Heather: "In addition to the battle-for-the-pants genre, there are other images commonly circulated in the historic costuming community as evidence for medieval women wearing underpants that -- when examined more closely -- are using the underpants as a symbol or representation of women cross-dressing as men. A typical example is an illustration from an edition of Boccaccio's "Concerning Famous Women" (De Claris Mulieribus) for the tale of Queen Semiramis who -- among other things -- was notorious for having ruled disguised as a man."
Yes, this was one of the two pictures, someone pointed it out here (http://realmofvenus.renaissanceitaly.net/library/Semiramis.gif) as well. So, one half is explained! I'm still waiting for the reply from my friend to tell me where the other picture was from. But your "gender battle" theory is very interesting, did you ever write an article or anything like that about it? I'd long to get some more detailed information:-) Heather: "When this topic gets discussed on costuming lists, you often see a lot of "argument from personal comfort level". As students of historic costume, I think we need to be very skeptical of the idea that logical argument and "what feels comfortable/appropriate to me" can lead us to an accurate understanding of what people in other cultures and other time periods wore." It is surely interesting to think logically about such a problem, but, just as you say, we can never rely on it, and, as we all know, people didn't always act very logically and didn't choose the most comfortable garments they could. Think of all those corsets and hoop petticoats and cage crinolines - the latest being worn even by lower-class working women that would surely need a more practical dress than the bourgeoise and nobility. This picture: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Les_Tr%C3%A8s_Riches_Heures_du_duc_de_Berry_f%C3%A9vrier.jpg was in my friend's work as well, but he was talking about two sorts of chausses: one knee-length, which correspond to this picture and are, I think, nothing very surprising, and one long, attached to the waist, the same sort as men wore. The second one was very questionable for me and that was the sort of chausses (or hose) I was talking about. No doubt they're good for warmth, but does any of you have any picture or text that tells us that such garment was (even rarely) used by women?__ Zuzana --------------------------------- Fussy? Opinionated? Impossible to please? Perfect. Join Yahoo!'s user panel and lay it on us. _______________________________________________ h-costume mailing list h-costume@mail.indra.com http://mail.indra.com/mailman/listinfo/h-costume
