- This video is sponsored by Squarespace. Do you like sport? Do you enjoy kick the ball, run fast, punch hard? Yeah, me neither. No, in all honesty, you probably do enjoy sports
in one form or another. Personally, I'm a big fan
of, I don't know, cornhole? But there's no denying
that sports of some kind are something that most
people have always enjoyed through all of human history. And during the Victorian era, athletics became the center stage for a big part of the
Women's Rights Movement. Many of us have grown up
with this image in our heads of the quiet and demure Victorian woman, too tightly corseted and
repressed to do anything but sit around and faint
or drink tea or something. But that wasn't the case at all. In fact, the late 1800s saw a sports craze unlike ever before, spurred by the Industrial
Revolution's allowing the mass manufacture, and therefore, sudden accessibility of
sports goods and equipment. And the ladies wanted in on it. From croquet to tennis,
to fencing and cycling, the years before and after
the turn of the century revolutionized women's roles in society, both in and out of the home
in what they did and wore, as well as how they saw themselves. Many women rode their way into the 1900s on a pair of wheels or swinging a foil. Come learn about it with me. But first, let's hear a word
from today's returning sponsor, Squarespace. As you may by now know, I've been working on
redoing my portfolio site, which is easily one of
the most important things for an artist to have, and thankfully, I've saved a lot of time and
stress by using Squarespace. From websites and online stores to marketing tools and analytics, Squarespace is the
all-in-one platform to build a beautiful online presence
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mobile-compatible these days. Head to squarespace.com for a free trial. And when you're ready to launch, go to squarespace.com/kazrowe to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain using my code, KAZROWE. Thank you so much to Squarespace
for sponsoring this video. And now, let's get back to learning about the trials and tribulations of Victorian women in sports. There's no question that
Victorian women were born into a world with extremely
specific social expectations for them based on a number of
factors, class in particular. But in general, no matter who you were, it was expected that a woman
must be the angel of the home. She holds her family together by providing the perfect moral guidance,
being an ideal mother, being soft, and conventionally beautiful, and kind, and devoutly religious. From the mother, children learned society's
rules and barriers. How labor is gendered. How they're supposed to act
and expect other people to act. Who they're supposed to be for the supposed greater good of society. In many ways, the Victorians
believed these rules were what held civilization together and made everything run
like a well-oiled machine. But we know that this
absolutely was not the case all the time, these rules, which benefited the upper
and middle-classes the most, couldn't possibly apply
to working-class families who had to rely on the wages
of working women and mothers. It applied less to marginalized groups, such as queer folks, people of color, and non-Christians who found
themselves inherently othered by society's expectations
for who is good and pure, who deserves a place in
society, in the sunlight. It was assumed at large that there was a natural order of things, and that all differences
between men and women were not taught or learned
socially, but biological truths. Of course, we know how false this is. Gender is extremely complicated, and biological sex itself
isn't even binary either. Our lives and bodies are
so, so much more complicated than we ever thought before
and that's a beautiful thing to be acknowledged and celebrated. But this is the late 1800s
and we're not quite there yet. So before we continue, I just wanna note that
much of the discussion in this video uses ciscentric language, because that's the context
that we're dealing with. We'll also be focusing
specifically on the U.S. today. And side note, because of this, I know using the word Victorian isn't quite accurate in this case, because it really should
only apply to people who were under Queen Victoria's rule, but the word has become synonymous with the era at this point. So I find it useful as a category. Also, as per usual, this video will not
cover every single aspect of this subject, the
video would go on forever. So we'll be doing an overview, and then, looking a bit deeper into
two sports in particular, fencing and cycling. So let's get into it. (upbeat piano music) As I said, behaving in
a lady-like manner was a deeply embedded part of daily
life for women in this era, no matter what your social status was. And this expectation followed through during the rise of female sportsmanship. Jennifer Hargreaves writes, "In the Victorian cult of the family "and the early years of female sport, "the increasing specialization
of labor created "a multitude of new jobs
for working-class women. "At the same time, however, "it narrowed the lives
of middle-class women "and robbed them of their
economic usefulness. "The idleness of the
bourgeois lady became symbolic "of the husband's or her
father's material success. "Her finery reflected his affluence, "and the way she organized her leisure "defined his social standing." Essentially, the ability for a woman to do as little as possible
