The Cincinnati daily star. [volume] ([Cincinnati, Ohio]) 1875-1880, 1879-01-16
The Tyranny Of Fashion.

Fashion is sort of self-elected power in
society which exercises almost universal
sway over all civilized nations, and is based
on no principles and governed by no rules.
1t counts among its slaves monarchs, princes
and mobiles; nor are the lower classes exempt
from its pernicious influence. Its dominion
is more extended than ever was that of the
most powerful monarch it has existed from
the remotest times, and, in all probability.
the world will never shake off its fetters.
The customs and fasbions of society are SO
various and clrangeable that if the human
race were, like minerals and flowers, chiefly
characterized by those qualities which strike
the eye rather than by such as are more es-
sential, humanity would constitute the most
complicated and perplexing branch of nat
ural history. We have happily not attained
to that point Of folly, though we exhibit a
consi lerable degree of it by the tame man
ner in which we submit to the DEGREES Of
fashion, however ridiculous or inconyenient
they may be.
1t may be well, before going further, to
distinguish between flshion as regards dress
and costume. A national costume is gener
ally inaugurated with the founding of a ma
ton, and undergoes but few essential alter
ations in the course of time. Fashion, on the
other hand is perpetually changing, and
often but few months elapse between the
transitions the former is usually compatible
with the general character, or else striking
popularity, of the people; but the latter
acknowledges no law, and results from no
virtuous principles.
Although men are not by any means free
from the influence of the caprices of fashion,
yet they are not nearly so much affected by
them as those of the opposite sex. Perhaps
this distinction may arise from the different
constitution of the female mind. Women,
led on by strange inlatuation, sacrifice
freely their personal appearance, modesty
and health, at the altar of the goddess Of
Fashion, which,
-" venerable tyrant,
Such absolute tyranny does Fashion ex
ercise, that women submit to have their
waists squeezed to half their natural size !;
, they dsfgure their faces with powder, paint
J and blotches Of plaster; they wear immense
protuberances behind, and pile up on then
heads diminutive mountains Of hair. They
cripple themselves with heels four or five
inches in height; they convert Themselves
into public street cleaners by dragging altel
them long skirts loaded with founces and
various other appendages, and return to
their homes bedaubed with mud, and carry
ing with them the refuse of the streets.
1t is matter of astonishment to every
sensible man that a woman of the nineteenth
century should act in such an Incompetent
! sible manner. Yet it is not so with all !;
, there are few women who dare to rebel
against some of the most monstrous DEGREES
Of fashion. There are, at the present time,
women in this country who feel that "clean-
illness is next to godliness, and struggle be-
tween Scylla and Charybdis, between fashion
and clean skirts. If such woman adheres
to her natural love of cleanliness, and ap-
pears abroad in dress without long train,
the women of the period stare at her, and
the clerks leave her to wait on more ele-
gantly attired customers. But, when az
7 rayed in new dress, polite attentions await
t her at every point; gentlemen acknowledge
Y the superior cut Of her garments by tender
: ing her courteously their seats in the stage
v the clerks are obsequious and attentive, and
Fashion meets her with smile of approval.
t 1t should not be wondered at so much then,
if, in the face of these and similar difficulties
so few women rise to shake off the thraldom
;. of fashion. If society should make one sys-
tematc and united struggle for freedom, the
rule of the seemingly all-powerful goddess
y might be overthrown; but this, we fear, will
never take place-at least, so long as we are
. actuated by the same principles and feeling,
as we are at present.
Although the language, manners, anG
p morals of nations have been alike subjected
o to the arbitrary influence of the tyranny Of
n Fashion, have refrained from making men
$ tion of them, as the field which they cover il
}; too extensive for the limits of the present
d article. | have likewise confined my remarks
}; mainly to modern fashions, as they demane
10 less space than the account of those which
prevailed centuries ago. But enough ha:
Ia been said, think, to show that Fashion ha!
q, been at all times and under all modification
" a relentless tyrant, and her sway an absolut
is despotism.