(no subject)

[sapote]

So I've been reading about historical clothes for a year and a half now and it just occurred to me today that in movies where women say they're going to go slip into something more comfortable they're probably taking their girdles off.

That or taking mechanically complicated birth control measures, one would suppose. Guesses?

Comments

[rydra_wong]

I've always tended to vaguely suspect the latter -- diaphragm/cervical cap, etc..

But now you've got me wondering whether the line was ever used in reality.

TV Tropes covers the fictional usages (WARNING FOR TV TROPES):

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SlipIntoSomethingMoreComfortable

[sapote]

Ooh, here's what's credited as the tropemaker: Jean Harlow in Hell's Angels. I just spent way too long trying to work out if the actress is wearing a girdle; my guess would be no.

Have you ever seen Gosford Park? There's a scene where it's really clear that a character basically uses a coded version of "let me go put in my diaphragm" as misdirection. I find the shift of contraceptive use in the 1930s really interesting. I don't remember if I posted about reading Marie Stopes' letters? Anyway I did and it was really interesting.