comfortably and prettily could represent her class. She could busy herself with little things like needlepoint or
polite social engagements, maybe even a game of croquet or tennis, but seeing a woman of
affluence doing manual labor, mothering her own children, or being particularly active was a visual affront to bourgeois ideals. After all, isn't that
what servants are for? But as the middle-class grew, people started noticing
just how unhealthy women they were becoming, both
physically and mentally. Any anxiety or stress had the potential to be diagnosed as hysteria, which could land a woman with any number of terrible quack cures
often compelling her to take bed rest for as long
as six weeks for no reason, or to take on a malnourishing diet of plain broths, eggs, and mineral waters. And in the early Victorian era, people were quickly
developing a grave distrust of medical men in general, while simultaneously somehow believing most of the ideas that
many doctors promoted. As discussed in my video
on Victorian medicine, the treatments you could expect
from a doctor in a hospital were often either useless
or bloody and brutal. Even among those men who
attended medical school, the education could
often be spotty at best, and straight up ignorant to
scientific knowledge at worst. It wasn't until later
when women began engaging a bit more in casual
sports that people noticed their improving health of body and mind, and were forced to accept the fact that maybe it's a good thing
for women to be active. One male doctor named
S. Weir Mitchell wrote, "To run, to climb, to swim, to
ride, to play violent games, "ought to be as natural to
the girl as to the boy." Many people take this as an opportunity to bring women's fashion to the picture, citing their clothes as
constrictive and oppressive. There's some truth to this,
but non-truth as well. And we have to look at the nuance here. I know from personal experience
that wearing a corset is not necessarily
constrictive of movement. Most women, even in the upper-classes, didn't tight-lace, and often, if they did, it was for special occasions. I mean, rich people do
this today too, ya know. Celebrities wear tight
shapewear on the red carpet or to be on camera, and let's face it, whether or not you agree
with plastic surgery, you have to admit that
operations like the BBL to permanently alter your
actual body at risk of death are decidedly more
extreme than a few hours of wearing a tight corset for a party is. If you decide to have work done, that's absolutely your
choice and I respect that, but let's not pretend that
we're any better today than our Victorian ancestors were when it comes to chasing
the ideal body type. At least they could put on
the ideal body in the morning, and take it off at night. Nevertheless, I'm not
gonna sit here and pretend that these clothes were
completely un-restrictive either. Women went about their daily lives in these clothes every single day. They were used to wearing and
moving in them, and we aren't. So it's obviously harder for us to wear these types of clothes today. And it may feel more like a cage. But the plethora of long
skirts and petticoats, it did make it difficult for women to do certain activities such as sports. You obviously couldn't do a lot of really exaggerated athletics. So especially in the beginning of the rise of women's sports, the sports they chose were
things that could easily be done in the clothes that they already wore. And by the 1800s, women were already so enamored with sports that they were beginning
to alter their clothes to suit movement better like using aprons to tie back their skirts for tennis. This came during the congruent rise of the Rational Dress Movement, which sought to advocate
for women's dress reform to allow women to dress more comfortably, and freely, and more hygienically. Before the bicycle craze and
the rise of the automobile led to the widespread paving of roads, most roads were dirt or cobblestone. The only vehicles around
were those involving horses, which of course, meant that
there was horse poop around. This combined with food
left on the ground, bugs, mud, puddles, and
other human rubbish, the street was a pretty
dirty place to be in general. So if you're wearing long skirts that sweep along the ground, you're inevitably going
to pick up this muck and carry it with you into the home. Not to mention put up with how waterlogged they got in the rain. The Rational Dress Movement
sought more sensible ways of dressing which still looked good and were healthy to wear. And the effects of the
movement carried over into the women's sportswear revolution that was beginning to get fired up. The last few decades of the 1800s saw the stark rise in women's education. Girls who had the money were
often sent to girl schools to learn humanities, English,
math, homemaking skills, manner, and more increasingly,
physical education. School girls had regular gym classes where they did various sports, such as basketball, swimming,
tennis, and skating, as well as stretches
and basic calisthenics. And due to the relative freedom
of dress for young girls compared to women, they were
allowed to wear gym suits. Often, these suits had shorter skirts with bloomers underneath, and over time, they often forewent the skirt
and used bloomers exclusively, following the coattails of the very, very short-lived Bloomerism Movement in the 1850s named after Amelia Bloomer, when feminist women made an
