BODY POLITIC | THE SUFFRAGETTE MOVEMENT
Body Politic
The Suffragette Movement
Between the tragic years of 1903 and 1919, the women of Britain unwaveringly fought for their right to vote. They finally achieved this after sixteen years of protests and violence including political riots and even the deaths of their own for the cause. In this essay, I will be focusing on the ways that women used their dress and bodies to depict their political views to those around them and representing their cause in such a manner. I will be using books and documentaries to aid me in analysing three images of the suffragettes and their fashion. These include the works of Arbor, Connely, Kaplan, Parkins and Phillips, whom all have looked into the suffragettes as a whole movement but have also made significant suggestions upon their fashion and dress relating to the movement. I also looked at programs from Channel 4, BBC 2 and BBC 4. Specifically, I will be analysing images of the Lancaster Suffragettes (Fig.1), a fashion column advertising the ‘correct’ things for a woman to wear at the time (Fig. 2) and the very famous Suffragette Uniform (Fig.3).
Figure 1 depicts a few of the Lancaster Suffragettes. One of the most eye-catching aspects of their appearance were placards or sandwich boards. The words of these placards and the way they dressed helped them to be easily identified as the ‘suffragettes’. Although the women can be commonly seen to be brandishing the name ‘suffragette’, this was not something of their own invention. “The term ‘suffragette’ was coined by the Daily Mail to distinguish them from the suffragists who had been working for the vote since 1866” (Cannon,2009). By adopting their phrase and using it on their banners, placards and other pieces of propaganda they were seen to be wearing, they took away the meaning of the word and made it their own. By using the name as performative language, it gave the women a name to go under and also showed the strength that they had for this cause (Butler,1993). These boards would have typical slogans and announcements such as ‘meeting[s]’ in the local area, however, not only do these boards notify the local women of what is happening with the suffragettes in their community, but, they also raise male, and consequently political, awareness of the movement on a regular basis, pushing their right to vote upon them as much as they possibly can and growing their community at the same time. It is implied in many writings that this was a common sight in London and other cities at the time. The suffragettes were well known to be dedicated to the cause and this included advertising the movement in every way possible at all times. Baker describes women such as these as ‘theatrically attired in the suffragette colours [...] wielding striking banners and placards proclaiming their identity and goal’ (Baker, 2002).
With the women at the time having little to no voice, they had no choice but to use their bodies as political aids. They would use their bodies as a tool and a canvas, showing what they stood for in hopes that this would push the passing of their right to vote. At these times, the only way to get a motion passed in parliament was to approach the King. This would have been standard and easy practice, however, women were not allowed within the walls of parliament past a certain point and many of them were beginning to be convicted as military criminals so were not permitted to go close to anyone of status. The only way that the women had any chance was to protest and get noticed and they chose to do this through ‘posting up placards, sticklebacks and posters on the dock-sides’ (Davis, 1999).
Not only would women use their bodies to display placards and banners, but, they would often sacrifice their bodies for the greater cause. As the police were arresting women as military prisoners, they were treated as such. The women would decide to go on hunger strike to protest against the way they were being treated and in many cases, this led to force-feeding (Davis, 1999). This was only one example of how women were being treated, there were multiple incidents where women were restrained and harmed by the police, in order to gain surveillance on the women who were thought to be violent or at risk (Channel 4, 2013). This mistreatment of their bodies by themselves and by the police caused mass controversy and led to further action on both sides. The women who were on hunger strike in the prisons were released temporarily as the authorities feared they would have hundreds of martyrs on their hands. At the same time, women were also released from imprisonment after ‘Black Friday’ as images were published of the violence the police exhibited on the day, there was no clear message or action that was taking place, the country struggled to keep up (BBC2, 2015).
