Back in the roaring 20s, I reckon the fun was kept to bars and restaurants, because what fun could it possibly have been to be on the beach in a long-sleeved, high-collared swimsuit? Hell, at least there were no obvious tan lines.
Can you believe, considering the almost naked woman parading our beaches today, that slut shaming was a thing back then?
“Oh, look, Marjorie! Katherine’s swimsuit is one and a half hands above her knees. What a slut.”
Really, it was like that. In the 1920s, a group of people called “Sheriffettes” were sworn in to “monitor the swimwear of the bathers” at Rockaway Beach in New York. In the same year, a woman was arrested for wearing “a swimsuit under a skirt and sweater” and walking down the street.
In 1921, a bather in Atlantic City, New Jersey was arrested for wearing her stockings rolled below her knees and refusing to pull them up. She retaliated during her arrest by punching the officer in the eye.
Good lass.
1921 saw Hawaii implement a law where “no one over 14 years of age could appear in a swimsuit unless covered suitably by an outer garment reaching at least to the knees”.
Here. Have this duvet cover to swim in.
Luckily, we’ve come a long way since then. We now live in a more open and free world, where woman’s skirts don’t get measured when all they’re trying to do is catch some rays.
But you already know this.
[Source: Mashable]
