Historical Costume vs Catcalling : Feminist fashion trends men hated

"Fashion Trends Men Hate" isn't a new thing. Nor is street harassment or catcalling. Hoopskirts, hat pins, and more of these feminist historical fashion trends helped fight unwanted advances and catcalls by maintaining personal space, keeping men at a distance, symbolizing womens' power, and even LITERALLY STABBING men who grabbed women on the street. Let's chat about the fashion history and gender politics behind Elizabethan puffy sleeves, 18th century hoopskirts, Victorian crinolines and bustles, huge Regency bonnets and Edwardian hats, and the Hatpin Peril that led to bans all over the world! But most importantly, in the era of #MeToo and Time's Up, what this dive into the feminism of historical dress will show us that sexual harassment has NEVER been about what the victim was wearing. Men have been writing about womens' fashion for centuries, and you'd be surprised how many 18th century and Victorian magazines have articles that read like a modern list of "fashion trends men hate". This goes back to the early 18th century with the resurgence of hoopskirts, and continued into the 20th century with the "Hatpin Peril"— a supposed epidemic of "mashers" (Edwardian slang for creeps) stabbed with hatpins for bothering women out in public. Inspired by a quote in "The Cut Of Womens' Clothes" by Nora Waugh, and a tumblr post about how no one actually thought bustles were fake butts, I combed through dozens of ancient magazines and newspapers to figure out why men of the past coul