The Suffragettes also took a more ‘classy’ approach to using their bodies to show their support. They were determined to dress ‘conventionally in unconventional circumstances’ (Kaplan, 1995). The Suffragettes had begun the writing of societal publications which contained all the suffragettes needed to know according to their society. One example of this was ‘Votes for Women’ which was published by the WSPU in 1909 and was used to print such columns as ‘A Vote! For the Child’s Sake’ and ‘Plain Facts About the Suffragette Deputations’. By 1908, ‘dress columns had begun to appear in the WSPU’s Votes for Women’ (Kaplan, 1995) paper which started a more rigid dress code for the suffragettes. To other suffragettes, if a woman ‘did not dress ‘well’ they were dismissed as unsuccessful women’ (Kaplan, 1995). This perception between suffragettes from different societies created discrepancies in the uniformity of the women. For example, the NUWSS, as presented in Figure. 2, advertised in June and July 1913 (Kaplan, 1995) through Swan and Edgar, that women should dress ‘smartly’ in ‘tailored Coat lined. Skirt to button at foot. In Green Serge only’. Furthermore, Cicely Hamilton, an English feminist, called for a ‘dress code’. Kaplan suggests that ‘a curious characteristic of the militant suffragette movement “was the importance it attached to dress and appearance, and it’s insistence on the feminine note... All suggestion of the masculine was carefully avoided” ‘. This furthers the suggestion that women were still very conscious of what was expected of them, however, the majority of the time, this was to avoid being stereotyped as violent or militant, ‘it discouraged the average women from adopting it’s dress reforms’ (English, 2007).
Although the WSPU were for the publication of fashion columns, the NUWSS thought differently. Kaplan states that ‘the law abiding ‘suffragists’ of the NUWSS [were] determined not to to admit fashion columns to the pages of the Common Cause’ (Kaplan, 1995), which was their answer to the WSPU’s Votes for Women. It is suggested that they ‘feared clothes - consciousness might be open to misinterpretation’ (Kaplan, 1995). With the rise of brutal policing (Channel 4, 2013), the suffragettes in the NUWSS became increasingly concerned with the attire they were seen to be wearing as police were not only arresting active suffragette protesters but were also photographing those they thought to be suspect for their own records. As the NUWSS were very ‘law abiding’ women, this was something they wanted to avoid at all costs and therefore deterred their women from wearing clothing identifiable with the WSPU and other non law abiding suffragettes and their societies.
Kaplan suggests that eventually, ‘virtually every dress article to appear in suffragette publications spoke of the impact of current fashions when carried out in “the colours” ‘. This was the beginning of the suffragette ‘uniform’ which can be seen in most imagery of the suffragette protests and suffragette leaders.
Figure 3 shows the suffragette uniform that was introduced by 1908, they had also begun to implement a colour scheme to their uniform, the women began to look more militant with their coloured sashes and coherence (BBC2, 2015). Each of the suffragette societies had their own colours: The NUWSS wore red, white and green while the WFL wore green, gold and white, however, most influential was the WSPU ‘led the way, requesting members [...] affirmed their allegiance by wearing purple, white and green’ (Kaplan, 1995). Each of these three colours stood for something of significance to the women; green represented hope, white was purity and purple being dignity or ‘sometimes loyalty or courage’. With their bodies being ‘organised collectively and invested politically and therefore resistant to any simply voyeuristic appropriation’ (Common Cause, 1911) the women appeared stronger and more of a larger picture across the country.
Not only were the women now using their bodies to show the placards, but they were introducing the ways of the suffragettes into their everyday dress. For example, in fig. 3.1, you can see Mabel Capper, an active suffragette, outside the former Bow Street Magistrates’ Court in Westminster. Although she is not particularly dressed for a rally or wearing the words of the suffragettes, she is still wearing the typical colours and showing at all times that she is part of the movement.
As the suffragettes began to incorporate their cause into their everyday clothes, Lucile had already created a much more extravagant piece using those same colours (Fig. 3.2). This piece was designed in 1903 as a statement on the suffragette situation at the time. Although Lucile did not consider herself to be a suffragette specifically, she has a close relationship with Emmeline, Christabel and Sylvia Pankhurst and it is suggested that this piece, from her Autumn 1905 collection, influenced the colours we now relate with the suffragettes. In fact it is suggested by Bigham that Lucile would have met with them to discuss colour schemes and other dress advice (Bigham, 2014).
