionally, some having been sheltered and thus when exposed to certain things, couldn't deal?
Suggestion perhaps-all the talk of fainting caused fainting?
Men rule?

Yes - it happens.

I was with my wife and daughter, visiting my mom with after she had bypass surgery. My mom shows where they removed the vein from her leg and the next thing we know my daughter is laying passed out on the floor. The nurse rushed over and made sure she was OK. When asked what happened she said (and we still make fun of it to this day), "I was just tired so I went to sleep."

I've only ever seen two people faint, both were because of nerves and heat exhaustion. Catholic grade school, one of the altar boys fainted at church in the middle of the ceremony, and then another time a girl fainted as we were rehearsing the 8th grade Christmas show. Never seen an adult male or female faint for any reason. I think the "turn around and puke" reflex is more realistic.

I faint on occasion, but I have weak blood, so that's my excuse.

I have read that in Victorian times, women were often prone to fainting because of a combination of too-tight corsets and too-warm clothing. I definitely believe this could be true.

I don't know that fainting is much of an epidemic among women in modern times. I think I am probably an exception.

I fainted twice when I was a kid. Both times it was a hot day. The first time I was about 8. It was a music class and we were forced to learn and sing a song. I was on a riser above some of my classmates when everything just went black. Woke up and was told I fell on someone. Got the rest of the day off and stayed home playing Atari 2600 games.

The second time was my first day of high school where I was new to the area. So that was not a fun way to start my time there. For the first few weeks I got asked "Are you the guy that fainted?".

I fainted due to heat exhaustion once.

But the girl was worth it.

You're so dainty.....


I wouldn't call it fainting, but I passed out once when I was in the 8th grade, For fun, we were taking turns holding our breath and seeing how purple we could turn our faces. I think I won. I woke up sitting on the floor with a bump on my head, no recollection of the prior 5 minutes, and my friends standing there saying, "That was AWESOME!"

Man, what a bunch of wimps.

Great story, Hank.

I fainted once, getting out of a too hot bath.
It was really interesting ! I could hear my thoughts echoing in my head like they do when they want to indicate a flashback in a radio play - apparently I went stone white and keeled over - and the next thing I knew I had measured my length on the floor.

I've only lost consciousness all out once.

I have fallen over almost losing consciousness two other times.

Haven't done it in years.

Senior year of high school, my best friend and I went to Panama City Beach for Spring Break. Our first day there, we decide to chill out after the long drive by hanging out at the hot tub and then hit some of the clubs. We're at the hot tub for about 30 minutes, about to head back to the room, when 3 of the hottest college chicks we'd ever seen get in. We wound up spending another hour chatting them up, and finally get them to think we're college freshman, and arrange to meet us later. We finally head to the elevator, and I guess the extended time in the hot water got my buddy a little light headed, because while waiting on the car, he falls foward and bangs his head on the elevator doors before hitting the ground. He was okay, but the nasty gash on his forehead precluded him from any flings that week.

I've never fainted, but I've unwillingly lost conciousness only twice in my life (not counting passing out drunk). Once was my aforementioned Tale of Awesome, where I may or may not have been struck by lightning. The other was when I was thirteen and decided it would be a good idea to race a go-kart on a ten-speed bicycle. I was doing pretty good keeping up with it, until the go-kart decided to go left and I kept going straight. The next thing I knew, it was ten minutes later and I came to lying flat on my back with a freaking go-kart on top of me.

Playing football (the version which involves you kicking a ball with your feet) in the playground when I was 10 (20 a side games where, at any one point, 8 people surrounded the ball and kicked the bastard ovoid), I ran into another lad and bent my fingers up real bad, baby.

Woke up in hospital. Fainted onto a wall, stotting my head off it. Please discourage your children from doing this sort of thing.

My grandfather had a stroke while driving and was taken to the hospital. When I got there with my parents, he's describing how he looked down and his arm didn't seem like his arm. And I look down and think is that my arm. My stomach starts getting all squeezy and I'm wanting to exit. The doctor says every one out and I start toward the door and the next thing I know I'm looking up at a rather attractive nurse with smelling salts.

I'm not allowed to visit anyone in the hospital anymore.

I was wearing a Tor Johnson mask once at Summer camp.
I was a councelor, and we had a "Crazy Day". I wore the thing for a few hours, and at Dinnertime lineup, I started feeling lightheaded, then everything looked like a negative, then I woke up on my back on the ground with one of the other leaders
trying to wake me up.
Apparently the nose holes of the mask weren't letting in enough oxygen!

No adverse effects, AND I got to make out with the other councelor who was trying to wake me up a few hours later!

Ah man...............what ever happened to her? She was so damn cute!

Out of the 200 or so jobs we do a day,
apx 20% of them involve fainting.
Keep it up, folks, you're my bread and butter.

I think I was close to fainiting once in high school. We were dissecting (I believe) sheeps intestal system in groups of twos, and even though I didn't consciously dislike it, at one point I could literary feel the blood leaving my head. When the teacher noticed my paleness she suggested I should lie down for a while (while my lab partner continued describing what he was doing, when I couldn't see what happened on the table)

When I was about 8 years old, my family took me to the top of Trail Ridge Road (the highest elevation paved road in the USA). Due to my lack of oxygen, and me being a stupid 8 year old, I fainted. As far as I know, that's the only time in my life.

I believe that the corsets are supposed to have accounted for a lot of women's fainting in the old days. Movie makers tend to have missed that aspect of it though.