In her 1991 article, The Flesh Dress A Defence, Sarah Milroy calls it a work of transgression and female disobedience, and an iconic metaphor for treating women as meat in a patriarchal society hunted, purchasable, consumable (and those are the nice verbs)
Follow on Instagram: @edith_elan Gustavo Verdin For Gustavo Verdin, fashion is a family affair
Redding Wares 1909 slang dictionary records a theatrical use from 1887, but also acknowledges the term is used by gay men, whom Ware euphemizes as eccentric youths: Drag ( Theat .) Petticoat or skirt used by actors when playing female parts
Reading the comments below is helpful to these readers and hopefully to you too
As a social practice, it has a scattered but pretty continuous history that reaches as far back as gender-specific clothing itself
Short homecoming dress reception dress