The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1919-05-21
Feminine Handicaps.
Rutland Herald.l

Woman comes in for a good deal OF
criticism and rldicule for wearing such
a garment as the hobble skirt but though
she is the ultimate consumer she has
nothing to say about what the fashion
is to be. A convention of dress or suit
makers met somewhere in the Middle
West months ago and decided this ques-
ton for her. II she tries to purchase a
more volumnious skirt, she is told there
are none. What is she to do? It's the
hobble skirt or nothing. Re
former.
This, of course, is not literally or alb
solutely true. If women's wear shops in
Brattleboro do not sell modest common
surate skirts as well as the silly one-leg
| pantaIoon, send to Rutland or some place
| where merchants have good sense
| Women wear hobble skirts, not because
| they cannot get others, but because they
would rather be I'm style than be COM
| Portable; they would rather be modish
than modest, they prefer the handicaps
| 1f fashion to the freedoms of rational
| dress
/ TO the mind OF mere man, it seems
| passing strange that, after the practical
| demonstrations of the war. women should
| permit themselves to he handicapped by
| such nansgnsical fashions as tight. skirts,
high heels and constructing corsage.
Women III war work uniform, Red Cross
| working dress. yeoman rig or automobile
suit found out the why of such dress
in short order; it increased their work,
ing capacity from Is to 30 per cent.
Furthermore the men who did things,
advised by doctors who knew their bust
ness, made plain orders about war.work
clothes for women that had to be obeyed
1t is a pity that such orders could not
have been made of postwar effect and
extended to the whole sex
II man wants to realize some OF the
things that make women less than IS pei
cent efficient in the world of work anC
business, let him conduct the folowin.
experiment.:
l. Get into low-heeled walking shoes
and ordinary mems clothes and wall
downstairs and back couple of times a
his usual pace;
. Shed the outer clothes, fasten inch
and-a-half blocks to the heels of the shoes
wind muller or lace riding breeche
tightly about the waist and abdomen, dor
n bath robe and wrap it tightly abou
the body and legs so that the knees ar
, bound at every step; then do the SAM
amount of walking up and note the dif
ference
Is there any argument? Is the hand
cap less than 80 per cent? Does it shov
down efficiency Yet women handicaI
| themselves worse than that every day 0
the year and then wonder why they can
do as much work as men,
To be smart, to be stylish, to reac
from the sensible things of life seems a
S inevitable today as in the days when th
: cave-man went abroad for food, and tn
woman, a mere captive to his strength
amused herself with feathers, bits of fun
bright grasses and flowers, eolored leave
e and berries in the way of personal adoir
V ment-a sort of iackdaw instinct that
in addition to the development of clotf
ing, developed supposed improvement
on the female form divine
= The CHASTITY lip-rings, the pierced ears
t the crippled feet, the padded form, tn
hour-glass figure the farthingale and otl
er fashionable denominations We're device
of idle women who tried. to improve o
! nature. Some of our women today al
developing the qualities of the cave won
an, which may be reaction from the III
ors of the war but which is more lillel
a throwback to savage instincts not "
eradicated from the race.
he The answer to such an arralgnment WI
Y be to point out hundreds or Thousand
10 of women who are efficient and capabl
'e Notwithstanding the handicap of stylis
p dress; to which the counter-blast IS TIN
rs they will wear themselves out just !
n much faster if they persist in the wretc
Sc ed handicap of fashionable clothes,
N arIaigned herewith
10 Let women wear such handicaps1if the
$. WILL say we, but let it be made perfect
er clear and straight that they do so at Il
$ expense of their physical wel-being al
he that they are qualifying themselves f
h nervous break down or worse