This photo is from a series of French postcards from 1902 illustrating women of the future. My first thought was, “they couldn’t imagine a woman doctor without having her dress like a man?”. But my second thought was that she looks very stylish; I especially like the hat.
Cosplay opportunity, everyone!
That is a Very Fine Hat.
She’s not really dressed as a man – that is more or less an early 20th women’s riding costume, just the outfit for making house calls.
It’s really not that far off if you consider that businesswomen tend to wear very smart jackets and shirts, sometimes even ties and stuff these days. And not many would consider dressing like that as “dressing like a man”. Such clothes are just overall considered appropriate for all genders and even though the cut will differ quite a lot, the general look is very much alike.
I’m fairly certain I’ve already seen cosplayers wearing that at the local gaming con. Probably with more clockwork and metal bits though.
Damn, and I just bought myself a rather nice three-piece suit. Looks like I’ll have to go out again to purchase a top hat, a smart top coat and pince nez.
Oh, and a medical degree.
Damn. I wish I got a hat like that when I got my MD. That would have been much better than a diploma
Well, for the sake of argument and to play devil’s advocate what does “dressing like a man” mean other than an arbitrary distinction of clothing worn for specific roles we associate with men? It’s not like “women clothes” have any distinct identity defining women as women.
But your point is well-taken.
@ 7 I know it is (very,very) small consolation for all the crap they have to put up with… but women do get to wear some really good stuff!
(Apologies to those who don’t because dumbasses.)
That’s a seriously strange series of postcards. I’m wondering what the thought process was behind them.
On the one hand, the postcard market from the time tended to be pretty heavily invested in reinforcing the status quo, specifically by marketing sexy images to men. So quite a few of those pictures seem to be attempts to be appealing to fetishistic impulses, as in, “Ooh, wouldn’t it be kinky to see women crossdressing as men” type of thing. And some seem to be going for cheesecake, like the general with the stars on her bare arm.
But then again, some of the roles — student, doctor, lawyer — seem to argue that women can and should be able to do these things, and some of the women (or woman — one model seems to show up a lot) are dressed modestly and appropriately. So maybe this did come from 1902 progressive types? Progressive types who weren’t above using a bit of cheesecake to sell their ideas? It’s intriguing, that’s for sure!
You will see women like this at any Steampunk con
Pfffft, my ‘oh, I have to be social’ outfit is a man’s suit, tailored to fit, complete with spiffy hat. It’s a good look on a woman, and it has the benefit of taking people by surprise initially, and it’s interesting how it changes inclusiveness when you’re around men.
I had no idea that Willy Wonka’s mother was a docteur.
It’s not a woman dressed as a man, it’s a woman dressed as a doctor, which is awesome because it challenges not only social roles, but gendered fashion.
She looks perfectly at home in that outfit.
I actually like the journalist coat a bit better, with the collar turned up and the little duck in the band of the hat on that one.
Though now I feel like I need to acquire a top hat.
Hopefully steampunk cosplayers fit their corsets to their pants better. I like the general concept a lot, but the flared corset bottoms with high-waisted pants look is less than ideal.
Whoa! That’s not the kind of “French postcards” I recall. I guess that’s one euphemism that is on the ash-heap of history.
runswithscissors @2
Exactly. That’s not at all the cut of men’s clothes around 1900. If anything it looks like a throwback to men’s clothes of the 1830s or so.
woozy @7
It’s not that long since they did. Clothing defined people so much that people have been able to pass as the opposite sex simply because nobody looked further than the clothes. Look at all the stories of Mr X or Dr X who wasn’t known to be a woman until their autopsies.
Tangent to gender roles in the early 20th century it may be of interest to know that the feminine version of many occupational titles in french, like madame la pharmacienne (madam pharmacian) or madame la mairesse (madam mayor) still refers in France to the wife of the male holder of the title (not so in French Canada).
To talk about a woman who is a pharmacian or a mayor you would say madame le pharmacien or madame le maire, using the male form of the title.
Yes they are aware that it is an anachronism.
Would a doctor of that era – whether male or female – keep their hat on when examining a patient?
I’m pretty sure that he or she would take it off first.
Just wondering why women’s uniforms (army, etc.) seem to lose their arms. I guess bare women’s arms will be a thing in the future military?
@rq, #21
It might just be cheesecake, but what got my attention is that they are all wearing the same extreme corset. They probably didn’t think of the corsets as extreme, anymore than we think of water balloon push up bras and booty pads as extreme. My guess is that someone got bored with the costume production and couldn’t find enough enough actual ladies’ coats in the the right cut and color so they just started pinning stuff on corsets.
They are only bare on one side. On the left side the arms are clothed. This way they have the left to clothed arms.
Some women look really good in quote-unquote “mens’ clothes.” I don’t–despite the heavy use of active voice and barfight-level swearing i am 100% femme–but my girlfriend looks amazing in a shirt and tie :)
There is a lot of cultural baggage in clothing. Many womens’ tops with buttons have them “left-handed,” or so one would be led to think, but they’re actually “right-handed for the person dressing the woman wearing them.” Womens’ jeans and trousers, i notice, have much shallower pockets, and in some cases none at all, compared to mens’, which strikes me as an attempt to remove agency and independence. And why, why, WHY is it so hard to find consistent sizes?! And so much of it is just not built to last…not good on a tight budget ><;
Seems to me this is more a series of postcards created for the titillation of male customers than a real attempt at imagining the future.
A lot of the commenters seem to agree:
“Elles ont toutes un petit coté effronté, hardi et coquin . Normal : ce sont des modèles qui posent pour satisfaire le fantasme des hommes de l’époque : une femme sexy dans son allure et dominatrice par sa fonction .
Louise Michel ou Marie Curie existaient déjà pourtant . Mais elles ne remplissaient pas cette double function .”
= ‘They all have this cheeky, daring and naughty look. Naturally : these are models posing to satisfy men’s fantasies: a woman sexy in her appearance with a dominating role.
Though Louise Michel or Marie Curie were already well known, they didn’t fill that double function.’
So more like a traditional French postcard after all!