{"id":20124,"date":"2020-03-27T08:31:26","date_gmt":"2020-03-27T08:31:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=20124"},"modified":"2020-04-01T19:52:03","modified_gmt":"2020-04-01T19:52:03","slug":"the-fashionable-history-of-social-distancing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/the-fashionable-history-of-social-distancing\/","title":{"rendered":"The fashionable history of social distancing"},"content":{"rendered":"

Einav Rabinovitch-Fox<\/a>, Case Western Reserve University<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

As the world grapples with the coronavirus outbreak, \u201csocial distancing\u201d has become a buzzword of these strange times.<\/p>\n

Instead of stockpiling food or rushing to the hospital, authorities are saying social distancing \u2013 deliberately increasing the physical space between people \u2013 is the best way ordinary people can help \u201cflatten the curve<\/a>\u201d and stem the spread of the virus.<\/p>\n

Fashion might not be the first thing that comes to mind when we think of isolation strategies. But as a historian who writes about the political and cultural meanings of clothing<\/a>, I know that fashion can play an important role in the project of social distancing, whether the space created helps solve a health crisis or keep away pesky suitors.<\/p>\n

Clothing has long served as a useful way to mitigate close contact and unnecessary exposure. In this current crisis, face masks have become a fashion accessory<\/a> that signals, \u201cstay away.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
A copper engraving of a plague doctor in 17th-century Rome.<\/span>
\nWikimedia Commons<\/a><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Fashion also proved to be handy during past epidemics such as the bubonic plague, when doctors wore pointed, bird-like masks<\/a> as a way to keep their distance from sick patients. Some lepers were forced to wear a heart on their clothes and don bells or clappers<\/a> to warn others of their presence.<\/p>\n

However, more often than not, it doesn\u2019t take a worldwide pandemic for people to want to keep others at arm\u2019s length.<\/p>\n

In the past, maintaining distance \u2013 especially between genders, classes and races \u2013 was an important aspect of social gatherings and public life. Social distancing didn\u2019t have anything to do with isolation or health; it was about etiquette and class. And fashion was the perfect tool.<\/p>\n

Take the Victorian-era \u201ccrinoline<\/a>.\u201d This large, voluminous skirt, which became fashionable in the mid-19th century, was used to create a barrier between the genders in social settings.<\/p>\n

While the origins of this trend can be traced to the 15th-century Spanish court, these voluminous skirts became a marker of class in the 18th century. Only those privileged enough to avoid household chores could wear them; you needed a house with enough space to be able to comfortably move from room to room, along with a servant to help you put it on<\/a>. The bigger your skirt, the higher your status.<\/p>\n

\"\"
A satirical comic pokes fun at the ballooning crinolines of the mid-19th century.<\/span>
\nWikimedia Commons<\/a><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In the 1850s and 1860s, more middle-class women started wearing the crinoline as caged hoop skirts<\/a> started being mass-produced. Soon, \u201cCrinolinemania<\/a>\u201d swept the fashion world.<\/p>\n

Despite critiques<\/a> by dress reformers who saw it as another tool to oppress women\u2019s mobility and freedom, the large hoop skirt was a sophisticated way of maintaining women\u2019s social safety. The crinoline mandated that a potential suitor \u2013 or, worse yet, a stranger \u2013 would keep a safe distance from a woman\u2019s body and cleavage.<\/p>\n

Although these skirts probably inadvertently helped mitigate the dangers of the era\u2019s smallpox<\/a> and cholera<\/a> outbreaks, crinolines could be a health hazard: Many women burned to death after their skirts caught fire<\/a>. By the 1870s, the crinoline gave way to the bustle<\/a>, which only emphasized the fullness of the skirt on the posterior.<\/p>\n

Women nonetheless continued to use fashion as a weapon against unwanted male attention. As skirts got narrower in the 1890s and early 1900s, large hats \u2013 and, more importantly, hat pins<\/a>, which were sharp metal needles used to fasten the hats \u2013 offered women the protection from harassers that crinolines once gave.<\/p>\n

As for keeping healthy, germ theory<\/a> and a better understanding of hygiene led to the popularization of face masks \u2013 very similar to the ones we use today \u2013 during the Spanish flu. And while the need for women to keep their distance from pesky suitors remained, hats<\/a> were used more to keep masks intact than to push strangers away.<\/p>\n

Today, it isn\u2019t clear whether the coronavirus will lead to new styles and accessories. Perhaps we\u2019ll see the rise of novel forms of protective outerwear, like the \u201cwearable shield<\/a>\u201d that one Chinese company developed.<\/p>\n

But for now, it seems most likely that we\u2019ll all just continue wearing pajamas.<\/p>\n

[You need to understand the coronavirus pandemic, and we can help.<\/em> Read our newsletter<\/a>.]\"The<\/p>\n

Einav Rabinovitch-Fox<\/a>, Visiting Assistant Professor, Case Western Reserve University<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Einav Rabinovitch-Fox, Case Western Reserve University As the world grapples with the coronavirus outbreak, \u201csocial distancing\u201d has become a buzzword of these strange times. Instead of stockpiling food or rushing to the hospital, authorities are saying social distancing \u2013 deliberately increasing the physical space between people \u2013 is the best way ordinary people can help […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":20125,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[293],"tags":[7836,7559,7689,7839,7838,839,365,7837,7778,6916,185],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20124"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20124"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20124\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20173,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20124\/revisions\/20173"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/20125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20124"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20124"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20124"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}