Although suffragettes were stereotyped as ugly and masculine, Lucile has chosen to design this dress with an air of femininity. She has included the S Bend corset in the dress which was very popular at the time, it followed what was previous and suggested a woman’s fertility and femininity through wearing the dress, things the papers said they were not. Moreover, she also includes a mass of intricate beading and lace work which adds to the overall feminine feeling to the dress and its wearer, particularly with the styling of the gloves which could suggest high class and stature for the women, again, things the suffragettes were
never made out to be. However once protests did start and women dressed like this, they were described as “surprisingly elegant and conventional in matters of dress” (Tickner, 1987) Fig. 3 - http://www.museumoflondonprints.com/image/446423/womens-social-and-political-union- the-suffragette-look-1908
Fig. 3.1 - http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-5353627/Images-Suffragettes-brought-life- colour.html
Fig 3.2 - https://www.vandaimages.com/results.asp? inline=true&image=2006AM8253&wwwflag=1&imagepos=36
Rosenberg, D (2015) Rebel Footprints: A Guide to Uncovering London’s Radical History. London,
Furthermore, department stores began to play their part in exhibiting the iconic suffragette colours. A quote from Parkins’ Fashioning the body politic: dress, gender, citizenship reads that ‘the suffragette practice of dressing in the latest fashions and the WSPU colours, and of patronising and advertising certain stores, would show that a consuming public was not necessarily fundamentally opposed to the notion of political act’, suggesting that the country as a whole was gradually beginning to support the women in their fight for the vote through the world of dress.
However, there were still people, including women that were completely opposed to the use of suffragette colours and their use of dress to show their support. Kaplan quotes ‘Nobody can possibly be more bored than I am by the pictures and dress articles[...]a badly dressed woman is an eyesore[...]and who knows just what would suit one woman, and would look hateful on another [...] not only would the articles result in an army of Suffragists who would prove their good sense by their attire’ .
Through the use of the sources and images, it is clear to conclude that the Suffragettes used their bodies to create quite significant change in their movement. They did this to show their ‘traditional protest methods - mass rallies, petition, lobbying, propaganda’ (Rosenberg, 2015), to show the world the colours that unified them, to change the perception that they weren't the violent criminals people believed they were imprisoned for being and in some cases, sacrificed their bodies for the greater good. As Parkins states: ‘They used fashion to forge a public identity for themselves and their cause into the sphere of politics and to gain them the right to vote’.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Fig.1 - http://www.documentingdissent.org.uk/the-suffragist-movement-in-lancaster/
Fig. 2 - Kaplan, Joel H. Theatre and fashion: Oscar Wilde to the Suffragettes. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1995
Books:
Arbor, A (2013) In the thick of the fight: the writing of Emily Wilding Davidson, militant suffragette. Michigan, University of Michigan Press
Baker, J (2002) Votes for Women: The Struggle for Suffrage Revisited. London, Oxford University Press
Bingham, R (2014) Lucile - Her Life by Design: Sex, Style and the Fusion of Theatre and Couture. Los Angeles, MacEvie Press Group
Butler, J (1993) Bodies That Matter: On the Discursive Limits of “Sex”, Routledge. London Cannon, J (2009) A Dictionary of British History. London, oxford university press
Connely,K (2013) Sylvia Pankhurst: suffragette, socialist and scourge of empire. London, Pluto press
Davis, M (1999) Sylvia Pankhurst: A Life in Radical Politics. London, Pluto Press English, B (2007) A Cultureal History of Fashion in the 20th Century. Oxford, Berg
Gernsheim, A (1981) Victorian & Edwardian fashion: a photographic survey. New York, Dover Publications
Kaplan, Joel H (1995) Theatre and fashion: Oscar Wilde to the Suffragettes. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press
Mayhall, L (1995) Creating the ‘Suffragette Spirit’: British Feminism and the Historical Imagination. UK, Taylor and Francis
Parkins, W (2002) Fashioning the body politic: dress, gender, citizenship. New York, Berg Phillips, M (2004) The Ascent of Woman: a history of the suffragette movement and the ideas
behind it. London, Abacus
Pluto Press
Stevenson, NJ (2011) The Chronology of Fashion: From Empire Dress to Ethical Design. London, A & C Black
Documentaries:
Clare Balding's Secrets of a Suffragette, 2013 [TV] Channel 4, 26th May Suffragists forever! The Story of Women and Power, 2015 [TV] BBC 2 History of the World - Suffragette City, 2010 [TV] BBC4, 24th November
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