RE: putting people in boxes

["Nancy Toby" <nancytoby comcast net>]

Valerie wrote:
>>The story about the girl who couldn't play soccer reminds me of the
wonderful movie "Billy Elliot", about a little boy in the north of England,
a coal-miner's son, who likes ballet better than boxing . . . and everybody
knows only "poofters" like ballet.  Everybody who wants to put their
children in gender boxes should see that movie.

Good movie!!

>>Which reminds me that just yesterday I was remembering a book I read as a
child, a horse-novel called "Sidesaddle for Dandy", in which the vigorous
19th century tomboy of the title is dragooned into skirts and a side-saddle
when she reaches an age where riding astride is "indelicate".

Actually a mid-19th-century development in sidesaddle construction, the
"leaping horn", was one of the more liberating inventions for upper-class
women. It allowed them to jump anything "aside" that a man could "astride",
and for the first time allowed women to keep up with the men on the hunt
field. The fact that they were also wearing whalebone corsets - even though
they couldn't draw a deep breath - also probably offered some torso
protection in the case of falls similar to the "flak jackets" worn by
jockeys and jumping competitors today. I may write an essay about this one
day, but I'm convinced that the women that performed as the athletic equals
to men on the hunt fields of the 19th century (primarily in England and
Ireland) while riding sidesaddle led to some major positive shifts in the
attitudes towards feminine abilities.

N

~~~~~~~
Nancy Toby, Arlington, Virginia * nancytoby comcast net
Mom to Catherine and Elisabeth (6/1/03, 28w4d) and Anna (5/9/03-11/21/03)