attempt to popularize bloomers as a staple of women's fashion. After a lot of backlash
and the realization that their feminist message was being lost in the frenzy surrounding their clothing, the movement was unsuccessful
and Bloomerism died out. But like all great ideas, it came back later with a vengeance in the world of women's activewear. As it slowly became more accessible for women to play various sports, it came with rules as to what was okay for them to be wearing. And this was especially
so during regulated sports where races, games, or
tournaments were involved. In tennis, women were
still required to wear full-length skirts, but over time, the players were allowed
to make them shorter or roll up their sleeves. Corset manufacturers began
producing athletic corsets that were shorter,
corded instead of boned, ventilated, or easier to take on and off, while still providing
good bust and back support because yes, people with boobs need that. But in the realm of girl
schools and colleges was where the most rapid advancement in women's sportswear happened, unrestricted by the traditional rules of male-dominated sports
leagues and associations in part because people cared much less what women decided to wear when
there were no men watching. School and college girls were
altering their own clothing, especially after the rise of
the at-home sewing machine, and stealing clothes from their brothers, blurring the lines even
more between masculine and feminine clothing. Women's sportswear at large
wasn't necessarily tied to borrowing from or
mimicking men's fashion, but it did bring in some elements. This didn't stop sportswear from being at least a little bit influenced though, by the Victorian fears and
anxiety surrounding sex. You'll notice that in many
aspects until the 1910s, women's sportswear often
took on a more flowy and more shapeless appearance over time. Though this may have been
more comfortable in many ways, it also served to disguise
the body's shape from view as women became more and
more physically active. Check out my video about the myth of the sexy Victorian ankle
to learn more about this. But Victorians had a lot of anxieties surrounding female sexuality in general. It was thought by the late 1880s, that cold baths and
exercise were an antidote to women's sexual desires,
which was considered, well, I'll let the 1912 Handbook for
Girl Guides explain itself. "All secret habits are evil and dangerous, "lead to hysteria and lunatic asylums, "and serious illness is the result. "Evil practices dare not
face an honest person. "They lead you on to blindness, "paralysis, and loss of memory." Evil practices and secret habits being, (whistle blowing)
you know. The fact that these wild claims
were written as late as 1912 shows just how pervasive
these beliefs were. At the same time, these women clearly had
to think about having sex at some point because
many exercises in schools were done with motherhood in mind, exercising to prepare the body
for healthy pregnancy, ew! So yeah, women can do a
sport, women can move, women can do activity,
but only in an unsexy, but still lady-like and pretty way. We can't let men know that you have a torso and limbs under there. Oh no, you have to be an amoebas
blob of undefined energy, like a ghost. Sorry, ladies, this is
the ideal body type. Whether you like it or not,
this is the ideal female form. (Kaz chuckles)
Conversely, a number of historically Black
colleges and universities decided to go their own
directions from the rest of the university world's
rules on women's sports, mostly because they were typically ignored by white university systems. They often got inadequate funding, and weren't permitted
access to the same resources and events if they were
given any access at all. But one thing was their ability
to develop their own rules and programs that allowed
these HBCUs to create some of the most successful and advanced women's athletic programs of the era. For example, the Tigerbelles
track and field program at Tennessee State University won the Amateur Athletic Union
competitions every year, from 1956 through 1968. And TSU ladies won 25 of the
40 track and field medals awarded to women at the
Olympics between 1948 and 1968. But these cases were few and far between because even at HBCUs, Black women had an extremely
difficult time finding athletic opportunities in the first place. Women's sports were largely ignored. And so Black women interested
in sports had to seek out chances to hone their
skills outside of school. One of these places was
the YWCA or the YMCA, which offered Black women
chances to do gymnastics, hockey, basketball, and tennis. Since they were barred from competing with the U.S. Lawn Tennis Association, Black tennis players began
to create their own arenas to compete such as the American
Tennis Association in 1916, which catered to promoting
tennis to Black players, old and young. In 1917, Lucy Diggs Slowe won the Women's Singles Crown at
the ATA's first tournament, making her the first Black
American female sports champion. But in general, many women straight up
just didn't give a shit about social convention
when it came to sports. And outside of the
ever-famous cycling suits of the latter decades
in the Edwardian era, which we'll get to later, some of the most visually
striking women's sportswear could be found in the realm of fencing. (upbeat piano music) Do you like this outfit
that I sewed in two days? It's bloomers.
