mzzrachNov 27, 2022
Sheril Kirshenbaum

In 1938, kindergarten teacher Helen Hulick wore slacks to court to testify as a witness in Los Angeles, CA. Judge Arthur Guerin was appalled & rescheduled the case, instructing her to “return in a dress.”

The next day, Hulick showed up in slacks again, declaring, “I will stand on my rights…I like slacks. They’re comfortable.”

She was sent to jail. https://web.archive.org/web/20210315143406/https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-11-15/from-the-archives-wear-slacks-to-court-and-go-to-jail #HistoryRemix

From the Archives: Wear slacks to court and go to jail

On Nov. 9, 1938, Helen Hulick, 28, wore slacks during a court appearance to testify against two men. Judge Arthur S. Guerin rescheduled her case, asking Hulick to return wearing a dress.

Los Angeles Times
Nov 26, 2022 at 12:24pmMastodon for iOS
Show threadHazel Buchan CameronNov 26, 2022
@Sheril I never saw my mum in slacks...or as we called them, trousers until late 70s. I even remember being surprised that my daughter chose not to wear a skirt to school in the 90s!
Show threadniaNov 26, 2022
@Hazey @Sheril Same experience here - growing up, I thought that moms weren’t allowed to wear dresses. What a terrible message
Show threadHazel Buchan CameronNov 26, 2022
@nia @Sheril do you mean trousers? 😊
It was a strange thing and took me a bit to adapt to my daughter preferring trousers. I tried unsuccessfully (I'm now glad to say) to persuade her to wear a pleated skirt to school. Mind you, am I wrong in still thinking that skirts look smarter? 😳 And I still feel better in a dress.
Show threadniaNov 26, 2022
@Hazey @Sheril haha, yes, trousers. Too focused on the dresses
Show threadDr Ro SmithNov 27, 2022
@Hazey Slacks are just a specific style of trousers 😜 Semi-formal, and not tight against the leg - hence, slack.
Show threadHazel Buchan CameronNov 27, 2022
@Rhube I remember when I stayed with a Canadian cousin and she asked me if I'd brought any pants? 😳🙄 To a Brit, pants are knickers. It was a relief when I discovered she meant trousers. 🤣
Show threadhelen, gender goblin (labour)Nov 26, 2022
@Sheril the good old days when they knew what a woman was (/MASSIVE SARCASM), namely a person who wore a dress!
Show threadKathy CarboneNov 26, 2022
@Sheril Men have always tried to control and subjugate women, projecting their insecurity, violence and evil onto women. Society, in turn, has always allowed, if not encouraged this, resulting in loss of tremendous potential. We cannot survive as a culture until we learn to value & respect every member of society. Past time to stop the war on women.
Show threadHyacinth SmithNov 26, 2022
@Heartsonycgr @Sheril Absolutely.
Show threadBarbaraNov 26, 2022
@Sheril wow
Show threadSudhirNov 26, 2022
@Sheril Social culture changes with times! What was not acceptable decades ago is acceptable today and what is not acceptable today may be accepted a decade later!🤔🤪Social norms are not static!🙂👍
Show threadRussell 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇺🇦🍉Nov 26, 2022
@Sheril the future is female!
Show threadMorgan Ziva 🧜‍♀️🔮💘Nov 26, 2022
@Sheril how preposterous. She was issued a dress...
Show threadrufoNov 26, 2022
@Sheril But what happened to her case against the two male burglars?
Show threadAugusTuskNov 26, 2022
@Sheril My pants rebellion took place in 1964 when I wore pants to my elementary school. I wanted to climb the Monkey Bars like the boys w/out them snickering while looking up my dress. I was punished. “The dress code requires females to wear a skirt below the knee.” The next day I showed up in the skirt as well as my pants. My 8 yr old self argued that the dress code did not say “ Females may not wear pants.” The school administration had to agree.
Show threadtelzeyNov 26, 2022
@escatei Oh, good for you! When I was in elementary school I seem to remember there being two different attitudes to girls' clothes. Up north, dresses were required but in the south I believe I was allowed to wear pants.
Show threadAugusTuskNov 26, 2022
@telzey I bet you are right.
Show threadLakeRNistiredNov 26, 2022
@escatei @Sheril love that energy!
Show threadAugusTuskNov 26, 2022
@tlemmink @Sheril ✨
Show threadPapaPearNov 26, 2022

