The news scimitar. (Memphis, Tenn.) 1907-1926, 1919-03-21
DOROTHY DIX'S TALK
WOMEN AND CLOTHES.
BY DOROTHY DIX,
The Worlds Highest Paid Woman Writer

A woman doctor has been saying that
the present fashions make women
knock-kneed and ~pigeon-toed and hump
shouldered, and she predicts a coming
race OF feminine freaks and monstrosi-
ties.
These are gloomy forebodings, but
before we shed any tears over them let
US reflect that woman seems to possess
the mysterious power of altering her
body at will, so that what looks to be a
permanent physical defect is eliminated
as easily as one takes off ones hat.
Recall that only Just prior to the war
every young girl affected the debu-
tante SLOUGH, and went about with a
hollow-chested, anemic stoop that made
her appear a victim of the early stages
of tuberculosis. Then came the war
and trig uniforms, Sam Brown belts and
other military paraphernalia that re-
quired a straight back and broad Shout
ders and a well setup figure to carry
them Off, and In the twinkling of an eye
the girls all changed from sickly little
Cammillas to husky Minervas.
What man by taking thought can
add a cubit to his stature?" inquiries
holy writ, and no man answers. But
how to turn the trick and be fat or thin,
tall or short, have a waist line that is
under her arms, or down to her knees
as fishion dictates. It's not their bodies
but their minds that women's clothes
affect, and a whole Sartor Resartus
ing not only how women's methods ex-
press themselves in their clothes, but
how their clothes alter their moods.
Women know this. They know that
when they are happy and joyous they
want to put on something that is as
light. airy and substantial as the warp
and wool of JOY itself. And they know
that when they grieve they instinctively
shroud themselves in black.
There Is not q woman who does no
know that when she puts on a severe,
plain tailor-made gown, with a heavy
tailored shirt waist, that she holds her
self SITTER and straighter, and Is more
serious and dignified in manner and
conversation than she is when she has
on, say, a spangled net dress, or AT
embroidered chiffon. 1t isn't altogether
that the flirt and the coquette pick out
giddy raiment and the puritanica
maiden selects a sober and discreet
garb. It's the giddy raiment that makes
the staidest woman flirt n coquett'
when she gets it on, while the discree'
gown turns its wearer into a Puritan.
Likewise every woman knows tina
when her costume is in ~deshabille he
conduct Is likely also to be. Corset!
are a moral as well as a physical sup
port, and when a woman takes them Off
she becomes as loose in speech ant
manners as she Is in looks.
A woman in a sloppy, soiled wrappe
with her hair in curl papers will get int,
fights and say unrefined and unlady
like things that she would be utterly in
capable OF doing and saying If she hat
on her best frock, and her hair mar
celled. The reason the breakfast table
instead of the dinner table, is the seen,
of most family spats Is because wome'
wear kimonos to breakfast and dress VI
for dinner,
II | were a married man I shout
make a profound study of the phycho
logical effect of clothes on IN
great would be my reward therefor,
should, for instance, always insist upo'
my wife wearing something pink or red
or light blue in the evening, and