The Bloomer Rebellion: Seattle Girls Defy Censors to Save Their Drill
When anonymous posters labeled the University of Washington’s women’s physical culture class as 'obscene,' a committee of students and faculty mobilized the entire city to remove them—proving that the fight for women's bodily autonomy was already a local sport.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Physical Culture Class Went Through the Drill Anyway.
SEATTLE, May 13.—In announcing a drill of 100 members of the young ladies' physical culture club at the University as a "splendid calf" [likely OCR error for 'affair' or 'display'], the faculty and the many hundred students are all in a stir. The swimmers were to appear in the very latest bloomer style. The drill was to take place at the armory and events had been announced for the exhibition.
In the forenoon strange posters appeared on the dead walls of the university, placed there by some unknown persons. The intimate friends of the girls in the bloomer class took in the situation and started committees in all parts of the city to remove or obliterate the objectionable circulars. The intimate family joined in the efforts. The city was in an uproar in a short time. It is known that committees of two dozen students, committees of the faculty, but these have thus far assisted the police in removing the silly stuff.
The drill was gone through with, however, with success.
This 1904 incident captures an early flashpoint in the history of women's rights and public space: the right to wear functional athletic clothing without being labeled 'obscene.' The aggressive defense of these students by faculty and the wider community mirrors modern debates over dress codes, bodily autonomy, and the policing of women's bodies in sports and public life.
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