Skirts To Trousers

[bainbrig]

When did 'the people' in these islands stop wearing dresses/skirts/whatever and the male half start wearing trousers?

Not talking about the 'court', who always had their own way of life - but the people.

Just strikes me that the insistence that women should wear dresses while the men could have trousers might well have connotations in terms of sexual dominance/availability.

Has there been any academic feminist thinking on the subject?

BillB

[Mamyalynne]

Google will bring you a myriad of hits for the History of trousers, here is just one.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trousers#History

[Mamyalynne]

https://www.stuffmomnevertoldyou.com/blogs/when-did-women-begin-wearing-pants.htm

[Jackdaw33]

Academic feminist thinking? No such thing.

[youngmafbog]

And soon e will all be wearing long white pyjamas.

[bainbrig]

Thanks mamyalynne, some interesting points there.

(I see the riff-raff has arrived.)

BB

[Mamyalynne]

You're welcome.

[woofgang]

Jackdaw you are conflating opinion and approach.

[gness]

Interesting question, BB....I've half mulled this over before but Mamya's links are really interesting....just skimmed but will make good reading later...thanks both.....x

[bainbrig]

Yes gness; I know the militant feminists at the time of the 'hard to rape a woman wearing tight jeans' case in Italy took the line that rape was rape - which of course it is - but there is a non-patriarchal point to be made. Not that women wearing this or that are 'asking for it', of course they're not, but that women wearing skirts are more easily molested than women wearing heavier trousers.

I was wondering whether the male insistence on women NOT wearing trousers over the centuries was linked in some way to their sexual predation. It would be nice to kick this around with feminists who don't see any questioning of female attire as part of the patriarchy!

BB

[gness]

The Italian case is really interesting, BB.......for a number of reasons......and I'm not going to open a can of worms here... but it's food for thought.....

I worked for a head who didn't like his female staff to wear trousers....he couldn't make skirts a rule but could make it clear he wasn't happy.... not in a nasty way....looks and humour as a rule.....
His reasons....and they were genuine, not in anyway sexual.....were that it looked more professional....it set a standard for the children....and it was only a short step from trousers to wearing jeans.....
He expected his staff to dress smartly in his school and for him that was dresses and skirts for the females....
We oldies weren't bothered but when we had an influx of new young members of staff he had to give in.....:-)

[ethandron]

When I was at college, many moons ago, all the females had to wear skirts, no trousers allowed. So one day we got our heads together and us females all wore trousers, not jeans, smart trousers, and expected to be reprimanded.
Disappointingly no one said a word and from then on we all wore trousers. Such a non event, doh!

[Old_Geezer]

I get the impression that one is hoping to prove a favoured speculation and looking for like minded feminists for support. Not everything revolves around subjegation of women.

[bainbrig]

Not at all, Geezer. It’s certainly a hypothesis, but the only way to explore such a thought is by dialogue, by an exchange of ideas, which I was hoping to generate.

BB