questioningdragons:amarguerite:i know, i know, the perils of tightlacing and Victorian undergarments
questioningdragons:amarguerite:i know, i know, the perils of tightlacing and Victorian undergarments are greatly exaggerated but this is wild(or wilde, really)no more than seven pounds of undergarments!!! seen as revolutionary!!! The American temperance and women’s rights campaigner Amelia Bloomer advocated women wearing bifurcated, or baggy, ‘Turkish’-style trousers under knee-length skirts in the 1840s and 50s. Women were so enthusiastic that the items became known as ‘Bloomers’. Amelia was concerned about the constraining effects of long, heavy, full skirts, and saw this alternative clothing as a hygienic and practical solution. But the popular press in the US and the UK ran so many anti-Bloomerism pieces that she renounced the style as it was distracting attention away from her political goals such as fighting for the right to vote and for the right to property ownership. 1. I had no idea that bloomers were named after a person. 2. It’s sad that feminism still has the exact same struggles as nearly 200 years ago. I remember reading a woman from the period writing about how revolutionary bloomers were because you didn’t need a hand free to lift your skirts to go upstairs. Which meant YOU COULD CARRY THE BABY AND THE CANDLE UP THE STAIRS AT THE SAME TIME.whewwwwww. imagine not being able to do that in regular life in a time before electric lights. -- source link
#19th century#bloomers