20th-Century Women Protected Themselves From Sexual Predators With Hatpins And Men Tried To Ban Them
Unescorted city women of the early 1900s didn’t have things like pepper spray to defend themselves from sexual predators. But they were crafty. Let’s take Leoti Blaker, for example. The young Kansan was touring New York City when she boarded a Fifth Avenue stagecoach at 23rd Street and settled in for the ride. The coach was crowded and as it was bumping along the road, Blaker noticed a man getting closer and closer to her. He was an elderly, elegantly dressed, and “benevolent-looking” man. Suddenly, the stage jumped, tossing its passengers all over the place and the man got so close to Leoti, he started touching her, hip to hip, shoulder to shoulder. It was then that he lifted his arm and draped it low across her back. But Leoti was ready. She reached for her hatpin (which was almost a foot long) and plunged it into the man’s arm. He let out a cry of pain and left the coach at the next stop.
“He was such a nice-looking, old gentleman. I was sorry to hurt him,” the badass woman told the New York World. “I’ve heard about Broadway mashers and ‘L’ mashers, but I didn’t know Fifth Avenue had a particular brand of its own… If New York women will tolerate mashing, Kansas girls will not.”
Newspapers all over the country began reporting similar encounters with “mashers,” period slang for predatory men. Recently, Twitter user Jason Poole got his hands on this interesting piece of self-defense history and decided to share it with his followers.
As women gained independence and started walking and traveling alone during the late 1800s and early 1900s, hatpins provided a quick line of defense from the gropey “masters” who were considered to be “low-down, cowardly cumberers of the earth,” as a 1904 piece in the Los Angeles Herald put it. “Any woman with courage and a hatpin can prove it,” the text continued.
But the hatpin became an enemy of itself. Stories about wounded innocent people — not mashers — emerged. A 19-year-old girl in Scranton playfully thrust her hatpin at her boyfriend, but she fatally pierced his heart. A young New Yorker felt a sharp pain behind his ear on a streetcar — an accidental prick from a stranger’s hatpin—and died within a week. Also in New York, a hundred female factory workers, all wielding hatpins, attacked police officers who arrested two of their colleagues for making anarchistic speeches.
Thus, a narrative for the opponents of the hatpin was born. It was dangerous to everyone, even other women. By 1909, the hatpin was considered an international threat with Hamburg and Paris police chiefs considering regulating their length.
In 1910, Chicago’s city council finally set a precedent, debating an ordinance that would ban hatpins longer than nine inches. Any woman caught in violation would not only be arrested but also fined $50 as well. Curious spectators packed the proceedings. “If women care to wear carrots and roosters on their heads, that is a matter for their own concern but when it comes to wearing swords, they must be stopped,” a supporter said. Applause from the men, hisses from the women. Nan Davis, who was there to represent several women’s clubs, asked for permission to address the committee: “If the men of Chicago want to take the hatpins away from us, let them make the streets safe. No man has a right to tell me how I shall dress and what I shall wear.”
Eventually, the furor over hatpins subsided at the onset of World War I. It died entirely when bobbed hair and cloche hats came into fashion when a new menace to society emerged: the flapper. But it would be long before politicians began trying to win women’s votes instead of trying to regulate their wardrobe.
40Kviews
Share on FacebookAs always men tried to defend their own stupid actions by declaring the woman are at fault.
It's not much difference from making women forced to give birth to a baby that is born of rape/incest. They want to give women who abort these babies a stronger sentence than the men who commit the crimes. This never ending quest of men to control women needs to come to an end.
I love reading about history that "fills in the blanks." My mom showed me my grandmother's and great aunts' hatpins when I was a kid, and told me about their use for self-defense, but I don't think she knew about the uproar they caused. I still have them, and appreciate them so much more now!
They are worthy of being handed down to the following generations. <3
Load More Replies...Didn't know that it was a fad back then. My great-grandmother, Antonia Kappe, aka Tony, worked as a professional chef in a small town's only restaurant. To get to work from her rural home, she took the streetcar, where she found herself regularly harassed. The guilty party left her alone after a well-aimed jab to the buttocks.
ah... "the power to refuse"... how DARE those women have choice over their own bodies!! (TO BE READ WITH THE BITING SARCASM, AS IT'S INTENDED)
Why is it always the same, oh, the same? I wish we'd developed a matriarchal society instead.
Has this bull s**t improved since Edwardian times? No, I don't think so, it's worse. Women, and men are still subjected to this awful, juvenile behavior. Maybe we should all carry hat pins. I jest, we should all carry baseball bats. Just this morning I saw a 'god's gift to mankind' harassing a young woman whose only crime was walking down the street. What he needed was a kick in his tiny, tiny balls, and a hat pin to deflate his huge ego.
one of the reasons hats stayed in fashion for so long, was so women COULD have a hat pin! it was more about safety, than just 'being pretty".
I've seen hatpins and they were not "nearly a foot long". More like 4" at most. Strange as it may seem, hatpins were still recommended in self defence books written as late as the 70s. I remember reading one as a teenager and thinking "Huh? Who has a hatpin these days?"
