Whos wearing the trousers?
“Warm and practical” biflocated garments By BBC News Online’s Liz Doig A century ago, prescribed sartorial propriety for women meant torsos had to be trussed up in corsets and bare flesh kept to an absolute minimum. The undeniable biological fact that women had legs, and were able to do anything other than keep them firmly together, had to be kept secret at all costs. Even horse riding was carried out sideways-on, legs together and heavily swathed. Times have moved on, and the sight of a woman in jeans or shorts is no longer motivation for panic and rioting on your average city street. But although a century has passed since the likes of Radclyffe Hall scandalised polite society by wearing men’s clothes, girls and women are still being told that they can’t wear the trousers. Women were once obliged to wear corsetsJo Hale, a 14-year-old, was told by her school that dress code for girls did not include trousers. Judy Owen has taken the Professional Golf Association to industrial tribunal
