The Heritage of Dress: Being Notes on the History and Evolution of ClothesWebb, Wilfred Mark
History
The Heritage of Dress: Being Notes on the History and Evolution of Clothes
Webb, Wilfred Mark
Clothing and dress; Clothing and dress -- History
Now let us consider the reasons given by Mr. Heather Bigg as to why
"women of all dominant and civilized races always wear, and with
advantage have worn, some binder or corset"; and again, why the whole
history of the world shows that extraneous support is beneficial. In
the first place, Mr. Heather Bigg says that in primitive and aboriginal
races that practically wear no clothes, the girls may be perfect in
form when they arrive at their full growth, but that they are, as a
rule, "hideous objects of disfigurement after their first child." The
inference is that civilized women retain their beauty in later life
owing to the fact that they have worn stays. On the other hand, the fact
that the native girls lose their beauty must, according to the argument,
be because they have not worn stays; but surely this can be compared
with the fading of a flower or its changing colour after fertilization,
and is rather due to the absence of any conditions or kind of selection
which would tend to preserve the woman's youthfulness. Besides, we need
go no farther than our own country to find cases where married women
gradually lose their beauty, and the Welsh and Italian women
proverbially age rapidly.
The wearing of belts by navvies when they are doing heavy work is
possibly a precautionary measure against strain, but it does not refer
to the race as a whole, and one would take it that when it is said that
Elijah girt his loins in order to run before the chariot of Ahab, it
simply means that he fastened up his flowing garments. To the second
question as to history showing that extraneous support is beneficial,
Mr. Heather Bigg says that the answer is simple even if Darwinian. He
may claim that the "if" saves him, though unintentionally, for in his
argument he seems to ignore the main principles of evolution. He says,
first of all, that it might just as well be asked why any clothing
whatsoever should be found requisite by civilized mankind. He claims
rightly, and so far he is in keeping with Darwinism, that man, according
to his obvious mechanism and morphology, is a creature built on the
quadruped pattern. The word is spelt "quadrupled," though presumably
this is a printer's error; but he goes on to say that this building
was done with the intent that his body should be horizontal instead of
vertical. Of course, the body of the original quadruped was horizontal;
but in the course of evolution such changes were made as enabled man
to occupy an upright position. Mr. Heather Bigg talks as if it was an
intentional act on the part of man when he says that he "managed to
rear himself in a permanently erect position, and as he has chosen the
upright position, so he has to experience some of the penalties attached
to it."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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