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HARRISON FLAG [MARSHALL, TX], March 2, 1860, p. 1, c. 7
A Letter in which a Woman Speaks what she Thinks.
Annie Trevor gives her readers through the Philadelphia Press, the very spicy and truthful letter copied below:
Men are continually talking about women's dress, ridiculing women's fashions, and having a good time of it to themselves. You don't hear women making such a noise about men's styles; they manage to mind their own business generally, on such matters as those anyhow. I break through the forms, and give you an idea or two that are in my head just now.
Men talked about hoops, unblushingly and relentlessly, when they first became "the rage." Ministers in the pulpit, orators on the rostrum, editors through the papers, fops in the parlor and boys in the street, seemed to think it a necessary duty to cry down hoops; they do it yet, and I'll wager, if crinoline were entirely discarded, not a man lives who wouldn't laugh at the long shrouded figures women would appear in the streets. To be sure, I have met some few sensible men who are willing to acknowledge that hoops are a wonderful improvement, that they wouldn't like to see ladies without them, but the number is very small compared with the other side. Even while the men do make such a fuss, I want to know if any one of the sex wears a pair of pantaloons without some kind of stiffening around the hem of said articles. At any rate, I see some men who look a deal better if they wore hoops in their pantaloons.
When ladies wore coats, tight to the form, and buttoned to the throat _a la militaire_, men indignantly declared that their styles were being appropriated by the other sex, and, at that very same time, every second man you met was wrapped in a monstrous shawl. I wonder if that wasn't appropriating with a vengeance.
Then they talk about padding, and there isn't a vest worn that the bosom ain't stuffed with cotton until it weighs more than any dress-body that was ever made. Padding, indeed! I wonder if you think we women are ignoramuses, because we have the good sense to say nothing. I wonder if you think we keep our eyes shut as well as our mouths. Not a bit of it. Don't I know that if the old style of knee-breeches and silk stockings should be revived, the demand for "false calves" would be alarming? To be sure I do.
And don't I know that there are plenty of men who lace themselves in stays just as tight as any woman ever did, and for the very same reason that women do that thing? I don't know anything about it, do I? Oh, no, of course I don't.
I don't know that men dye their hair and whiskers when the natural color doesn't exactly suit them, do I?
I never see men with tow-heads and jetty moustaches, do I?
I don't know that old gray-haired men are daily making efforts to rejuvenate themselves in appearance, by turning their gray hairs into "glossy black," wearing false teeth, &c., do I?
Maybe I don't.
Ladies wear tight shoes to make their feet look small, do they? Gentlemen never do such things, I suppose. _They_ are never seen limping along the street in bran new patent leathers. Of course not. They never resort to artificial means to improve their beauty. They never wear woolen mittens all night to make their hands white. Of course not. I don't know anything about it, do I?
"What a quantity of stuff it takes to cut ladies' sleeves now a-days!" said a masculine in my hearing. Ten minutes afterwards I saw him with a coat on, the sleeves of which looked like enormous balloons, legs of mutton, or some other monstrosity. There is consistency for you.
Now, I advise you men to keep silence on matters you know nothing about. We _will_ have our own way; we mean to wear hoops until we choose to take them off; we mean to wear coats _a la militaire_ just when we please—aye, and pantaloons, too, if it suits us. (They are worn by some married women now, are they not?) And you, men, had as well hold your tongues, and not be wasting your time and talents, talking about what you can't prevent.
Vicki Betts
vbetts@gower.net
A Letter in which a Woman Speaks what she Thinks.
Annie Trevor gives her readers through the Philadelphia Press, the very spicy and truthful letter copied below:
Men are continually talking about women's dress, ridiculing women's fashions, and having a good time of it to themselves. You don't hear women making such a noise about men's styles; they manage to mind their own business generally, on such matters as those anyhow. I break through the forms, and give you an idea or two that are in my head just now.
Men talked about hoops, unblushingly and relentlessly, when they first became "the rage." Ministers in the pulpit, orators on the rostrum, editors through the papers, fops in the parlor and boys in the street, seemed to think it a necessary duty to cry down hoops; they do it yet, and I'll wager, if crinoline were entirely discarded, not a man lives who wouldn't laugh at the long shrouded figures women would appear in the streets. To be sure, I have met some few sensible men who are willing to acknowledge that hoops are a wonderful improvement, that they wouldn't like to see ladies without them, but the number is very small compared with the other side. Even while the men do make such a fuss, I want to know if any one of the sex wears a pair of pantaloons without some kind of stiffening around the hem of said articles. At any rate, I see some men who look a deal better if they wore hoops in their pantaloons.
When ladies wore coats, tight to the form, and buttoned to the throat _a la militaire_, men indignantly declared that their styles were being appropriated by the other sex, and, at that very same time, every second man you met was wrapped in a monstrous shawl. I wonder if that wasn't appropriating with a vengeance.
Then they talk about padding, and there isn't a vest worn that the bosom ain't stuffed with cotton until it weighs more than any dress-body that was ever made. Padding, indeed! I wonder if you think we women are ignoramuses, because we have the good sense to say nothing. I wonder if you think we keep our eyes shut as well as our mouths. Not a bit of it. Don't I know that if the old style of knee-breeches and silk stockings should be revived, the demand for "false calves" would be alarming? To be sure I do.
And don't I know that there are plenty of men who lace themselves in stays just as tight as any woman ever did, and for the very same reason that women do that thing? I don't know anything about it, do I? Oh, no, of course I don't.
I don't know that men dye their hair and whiskers when the natural color doesn't exactly suit them, do I?
I never see men with tow-heads and jetty moustaches, do I?
I don't know that old gray-haired men are daily making efforts to rejuvenate themselves in appearance, by turning their gray hairs into "glossy black," wearing false teeth, &c., do I?
Maybe I don't.
Ladies wear tight shoes to make their feet look small, do they? Gentlemen never do such things, I suppose. _They_ are never seen limping along the street in bran new patent leathers. Of course not. They never resort to artificial means to improve their beauty. They never wear woolen mittens all night to make their hands white. Of course not. I don't know anything about it, do I?
"What a quantity of stuff it takes to cut ladies' sleeves now a-days!" said a masculine in my hearing. Ten minutes afterwards I saw him with a coat on, the sleeves of which looked like enormous balloons, legs of mutton, or some other monstrosity. There is consistency for you.
Now, I advise you men to keep silence on matters you know nothing about. We _will_ have our own way; we mean to wear hoops until we choose to take them off; we mean to wear coats _a la militaire_ just when we please—aye, and pantaloons, too, if it suits us. (They are worn by some married women now, are they not?) And you, men, had as well hold your tongues, and not be wasting your time and talents, talking about what you can't prevent.
Vicki Betts
vbetts@gower.net
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