Pet Peeve of the Day
May. 3rd, 2004 07:14 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cygna_himeToday, we continued to watch Tale of Two Cities in English class, featuring the Actor Who Cannot Move His Eyebrows Or, For That Matter, Any Facial Muscles Other Than His Mouth and Eyelids as Darnay. While watching, I came up with a small rant.
I don't want to hear it. No matter how strong or fast a woman may be, she can't run as fast as a man if she's in long skirts. Here's why:
1. Fabric is heavy. For all those 'Sue fantasy writers out there who want their wonderful character to look perfect and medieval/eighteenth century/Victorian/whatever, bear in mind that layers were in fashion. She's not wearing just one layer of wool, cotton, maybe linen, or even silk, she's wearing at least one petticoat as well. Peasant girl or no peasant girl, princess or no princess, she's got several pounds of fabric wrapping itself around her legs. Maybe her fine silks can parachute her if she jumps off the balcony, but even they are heavy. Layers, remember.
2. Skirts impede leg movement. Now, I like wearing skirts. I'm wearing an ankle-length dress right now, and I own a floor-length one. Let me tell you, all that fabric gets in the way. If Marie Susanne DeBelle is wearing a skirt of equivalent length, as she almost certainly would be in most time periods, that means she can't take strides larger than the skirt hem. No one can run in a hobble skirt--that's why they're called 'hobble skirts'. The cloth wrapping around her legs would be cumbersome, and she would quite likely trip over the hem, which brings me to
3. Hands are two per customer. Any woman in a dress below mid-calf ends up spending a lot of time picking up the skirt. That bit you see in movies, where the princess gracefully holds up her dress in one delicate hand as she sweeps down the staircase? That's not to be pretty, that's so she doesn't trip over her hem. There are two ways to go up stairs in a long dress; holding up the skirt, or stepping on it. There are no other choices. If she's running, you had better believe at least one hand is getting her skirts out of the way. This means she cannot be holding a bow in one hand and a quiver in another. She can't shoot an arrow while running, which is difficult anyway. She can't hold both pistol and knife ready for use, unless one of them is trailing in her skirts.
I wish people would play with these facts some more. Trust me, you can carry just as much while going up the stairs...if you're good at balancing and can hang things on your pinkies. You can hold a knife in the hand you hold your skirt with...if you don't mind extricating it from the fabric. You can run in a skirt...as long as you don't mind holding it above your knees while doing so. You can let the skirt trail all you want...if the hem won't be damaged by you stepping on it. And so on, and so forth. Even people who've always worn skirts have these problems. Just consider them!
This announcement provided by the Society of Wearers of Long Skirts Who are Tired of Seeing it Made to Look Easy.
I don't want to hear it. No matter how strong or fast a woman may be, she can't run as fast as a man if she's in long skirts. Here's why:
1. Fabric is heavy. For all those 'Sue fantasy writers out there who want their wonderful character to look perfect and medieval/eighteenth century/Victorian/whatever, bear in mind that layers were in fashion. She's not wearing just one layer of wool, cotton, maybe linen, or even silk, she's wearing at least one petticoat as well. Peasant girl or no peasant girl, princess or no princess, she's got several pounds of fabric wrapping itself around her legs. Maybe her fine silks can parachute her if she jumps off the balcony, but even they are heavy. Layers, remember.
2. Skirts impede leg movement. Now, I like wearing skirts. I'm wearing an ankle-length dress right now, and I own a floor-length one. Let me tell you, all that fabric gets in the way. If Marie Susanne DeBelle is wearing a skirt of equivalent length, as she almost certainly would be in most time periods, that means she can't take strides larger than the skirt hem. No one can run in a hobble skirt--that's why they're called 'hobble skirts'. The cloth wrapping around her legs would be cumbersome, and she would quite likely trip over the hem, which brings me to
3. Hands are two per customer. Any woman in a dress below mid-calf ends up spending a lot of time picking up the skirt. That bit you see in movies, where the princess gracefully holds up her dress in one delicate hand as she sweeps down the staircase? That's not to be pretty, that's so she doesn't trip over her hem. There are two ways to go up stairs in a long dress; holding up the skirt, or stepping on it. There are no other choices. If she's running, you had better believe at least one hand is getting her skirts out of the way. This means she cannot be holding a bow in one hand and a quiver in another. She can't shoot an arrow while running, which is difficult anyway. She can't hold both pistol and knife ready for use, unless one of them is trailing in her skirts.
I wish people would play with these facts some more. Trust me, you can carry just as much while going up the stairs...if you're good at balancing and can hang things on your pinkies. You can hold a knife in the hand you hold your skirt with...if you don't mind extricating it from the fabric. You can run in a skirt...as long as you don't mind holding it above your knees while doing so. You can let the skirt trail all you want...if the hem won't be damaged by you stepping on it. And so on, and so forth. Even people who've always worn skirts have these problems. Just consider them!
This announcement provided by the Society of Wearers of Long Skirts Who are Tired of Seeing it Made to Look Easy.
