The Many Evils of the Décolleté Dress

[shanmonster]

First of all, click on the pictures to see more views of the gorgeous, indecent gowns (see even more scrumptious examples at AntiqueDress.com). The following article is from an 1889 edition of The Idaho Daily Statesman (thanks, maevah):

Views of Dr. Howard Crosby Given in a Candid Style

Influence Upon Young Girls Brought Up in Society’s Whirl—Rather a Severe Comment on Men Who Attend Some Theatres—A Puritan for Himself Only.

The décolleté dress now used by women for evening wear is simply an abomination. I will not denounce all the women who wear such dresses as immoral. That would be unfair. But I do contend that they are all shamelessly immodest. I can readily understand how a young girl, brought up in what is known as fashionable society and accustomed from her childhood to the appearance of her mother during the evening in this outrageous costume, should come to regard the exposure of her arms and the upper part of her bosom as eminently proper and modest.

Perhaps she would never thing about the matter at all. But this unconsciousness on her part does not make the exposure any the less immodest, an more than the unconsciousness of the native woman of Africa, who appears in a state of nature and walks about in this unhampered condition, robs her exposure of every immodest characteristic. I suppose this comparison will not be considered a fair one by a great many people.

But if the opportunity which a wealthy American girl has for cultivation and refinement is considered, to say nothing of her Christian training, which should be hers, and can be hers for the asking, is considered, which enable her to distinguish between the modest and the immodest, these people will, if they are not biased, admit that the comparison has all the elements of truth. To my mind, there is very little difference between a poor, uneducated African woman with absolutely no perceptions of right and wrong, appearing stark naked, and a Christian woman of the Nineteenth century exposing her breast.

Evil Minded Men.

So much for the immodesty of the question. Its immorality is attributable partly to the women who wear it but chiefly to the men who countenance and encourage them. The women who eagerly seize on the pretext which this costume affords for the exhibition of their physical attractions for the purpose of capturing the attention of men, thereby knowing full well what the influence of such a display possesses, are, I am very happy to say, in the minority. But they do exist, and the costume in their hands and worn by them is an instrument of the devil. The chief cause of its immorality, however, resides in the filthy imaginations of the men.

All men are more or less immoral in thought, if not in deed, and there is absolutely no exception to this rule. If it is not so, why do men frequent theatres where the exposure of half naked women in tights colored to resemble human flesh is the prevailing and predominant feature of the performances? They go there simply that their unhealthy and uncleanly imaginations may have full play and if the exhibitions on the stage do not minister to their diseased fancy and appeal to their sexual passions they are voted dull and commonplace and left without patronage.

Nowadays men often frequent drawing rooms for the same reason they frequent the theatres. There they meet women, their social peers, it is true, dressed, or rather undressed, in evening costume, and find food for their imagination precisely as they do when they attend a ballet or a spectacle. Then comes the talk of the clubs. The bust, the formation of the arms, and the more or less voluptuous curves of the figure, all finish themes for subsequent comment. The points of a now debutante are estimated by those men during drawing room conversations, with all the care and skill exhibited by an expert in horseflesh, where the merits of a horse are under consideration. And the observations carried away from these drawing rooms are made afterwards the subject of club gossip, and for the basis of comparison when the excellencies of rival beauties happen to be mentioned.

Has Seen It Himself.

If young and innocent girls could but hear the comments and criticisms which are made on their figures by club men around the card rooms and at club windows and could listen for a moment to the minute analyses which are made of their physical attractions left exposed by reason of the décolleté dress, no argument that could possibly be advanced would induce them to continue the wearing of this apparently popular and fashionable garment. And when I speak of the unlicensed way in which men talk in the club rooms, I am not drawing on my imagination. I was 35 years old before I became a minister, and during that time I had ample opportunities for observation, and it is what I saw and heard which now furnishes me the basis for the conclusions I have expressed.

The underlying principle of all nude exhibitions, whether on the public stage or in private life, is dirt. Even if legislative interference were possible, however, in the matter, any attempt to exert it would be foolish. The folly and indecency of the décolleté dress have been pointed out by the press and by the pulpit ever since it has been worn and never with any appreciably good effect. I prefer to let the women who wear them severely alone. If people want to live in pig sties let them live there. For one I would not attempt to compel them to live elsewhere. I am no Puritan except for myself.

—Howard Crosby in Cincinnati Commercial Gazette.

Comments

[slybootz.livejournal.com]

Those dresses are gorgeous! Wow... ..and I'd love to bring Howard Crosby back to life and have him watch MTV for about a half hour, and I think his views of the Decollete Dress would shift a tad in perspective.

[shanmonster.livejournal.com]

Christina Agu.. Aguillera... You know, her! She'd make him blow a gasket for sure.

[swirlingchaos.livejournal.com]

If she didnt go ahead and blow his gasket for him. ;)

(possibly thats unfair, but i couldnt resist.)

[metasilk.livejournal.com]

Unfair maybe but wickedly funny. Heh.