"If women care to wear carrots and roosters on their heads, that is their own concern... but when it comes to wearing swords they must be stopped."
Cut to Chicago city, March 1910, it was already flourishing economically and by the 19th century had become the nation's railroad centre. It was the world's sixth largest city, with a booming business district full off office buildings, department stores and cultural institutions. At the same time the size of the established factories were increasing and it's population was expanding rapidly.
Chicago, along with New York, had become the centre for the nation's advertising industry, and the city's manufacturing and retail sectors were vast, coming to dominate the Midwest and completely changing the nation's economy. The Chicago Union Stock Yards dominated the packing trade, the city's rail hub became the world's largest and the Great Lakes port was one of the busiest for shipping valuable commodities to and from the city.
Meanwhile Chicago's City Council are suggesting that a woman's hatpin is a very real treat that needs to be stopped. They are debating an ordinance that will ban hatpins, and any woman caught in violation of this will be arrested and fined.
Hatpins have been around since the Middle Ages. Hair has notoriously been seen as a sign of sexuality for hundreds of years now so in order to remain modest, or to give off the impression that you were modest, one would cover ones hair with a covering held in place by these pins. By the time hatpins had been declared a public menace however they had taken on a rather different role.
I managed to find an amazing article on the topic entitled LONG HAT PIN TO BE PARRIED in the Los Angeles Herald, Volume 37, Number 158, 8th of March 1910 - via a wonderfully useful website: www.cdmc.ucr.edu [California Digital Newspaper Collection.]
I cannot get over the quirkiness of this tale; it's delightful and bizarre and entirely true!
Women of this period were not only using these pins for fashion but also as a way to defend themselves against unwanted advances. Unfortunately it did result in accidental injuries, and in some cases the death of innocent people.
It was now common enough for women to be out and about, unaccompanied and therefore seemingly more vulnerable, riding public transport and going about their daily tasks alone. It was also common for "mashers" to get up in their female Victorian business.
A masher was a "dandy", a Victorian or Edwardian man who made unwelcome sexual advances towards women, so in other words another public transport user that took advantage of the close quarters to sneak in a quick grope - I think the majority of us can attest to having encountered a masher or two in our time... or a thousand...
Understandably women became fed up of this, and thus the hatpin earned a new use.
These things were incredibly strong, sharp and long. So if a cocky little masher found himself rubbing up against a woman who had one of these available, well they might find a sudden lengthy sharp piece of metal being plunged into their arm..
In May 1903 Leoti Blaker, a young lady from Kansas was touring New York City, she climbed on a crowded stagecoach and ended up reaching for her hatpin and plunging it into an old man who decided to inch closer and closer to her, until they were shoulder to shoulder, hip to hip, and his arm silently draped over her back. He reportedly let out a yelp and left at the next stop. "He was such a nice-looking old gentleman I was sorry to hurt him. I've heard about Broadway mashers and 'L' mashers, but I didn't know Fifth Avenue had a particular brand of its own... If New York women will tolerate mashing, Kansas girls will not." [Ms Blaker to New York World.]
Hundreds of similar encounters began being reported; some men taking it upon themselves to try and take women home, some spouting insolent words, and some being more forceful than those that just asked rude questions.. Women reacted in a violent fashion, some more so than others.
Thing's didn't always go to plan however...
For example in Scranton a 19 year old girl accidentally killed her boyfriend as she playfully thrust her hatpin at him but it fatally pierced his heart, and people who were in close proximity to one and another could easily suffer at the hands of a very large pin jutting from a woman's very large hat.
There were even cases of women using hatpins on police officers that had just arrested female factory co-workers for allegedly making anarchistic speeches.
To be fair though, even other women were not safe from the "hatpin peril" as one woman found out as the wife of her lover drew her hatpin on her, she drew her own and the two were locked in a dual-esque battle until the police were able to break them apart.
What was becoming clear though was the shift in society. Females were fighting for a valid and equal place alongside that of men, and men who thought it appropriate to treat women as if they were but objects soon saw that these women were no longer comically resisting, but heroically standing up for themselves.
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| San Francisco Sunday Call, 1904 |
Working women and suffragists were beginning to take control of the conversation on women's rights. Things were beginning to change; young women were being allowed more freedom, the dating dynamic changed, sexual mores were shifting and the way women dressed altered.
The chaos surrounding the hatpin scare did subside with the onset of World War I, and soon enough fashion completely changed. The Flapper would be born, a new social menace. However politicians soon became less concerned with what women were going to wear next, and wondered how it was they were going to gain their votes...
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