This is a look back to help us understand that feminism is a constant fight for the future of others. It’s the belief in a human mind that is not limited to its surroundings.
We need to look back at the simplest things, of what is so normal to us today. In fact, though, brave women (and men!) had to fight for the right for us to simply wear pants today.
Until the 1970s, women were not even allowed to wear pants in international luxury hotels or the world-famous Harrods in London. They had to wear a skirt, because this is what was considered “etiquette,” and, obviously, people who were not willing to follow etiquette couldn’t be part of “high society.”
But how came pants were a male thing? In Europe, wearing pants became common for men in the 8th century. Pants were associated with men of status but it eventually became accepted for other men to wear them (not women just yet, though). Pants showed to people that a brave, strong, manly person was arriving. Therefore, women were forbidden by law to wear them. In fact, it was a scandal for women wearing fabric between their legs. Just carry that thought a little further and you’ll realize how animalistic that is.
In Paris, a law imposted on November 17, 1800 forbidding women to wear pants was only officially overturned in 2013. That’s right: 2013. Although it, of course, had gone ignored for decades, it was still an official law until just a few years ago.
Obviously, French women had been wearing pants before that time, but, as with many things that politicians just don’t care enough about, they didn’t actually act within a reasonable time to change things. So I’m wondering when feminist issues will become more important to our politicians?
By the end of the 19th century Amelia Bloomer actually made pants become a thing for women, even to wear on official occasions, but still they were not widely accepted and lots of women just didn’t dare to wear the so-called “bloomers.”
During World War I and II, overalls made it to the women who needed to take over many jobs due to a shortage of a male workforce. Then, big designers like Coco Chanel brought female pants to life. But this couldn’t have happened without all the strong, brave women who chose their own way of fashion along the way, of course.
If that story can tell you one thing today, then, it’s that feminism isn’t for nothing. That fighting for equity is something worth doing and that the life you are living today is based on others who also had to fight for change. To me this is a big cheer to all the brave women and men who fought just so I can wear my jeans—or even my PJs—today.