Nearly two centuries ago, women were fighting to be allowed to wear poofy pants under a poofy dress. The outfit had been put together by a Quaker woman named Amelia Bloomer. The women who wore it were harassed and assaulted in the streets. They were mocked in the newspapers. And still they kept fighting to be able to wear clothing that was less restrictive. Eventually, the Bloomer suit was adapted to become the usual design for women’s sporting apparel.
Women fought to not have to wear multiple layers of petticoats in the summer, and so a new “crinoline” (technically, a crinoline is an underskirt made of stiff horsehair) was invented, the “cage crinoline” (think hoop skirt) which became dangerous in its own right as women burned to death, became caught in machinery, and were otherwise harmed by the very design meant to be helpful.
Women fought to get rid of restrictive corsetry, inventing “emancipation waists,” (basically a sort of fitted undershirt), Union suits (yep, originally for women but quickly adopted by men), and even the “healthy” S line corset (healthy because it didn’t constrict the ribs. Sadly, like the cage crinoline, it was adopted by high fashion and became a tool of tightlacing.)
Women fought to have more comfortable clothing. Look up the aesthetic dress movement, and the earlier dress reform movement.
Women fought and fought to have swimming suits in which we could actually swim. Once we wore full dresses made of wool to go ocean bathing. Only slowly did the hemlines rise. Pants were added, then the shape became more streamlined. Women were arrested for public indecency. Still, they persisted.
Women fought to have appropriate garments to go cycling in or to ride a horse astride. Women fought and continue to fight to be allowed to attend school in comfortable clothing. I’ve said this before, but when I was a girl, I was required to wear a skirt unless the temperature stayed below 0 degrees Fahrenheit. I was not permitted to wear pants under my skirt, instead wearing woolen tights which itched and would pull down, requiring me to concentrate on keeping my clothing in order as well as my schoolwork.
Women are literally not stopping you. Go, buy a kilt or even an 80s bubble skirt. Nobody cares. But stop acting like women have not had to fight for every inch we’ve gained.