(Kaz laughs) (piano music) So another reason why
people were so scared of women doing sports, and
especially, competitive ones, is because they feared that it
would make women aggressive. You can't have an angry, macho
angel of the house, can you? This stemmed in part from the perception that sports made men
aggressive and hyper-masculine, which was all fine and
dandy for men, of course. For men, it was perceived
that sports-related aggression was a sign of vitality and patriotism. If women start acting aggressive, though, well, are you really a woman? In the Victorian era, it was supremely easy for anyone to just slip and fall out of gender. Because so much of gender was wrapped up in what you wore and how you acted, it was especially concerning for people to imagine women wearing mannish clothes and acting more masculine
by the standards of the era. So for men, sports were
a good way to reinforce and reassert their masculinity in a way that encouraged comradery with other men. For women, it would be
shirking the frailty and delicateness that
nature gave them, oh no. But, and you might need
to sit down for this one, (music box music)
women are human beings with the exact same
emotions as anyone else. It was not an infrequent
thing for working-class women to strip down to the
waist and start beating the shit out of each
other during bar fights. So yeah, maybe sports would
be useful to help curb some of that aggression
and anger like the lads do. Lord knows women had enough
reasons to be pissed off. And honestly, what better way to get out the aggression and anger that you have than with some classic sword dueling. Dueling with swords is an
activity almost as old as time. And the late Victorian era
saw a big jump in interest in fencing from middle
and upper-class women. Before the Regency era, fencing was typically
known only as dueling, and duels usually happened as a challenge, or to settle a disagreement or rivalry. You weren't gonna duel, unless
a genuine insult happened. In the early 1800s though, upper-class gentlemen began
to apply regulated rules to dueling that transformed it into a sport for fun and health. The outfit that I'm wearing today is based on a number of different fencing
garments that women wear. Most obviously, it's based on
the painting, L'escrimeuse, by French impressionist
painter, Jean Beraud, who painted it using the Parisian
fencer, Marguerita Sylva, as a model around the turn of the century. Many people think that this
painting is supposed to be of the incredible 17th
century bisexual fencer and opera singer, Julie D'Aubigny,
but that's not the case. I'm not actually sure
how that idea came about, but it looks like it was
probably a classic case of internet telephone? Julie D'Aubigny lived over 200 years before Beraud painted this in the 1890s. And from what evidence we do have, he painted the portrait
of Marguerita in part, because of her striking fencing outfit. Marguerita Sylva was a singer and actress studying fencing in Paris at the time. And her outfit from this
painting became so popular that it became synonymous
with fencing women. Florenz Ziegfeld even
purchased a number of copies of the costume for his shows on Broadway. And as one photo of
actress, Blanche Mercredy, in the costume and the same
pose exploded in popularity, along with the costume itself, the mythos and romantic image of the lady fencer exploded too. And with good reason,
it looks extremely cool. The lady fencer as almost a
character based on the painting became a widespread staple in
more of Beraud's paintings, as well as other cartoons,
poem, songs, and illustrations. The fencing girl with the
little red heart had a grip on popular culture until
well into the late 40s. But it's hard to say
how many fencing women wore this particular outfit. Its popularity leads us to
believe that many probably did, but there were also a lot of
other options out there too. You had the classic white padded jacket, bloomers, a wide variety of shoes. Some women even settled for
fencing in baggy shirts. If you're wearing a corset underneath, it really doesn't hurt
too much to get poked. The 1902 "Lady's Realm" magazine described a London Ladies Fencing
Club uniform like so, "The club uniform consists
of a short, silk-lined, "black alpaca skirt with the
regulation brass-buttoned, "white linen fencing coat. "The skirts are cut
somewhat after the fashion "of the cycling skirt, "and most of the members
wear black or white shoes. "The stockings are either of silk or wool, "the silken hose is
distinctly to be recommended "for daintiness and finish. "A white glove with a
black or scarlet gauntlet "is drawn over the right hand. "One very skillful and graceful
woman fencer deprecates, "as does Lady Colin Campbell,
the wearing of a skirt. "She is assured by long practice
that full Knickerbockers "of black satin or vicuna allow unfettered "and more graceful play for the limbs." Extremely practical of course, but that didn't stop
the upper-class ladies who took fencing classes
from using the gym as a fashion show because, honestly, every other arena of their lives was, so why would this be any different? Wealthy women would hire fashion designers to create for them, brightly colored and lavish
silken fencing garments, which drew much ire from other fencers. It quickly became a taboo
in the fencing world to wear frilly and fussy blouses
as they would routinely rip and get caught on the fencing foil. As most things related to class went, fencing was a sport
gate-kept both by classism, and the price of participation. Working-class folks could rarely, if ever, afford to join fencing. This was the case with many sports until well into the 20th century. And even among those who could afford it, fencing for women was
hardly taken seriously. It was considered a
sport that wealthy women would do to busy themselves for fun. Sure, it was for fun, but