@Sheril

Ahh. Those good ol (repressive) days

Show threadSVSalonNov 26, 2022
@Sheril What's always astonishing to me about these things is how they really didn't happen THAT LONG AGO. It's like exiting the world where you believe women are treated equitably and seeing, again, that that simply didn't happen according to the whims of men in charge
Show threadJaneANov 26, 2022
@Sheril I had to wear a dress to public high school in the 60s!
Show threadAndrewNov 26, 2022
@Sheril Perhaps I will buy that kilt I liked.
Show threadChookMother 🇦🇺🦘Nov 26, 2022
@Andhalcor Do. Love a man in a kilt.
Show threadMark BrittenNov 26, 2022
@Sheril I dunno about courts, but even now you occasionally see news stories about companies having ridiculous gendered dress codes. It's shouldn't be acceptable.
Show threadAmy S ParkerNov 26, 2022
@Sheril In the late 1960’s, I wore pants to school on “Pants Day.” The district changed its policy after that, and I pretty much never looked back. Until mini-skirts, of course.
Show threadJanine Bruce-HughesNov 26, 2022
@Sheril Jesus Christ, what a long way we’ve come in less than 90 years
Show threadMcRocketScienceNov 26, 2022

Unfortunately, it took another 30-60 years for women to be permitted to go about their business of the day in practical clothes with their legs covered.

Even as an 8-year old walking to school in January in a dress in the 60's, I knew that everything in life was going to be harder and more uncomfortable simply because I was a girl.

Arbitrary social dictums about women's appearance were enforced by codes and punishments.

Show threadTab CombsNov 26, 2022
@Sheril Horrifying!
And these sort of arbitrary discriminatory dress policies are still playing out today -- school dress codes routinely force Black children in the US to conform to white norms on appearance, with drastic punishments on those who do not comply. We have not come far as a society at all.
Show threadChookMother 🇦🇺🦘Nov 26, 2022
@DrTCombs Yes. It's a tool of oppression. The dominant group sets the "norms".
Show threadCathybugNov 26, 2022
@Sheril
So much to unpack here🙄
Show threadlfrobertsonNov 26, 2022
@Sheril Not so long ago.
Show threadPO TAY TOESNov 26, 2022
@Sheril did she get an extra fine for wearing them *SO GOOD*
Show threadLakeRNistiredNov 26, 2022
@Sheril File that under Ways to Control Women. Why are men so afraid of us? We should wear what we want and support each other for it. Freedom.
Show threadDeb the bead weaverNov 26, 2022
@Sheril I so appreciate the women who sacrificed so that I can have rights. Thanks for sharing this.
Show threadFactsPlsNov 26, 2022
@Sheril In late '60s NYC public schools, girls were sent home to change into a dress even on snowdays.
Show threadRicardo HarvinNov 26, 2022
@Sheril That's my kind of person ✊🏿
Show threadLittle Grey RabbitNov 26, 2022
@Sheril #womensrights
Show threadPaul Chambers🚧Nov 26, 2022

@Sheril
Here's more about her:

 Helen Louise Hulick Beebe (December 27, 1908 – March 18, 1989) was an American educator and pioneer of auditory-verbal therapy. In 1938, she made headlines when a judge jailed her for wearing trousers while appearing as a witness in court.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Beebe

