Trousers vs Braces

Let me give one simple illustration of the difference between the right and the wrong kind of feminism. Let us take this terrible business--so distressing to the minds of bishops--of the women who go about in trousers. We are asked: "Why do you want to go about in trousers? They are extremely unbecoming to most of you. You only do it to copy the men." To this we may very properly reply: "It is true that they are unbecoming. Even on men they are remarkably unattractive. But, as you men have discovered for yourselves, they are comfortable, they do not get in the way of one's activities like skirts and they protect the wearer from draughts about the ankles. As a human being, I like comfort and dislike draughts. If the trousers do not attract you, so much the worse; for the moment I do not want to attract you. I want to enjoy myself as a human being, and why not? As for copying you, certainly you thought of trousers first, and to that extent we must copy you. But we are not such abandoned copy-cats as to attach these useful garments to our bodies with braces. There we draw the line. These machines of leather and elastic are unnecessary and unsuited to the female form. They are, moreover, hideous beyond description. And as for indecency--of which you sometimes accuse the trousers--we at least can take our coats off without becoming the half-undressed bedroom spectacle thatt a man presents in his shirt and braces."

So that when we hear that women have once more laid hands upon somthing which was previously a man's sole privilege, I think we have to ask ourselves: is this trousers or is it braces? Is it something useful, convenient, and suitable to a human being as such? Or is it merely something unnecessary to us, ugly, and adopted merely for the sake of collaring the other fellow's property? These jobs and professions now. It is ridiculous to take on a man's job just in order to be able to say that "a woman has done it--yah!" The only decent reason for tackling any job is that it is your job, and you want to do it.

-Dorothy Sayers, Are Women Human?