most of these women found very close communities with each other. And many of them became
just as talented as the men, but they were scarcely
permitted to compete. That didn't stop a number of them from gaining notoriety for their skills, one of them being, May Toupie Lowther, a tennis champion and fencing icon. She began fencing at age 15
and refused to fence in skirts, opting instead for something as close to the male uniform as possible. Lowther was a lesbian and ran a popular
lesbian salon in the 20s. She was known as, "Perhaps the most clever "among the younger
generation of lady fencers, "who may justly be termed "the champion swordswoman of the kingdom," as stated by "Harmsworth
Magazine" in 1899. Another commentator wrote, "Fencing is not an art for
namby-pamby girls or, indeed, "for any girl who does not command "more than the average
amount of spirit and pluck, "and Miss Lowther is, above all, "a woman of indomitable nerve." Later on, Lowther was close
friends with the writer, Radclyffe Hall, and Hall's
partner, Una Troubridge, but they had a falling
out after Lowther believed that she was used as the inspiration for the tragic character, Stephen Gordon, in Hall's infamous 1920s
lesbian/trans novel, "The Well of Loneliness." A good book for historical
LGBTQ read by the way, but I have to warn you, the
ending is deeply upsetting. Because of the controversy
surrounding the book, Lowther leaned into a more straight image and tried to dress more
socially acceptable until things blew over, but eventually, returned to wearing men's
wear in later years. Dressing like a heterosexual was too much for the already strained relationship with Hall and Troubridge, and the friendship ended bitterly as Lowther was viewed as
betraying her own ilk. Diana Souhami wrote, "New
friends replaced the old. "Toupie Lowther fell from
grace for claiming to be "the inspiration for 'The
Well of Loneliness.'" One funny story involved Lowther
getting stopped by officers driving across the French Italian border for masquerading as a woman, and then, stopped again driving back
for masquerading as a man. Regardless, Lowther's
notoriety for being a lesbian couldn't dampen any of the
fencing accomplishments. And thankfully, Lowther
is still known today, as one of the most famous
late Victorian fencers. But no matter how much skill they had, Victorian women suffered from
constantly hitting barriers in the fencing world, just as they did with every
other organized sport. Hell, in basketball,
women were made to play a completely altered
slower version of the game to protect them from
overexerting themselves. Women were first allowed to compete in Olympic fencing in 1924, but were restricted from the apparently more advanced weapons that
were the epee and saber. Women were constrained to
only competing Olympically with the foil until 1996,
when a epee events opened, and in 2000 when saber events
were finally added too. The year 2000, seriously, but thankfully, non-organized sports had very
little barrier for entry, leaving much more room for women of all backgrounds to participate. And this is where the
bicycle craze comes in. (upbeat piano music) The bicycle's early years
were not easy for women. Because the bike's early incarnations were meant to be a mechanical
imitation of a horse, this followed through
in its use for women, in that many early women's bikes were designed to be ridden sidesaddle, like women would do with a horse. This not only made them
difficult to maneuver, but also off balance. Another option for women was
the newly invented tricycles that came onto the scene in the 1870s, which allowed them to front
peddle in long skirts. There were also tandem bikes, which were more popular as a way for couples to have a romantic outing, such as these side-by-side styles, or this Crescent number
25 combination tandem. But bikes didn't find a
truly successful style for women until 1888, when the drop-frame style was invented by the husband of Mrs. W.E.
Smith in Washington, DC. The lower middle bar allowed women to mount the bike in their skirts, and later on, voluminous bloomers. Bloomers for bikes were gaining traction as early as the 1860s, as mentioned in papers like this article from the "Brooklyn Eagle" in 1869. "In a short time, as soon as
the arrangements are complete, "Mr. H.B. Witty will open a
ladies velocipede riding school. "The room will be in his
building in Nevins Street, "where he has a fine large room, "to which there will be an entrance "entirely distinct from
the other entrance. "Miss Carrie Moore, the skater, "and who is also a fine
rider of the velocipede, "will have charge of the room
and will act as instructress. "Garments of the bloomer pattern "will be kept on hand for
those who wish to ride. "No gentlemen will be
admitted to the room, "so the sensitive and bashful ladies "need not be afraid of intrusion." But just as we saw before
with sports at large, women on wheels had a
great deal of detractors with all manner of weird
concerns and claims. A social reformer named Charlotte Smith began a crusade against
women's cycling in 1896, claiming that cycling was
"indecent and vulgar," and that, "Bicycling by young
women has helped to swell "the ranks of reckless
girls who finally drift "into the standing army of outcast women "of the United States. "The bicycle is the devil's advance agent, "morally and physically,
in thousands of instances." Smith herself is a complicated figure. She spent much of her energy fighting a useless battle against women on bikes, but she was also a staunch
advocate for working women, and did a lot of good in that realm. She was also famous for
smashing her umbrellas over the head of any man
she saw annoying a woman. And she guessed that
she probably destroyed at least 5,000 umbrellas
in her lifetime doing this, which I love.