Helen Beebe - Wikipedia

Show threadNoelleNov 26, 2022
@Sheril #WarOnWomen began long before this century. I had a job as an ER RN in a San Diego hospital. The old codger ER Dr insisted women RNs wear dress scrubs even though we often had to crawl up on the gurneys with our butts in the air to do effective chest compressions. I lasted a week before I told them to take their antiquated management & stuff it & quit.
Show threadfrater musNov 26, 2022
@Sheril I'm guessing the Venn diagram between "gender-based dress codes" and "aggressive religiosity" have a lot of overlap.
Show threadLeslie VarneyNov 26, 2022
@Sheril a hero, just doing her thing! One of the things I adore about Katherine Hepburn was how she instilled her individuality and strength in her characters, and her affinity for beautifully tailored, sexy AF slacks was one such carry-over into movieland.
Show threadMaggie721Nov 26, 2022
@Sheril it's been the same for women ever since, why do men think they're so superior.
Show threadWilliam GarfinkelNov 26, 2022
@Sheril
Show threadDoxiebabyNov 26, 2022
@Sheril not surprisingly, this was still the norm in the 1980s when I started practicing law. In 1989 when the Minnesota courts ruled that women could wear slacks in court, the senior partners in my law firm went crazy. They continued to require us to wear skirts in the office until those of us with enough clout rebelled.
Show thread.Nov 26, 2022
@Sheril out of everything they coulda gotten upset about, they got mad about a woman wearing slacks? a bit ridiculous of them, if you ask me
Show threadLei JinNov 26, 2022
@Sheril I’m struck by how totally on point in fashion her outfit would be today, including her hair style. Cool!
Show threadCharles ☭ is now tooting from queer.partyNov 26, 2022
@Sheril I met a trans man in San Francisco who did time for wearing argyle socks.
Show threadRex Brough🌍Nov 26, 2022
@Sheril Out of curiosity I googled the judge. He is famous for a) jailing a woman for not wearing a dress and b) a fatal heart attack while on a TV show.
Show threadSquirrelleaderNov 26, 2022
@Sheril I prefer the slacks look than the get me out of jail dress 😂
Show threadMirageeNov 26, 2022
@Sheril I am glad she paved the way for people like me. I don’t own a dress.👗
Show threadGethin ColesNov 26, 2022

@Sheril I love the etymology of "progress". I think genxers and our parent's gen were "walking forward", now my kids are running. We learnt about the suffragettes in primary school, the lesson was "mission accomplished", not that it was a waystop on a longer journey. Futurists talked about the spike in relation to technology, but we're seeing the same acceleration with culture. The old fart who sent that young lawyer to jail failed to learn what I have in the last few years - that you may as well stand and shake your fist at an incoming tidal wave as resist these social changes. It's not our world anymore, it's theirs.

(And I, for one, welcome our teenage overlords 😄)

Show threadDoriNov 26, 2022
@Sheril in 2010 - 2011 I worked at a company in NYC that wouldn’t let women wear pants to the office. I did not last long there.
Show threadJaap TimmerNov 27, 2022
@Sheril men's control over female bodies continues nearly unchallenged until today
Show threadPaul Briley 🇪🇺Nov 27, 2022

@jaaptimmer @Sheril
Still going on strong right across America & most places across the globe.

Men have a lot to answer for!

Show threadIvanaNov 28, 2022
@paul_briley @jaaptimmer @Sheril Iran is a perfect example and the women have had enough.
Show threadPunished Y2K 🏳️‍⚧️Nov 27, 2022
@Sheril This is the future that Republicans want (but unironically)
Show threadJodesNov 27, 2022
@Sheril @MazMyers things didn’t change much between then and the 80s in Australia. I wasn’t allowed to wear trousers to my law office job in 87-89. After that it became more acceptable but it took a while before it was ‘nothing’. Same with heels.
Show threadMark BurtonNov 27, 2022
@Sheril
"Slacks". I haven't heard that word for a long time.
Remember those "Trouser suits?"