(Kaz chuckles) But Smith wasn't alone in her
hatred of women's cycling. There were numerous
articles such as one titled, "Should Women Cycle: A
Medical View of the Question," which claimed, "Ladies must
remember that they belong "to a sex which for centuries
has not been accustomed "to prolonged exercise in
the open air, and therefore, "must act with that discretion and caution "which would often be quite
unnecessary on a man's part." As if, you know, working women
didn't and never existed. Women who worked out in
fields on farms, all right. But cycling was further proving not only to be safe socially, but also extremely good
for the health of riders. Ellen B. Parkhurst, the
wife of a New York minister, wrote in "The Evening Times, "A girl who rides a wheel is lifted "out of herself and her surroundings. "She is made to breathe pure air, "see fresher and more beautiful scenes, "and get an amount of exercise
she would not otherwise get. "All this is highly beneficial." The 1890s was a period of time
where people were becoming increasingly concerned with their health and the opinion of medical professionals. In fact, the word of
doctors was so powerful that it often was used as a marketing tool for better or for worse. In the late 1870s and early 1880s, Albert Pope, the owner of
Columbia High-Wheeler Bicycles, ran an extremely effective
marketing campaign for his bikes aimed at empowering the love of cycling in the U.S. at large by distributing cycling books and pamphlets,
and most importantly, awarded prizes to doctors
who wrote effective articles touting the health
benefit of riding bikes. And though doctors often made wild claims about cycling's health benefits, from claiming that it could
cure asthma to heart disease, it was undeniable that the cycling craze was doing a lot of good. People reportedly were buying up to 1 million less cigars per day because they were too
busy biking to smoke. And Chicago saw a sharp
drop in morphine use because people found that long bike rides helps them to sleep better
than the drug could. Not all doctors could agree on
how women factored in though. As we went over earlier, physical exertion was an
extremely concerning subject for most people, worrying that the motion of the body would damage people's
ability to reproduce. And the bike seat would
alter the placement of the bones or pelvic organs, as if anyone with a uterus is like, made of Play-Doh or something. (Kaz laughs) As if people pushing out numerous
babies in their lifetime, a thing that does shift organs around and could harm muscles and bones, is really no issue because then the body is doing its social job. But as soon as these
people are exercising, doing something they enjoy, uh-oh, what about the internal organs? One physician claimed, "Cycling renders women
awkward in their walk. "They gradually come to move
with a plunging kind of motion, "the reverse of graceful, "and frequently cultivate
weakness of back, "which makes them hold themselves badly." The good news is, "Physical
Education" magazine, which quoted this physician, had some choice words to say in response. "To this, we say in the
name of the Prophet: fudge! "The above anonymous
celebrity utters an opinion "which is dogmatic,
destructive, and audacious." Many people did outspokenly
object to the idea that cycling was harmful to women, but the fear of women
gaining more independence and abandoning gender
roles was still pervasive. But that's really the
crux of the issue here. These people viewed women
as walking baby incubators to be admired for beauty, not brains, and couldn't stand the thought of them having a modicum of independence. And the bicycle afforded
women an independence that they had never experienced before. The article, "Women and the Wheel" in "Munsey's Magazine," May, 1896, wrote, "To men, the bicycle in the
beginning was merely a new toy, "another machine to be added
to the long list of devices "that they knew in their work and play. "To women, it was a steed
upon which they rode "into a new world." Even those who supported cycling were only chill with women doing
it on certain conditions. And the etiquette influencers of the time had a lot to say on that front. The "Omaha Daily Bee" published don'ts for women wheelers in 1895, writing, "Don't be a fright." A fright was when someone
causes a bike accident while anxiously trying to
avoid having an accident. "Don't carry a flask. "Don't wear golf hose. "Don't faint on the road. "Don't wear a man's cap. "Don't wear tight garters. "Don't stop at roadhouses. "Don't forget your tool bag. "Don't attempt a century." A century was a continuous 100-mile ride. "Don't coast, it is dangerous. "Don't say, 'Feel my muscle.' "Don't criticize people's legs. "Don't boast of your long rides. "Don't wear loud-hued leggings. "Don't wear clothes that don't fit. "Don't wear jewelry while on a tour. "Don't powder your face on the road. "Don't wear rubber-soled cycling shoes. "Don't go to church in
your bicycle costume. "Don't imagine everybody
is looking at you. "Don't tempt fate by riding
too close to the curbstone. "Don't ask, 'What do you
think of by bloomers?' "Don't try to ride in
your brother's clothes "to see how it feels. "Don't overdo things. "Let cycling be a
recreation, not a labor." Although this list said not to wear cycling clothes to church, many clergymen encouraged
people do just that, even providing bike
parking at their churches, because it was one of the
only ways to encourage people to actually attend services
on their only day off. But of course people wanted to wear cycling clothes to church. Cycling clothes were incredible, especially on the women's wear front because women's clothes had to adapt a lot to the bike to avoid injury. It was all too easy for
large skirts to get caught up and tangled in the wheels,
throwing a rider overboard. Women's clothing which function just fine as regular day wear, and even sportswear, as we saw earlier, was not
well-suited to cycling. Dress reform began taking
steps in the right direction by introducing bifurcated skirts, which looked like normal skirts, but were actually,
really just baggy pants. There were also tools
to help hike skirts up, or skirts that could
transform from long to short, but the bloomers remained
the most contentious subject. People who normally excused women on bikes would draw the line at
bloomers because now, by shirking women's clothing gender roles, they were seen as taking
steps into man's territory, overstepping their bounds in an attempt to take power away from men. Women wearing bloomers were
depicted in illustrations as mannish and unsightly, smoking cigars, and standing in powerful stances with short hair and masculine ties. Once again, bigoted art
trying to make a dig at masc women and gender
non-conforming people backfires and ends up making them
look fucking bad-ass. (Kaz laughs) The fact is though, that men weren't the only ones railing against women and bloomers. Women were against them as well, because as much as we today, like to believe that
historical women's fashion that we view as oppressive
was required by men, in actuality, women were the ones driving, and upholding these fashion ideals too. In a time before women had
any political power at all, it was one of the few ways that they could exact any influence. So the bloomer suit, though
extremely practical and flashy, was nowhere near as popular as wearing bloomers under a skirt, or simply wearing a convertible or shortened skirt on its own. While the bloomer suit
was useful on a bike, it wasn't acceptable to
wear it uncovered by a skirt as soon as you were off the bike. And few women were willing to make social martyrs of themselves for fashion. In response to the dangers of
skirts being caught in wheels, bike manufacturers attempted
to modify bike designs with guards covering the back wheel and removing the chains. That said, the bloomers were
widespread enough to become a staple of thousands of illustrations, and sewing patterns, songs, and cartoons. It was said perhaps
exaggeratedly that in Paris, the divided bicycle dress was so common that nobody batted an eye
at a woman in bloomers. Overall though, its infamy was
more due to its controversy rather than its influence on
mainstream fashion of the time. And you really can't blame
women for not wanting to attract too much ire or ridicule. Social pressure is a hell of a boss fight. Even so, the 1880s and 90s saw the rise of a number of award-winning
female athletes who took on the cycling races. Racers like Louise Armaindo, who was also a legendary strong woman, Elsa Von Blumen, Frankie
Nelson, and Lily Williams all competed so well against other women, men, and even horses, that they challenged the commonly held belief that
women could never surpass the physical strength and talent of men. Over and over, racing
women would break records or go flying in unbelievable
bike accidents during races, only to get right back
up and continue racing for hours on end, all while
ill or injured, and in corsets. So much for fragility. And in the mid 1890s, Annie Cohen Kopchovsky took
on the challenge of a bet from two men and succeeded
in biking around the world. Annie was in good long distance company. In 1896, Dora Rinehart biked 17,196 miles in one year. The "Cycling West" magazine dubbed her, "Denver's petite, but Herculean,
Mistress of the Road." And these women were performing
these incredible feats, all in several yards
of fabric and a corset. Now, I'm no racer, I'm not
athletic in the slightest, but I do enjoy biking. And I wanted to test out for myself what it would have felt
like for these women to be on a bike wearing what they wore. There's a pervasive
belief that their clothes, and more particularly, their corsets, would prevent women from being able to properly exercise or move or breathe. People think that corsets
concerted your body so much that you couldn't
breathe, but they didn't. We've seen now, just how popular sports and cycling were for women. How could they do all of
this without breathing or being able to move? Other YouTubers who
tackle historical fashion have addressed this subject
with their own experiments. Elin Abrahamsson tried
out running long distances in 18th century stays in this video. Gracie Patten went
rollerskating in stays here. SnappyDragon did a video on
circuit training in corsets. And Bernadette Banner
tested out basic exercises in a corset in this video. And on the cycling front, Constance Mackenzie
and Lady Lillith Design have both made great videos
about cycling and corsets. But now, it's my turn. (Kaz laughs) So I got dressed in an
1890-style cycling bloomer suit, corset and all. Yes, my corset is actually, more Edwardian/through-the-century, but it's fine, it's fine. As you can see, my corset has
a lot of room at the hips, and this is so that I can
put padding under there for a more exaggerated
hourglass shape if I want to. I also was wearing modern bike shorts and a tank top underneath
because I had to be somewhere in regular clothes after this. I also don't have the right shirt yet, but you know what, if
it gets the job done, then I'm cool with that. And what's this? I can bend down and put on my
shoes just fine in a corset? We're off to a good start. So here I am in turn
of the century clothes in public on a bike, and you know what? It was totally fine. I was convinced that I would struggle because I'm super out of shape, but it really wasn't that bad. And to be honest, I totally forgot that I
was wearing the corset. I could breathe just fine. It didn't hurt. The key here is the fact that
my corset fits me very well and is comfortable because it was tailored to my measurements. If you're wearing an ill-fitting corset, ah, no, you're not gonna
be having a good time. And no, I didn't tight-lace it either, because there's no reason to. Corset wearers back then, were typically not tight-lacing either, especially not while
doing anything active. Now, my corset is a regular corset, but sports corsets did exist. And though I don't have one, I'm curious as to whether
it may have felt different. What I was noticing was how uncomfortable my modern exercise shorts
were underneath all of this. They were just not staying
put, if you know what I mean. But basically, my takeaway
was really thinking about how easy it was,
especially in the bloomers, and thinking about how
freeing it must have felt for women at the time, and it was. (bright piano music) It was many years of incremental successes before women were allowed
to join the Olympics. Barron Pierre de Coubertin proposed reviving the Olympics in the 1890s, and had some choice words
about women's involvement. "Women have but one task, "that of crowning the
winner with garlands." And later, "Women have probably proved "that they are up to par
with almost all the exploits "to which men are accustomed, "but they have not been able
to establish that in doing so, "they have remained faithful
to the necessary conditions "of their existence and
obedient to the laws of nature." Ha, okay. 12 women were allowed to
enter the second Olympics in 1900 against Coubertin's wishes, apparently completely by accident due to the haphazard
organization of the event. One of them was golf champlion, champlion. One of them was golf
champion, Margaret Abbott, who technically won a gold medal, but was insultingly awarded
a porcelain bowl instead. Despite the strict rules
requiring them to dress in long skirts, corsets, and all, these women competed with
everything that they had, often outperforming the men. One Frenchmen in the
audience wrote to her friend, "Brace yourself, my friend, "women have participated in these games. "Our sportswomen were clad
in white, elegant, pretty, "and the racket they held in their hands "did not just caress the ball! "Their ardor and their
endurance have astonished me!" Things improved by the 1908 Olympics, where 36 women were allowed
to compete in tennis, figure skating, and archery. And lady gymnasts and
swimmers were allowed by 1912, by which point, the spoits, spoitswear... By which point, the sportswear
now allowed bare legs below the knee and short sleeves. Certainly things changed dramatically in the first several
years of the 20th century. But the thing is, women managed to enjoy
and excel at sports, no matter what they were wearing. When they managed to enter
the sporting spheres, they often surpassed the men with none of the same advantages, corsets and petticoats or not. It's easy to see how this
may have bruised a few egos. The same holds true today, To be honest, a great
deal of these struggles in the sporting world
haven't changed much. Women's sports are still
viewed as less important and unworthy of equal pay. Women are still often required
to wear certain clothes based on arbitrary sports
rules that men make up. Trans athletes face unique
challenges as they are prohibited from playing on the teams that
correspond with their gender. And transphobia affects
both trans and cis athletes, disproportionately
affecting women of color as they are often viewed as
inherently more masculine and subjected to tests, checks, and prohibitions not applied
to their white peers. You may remember the incident from 2009 when South African runner, Caster Semenya, won an IAAF World
Championship 800 meter race. And the IAAF made a
statement that they believed that Semenya didn't meet the requirements to compete as a woman, and asked her to sit
out of the competition without explanation. In the meantime, the media went wild, picking apart every masculine
part of her appearance to claim that she must secretly be a man. It just shows how little progress has been made since the 1960s, when the IAAF would subject
women to chromosome tests, and were given laminated
Certificate of Femininity licenses they had to carry around
with them at competitions, and submit to prove their femaleness. This humiliating test, which relied on the bullshit idea that chromosomes equal biological
sex, hint, they do not, quickly proved itself to be trash when Polish sprinter, Ewa Klobukowska, literally a cis woman, failed the chromosome test
due to a chromosomal condition that she never knew she had. At age 21, all of her
medals were taken away. The chromosomal model of
understanding sex and gender, we now know is wholly inaccurate. Many people are born with more
or less than 46 chromosomes, or have an extra X chromosome, or have a chromosome that's hard to pin down as which one it is. Why is it such a terrible thing to accept that biology itself is a
spectrum and that's totally okay. I promise you the world is not gonna fall apart for that reason. There are plenty of real
ones to worry about. This outdated idea of
binary chromosomal biology, unsupported by scientific facts, reinforces the false idea that all cis men and cis women are biologically
one way by nature, and that women are nothing but
weak-bodied baby incubators. And trans people don't exist. And intersex people
are flukes to be fixed. And men are nothing but
emotionless, macho Tonka trucks. Bioessentialism hurts you too, cis men. Not only are these beliefs just not true, but it leaves every trans, non-binary, and intersex person by the wayside, not to mention women of
color, and in the end, whether you believe it or
not, whether or not you care, it affects all of us. Wow, that was kind of a somber
note to end on, wasn't it? Sorry about that, it's a habit I have. But anyway, thank you
so much for watching. I'm glad you could join me
today on this exploration of women's sports of yesteryear. So wash thy hands, wear thy mask, and get outside for some
fresh air to prevent hysteria. (upbeat music)