Believe it or not there are women who still wear hats on a regular basis. And occasionally hat pins, especially if their hair is in atwist or braid
Load More Replies...I love reading about badass women back in the day, really inspires me to be the badass feminist I am today
I love reading about badass men back in the day, really inspires me to be the badass patriarch i am today. *sigh* the good old past
Load More Replies...I bought a hat pin at an antique store years ago. I can see it as self-defense. It's about 8 inches long, and sharp AF. When I wore it to keep a hat in place that was part of a vintage outfit for Hallowe'en, I had to put a rubber tip on the end, to keep it from accidentally scraping other people---or stabbing me in the head.
...and in the 2010s, we have them doing the same thing with Safety Cats, because women having an actual tool that is not their car keys wedged in between their fingers is so mean to the poor, poor men who are hurt by them.
So you say that pepper spray is exclusively banned for women, but i can get one as a man? Because: If it´s banned for men, too, it means it´s banned because of other reasons.
Load More Replies...There's an amazing podcast on this. Just look for The Dollop Podcast: Episode on Mashers and Hatpins. It's hilarious and badass. Enjoy!
I know I am four months late to this party, but I just have to say that these ladies were pretty cool and badass. The few "men" who are saying that it is the women's fault are the reasons why we need women like this. A woman has the right to tell a man "no" in any way she can. Sometimes that includes with violence.
In Indonesia the same happened: The kerambit/karambit (a curved dagger) was considered a woman's weapon because it was easily concealed in their hair. I've seen demonstrations of Indonesian martial arts (Pencak silat, a whole family of styles) specifically featuring similar large hairpins as weapons.
Mixed feelings about this, obviously no woman should be harassed or touched against her will but living in London which has a problem with knife crime with people that carry them giving similar reason of wanting to protect themselves, reading the article through that prism makes it hard to cheer this on knowing that a lot of people that have been stabbed have been stabbed with their own weapon.
This product is still available, I have like dozen of those really useful.
Oh poor Jason thinks the world is changed tday. How sad, it's still the same, men are gropers and stalkers, but tday we have no hair pins
I think you missed the /s in his 3rd tweet. He knows full well that nothing's changed...
Load More Replies...F**k that, pull out a snub nose 38 special and paint the wall with a rapist brains. Double Tapp that f**k and go get some beers with your girls. 2nd Amendment b***h.
it’s awesome to read these articles and feel bad for women at first until you read that they take it way to far. Like the woman killing her boyfriend and how does someone die from getting stuck in the ear. Anyway long story short they don’t try to ban the hairpin because it’s an anti rape weapon, they do it because bitches started going crazy and killing people.
you mean like white teenaged boys shooting up highschools in the states?
Load More Replies...As always men tried to defend their own stupid actions by declaring the woman are at fault.
It's not much difference from making women forced to give birth to a baby that is born of rape/incest. They want to give women who abort these babies a stronger sentence than the men who commit the crimes. This never ending quest of men to control women needs to come to an end.
I love reading about history that "fills in the blanks." My mom showed me my grandmother's and great aunts' hatpins when I was a kid, and told me about their use for self-defense, but I don't think she knew about the uproar they caused. I still have them, and appreciate them so much more now!
They are worthy of being handed down to the following generations. <3
Load More Replies...Didn't know that it was a fad back then. My great-grandmother, Antonia Kappe, aka Tony, worked as a professional chef in a small town's only restaurant. To get to work from her rural home, she took the streetcar, where she found herself regularly harassed. The guilty party left her alone after a well-aimed jab to the buttocks.
ah... "the power to refuse"... how DARE those women have choice over their own bodies!! (TO BE READ WITH THE BITING SARCASM, AS IT'S INTENDED)
Why is it always the same, oh, the same? I wish we'd developed a matriarchal society instead.
Has this bull s**t improved since Edwardian times? No, I don't think so, it's worse. Women, and men are still subjected to this awful, juvenile behavior. Maybe we should all carry hat pins. I jest, we should all carry baseball bats. Just this morning I saw a 'god's gift to mankind' harassing a young woman whose only crime was walking down the street. What he needed was a kick in his tiny, tiny balls, and a hat pin to deflate his huge ego.
one of the reasons hats stayed in fashion for so long, was so women COULD have a hat pin! it was more about safety, than just 'being pretty".
I've seen hatpins and they were not "nearly a foot long". More like 4" at most. Strange as it may seem, hatpins were still recommended in self defence books written as late as the 70s. I remember reading one as a teenager and thinking "Huh? Who has a hatpin these days?"
Believe it or not there are women who still wear hats on a regular basis. And occasionally hat pins, especially if their hair is in atwist or braid
Load More Replies...I love reading about badass women back in the day, really inspires me to be the badass feminist I am today
I love reading about badass men back in the day, really inspires me to be the badass patriarch i am today. *sigh* the good old past
Load More Replies...I bought a hat pin at an antique store years ago. I can see it as self-defense. It's about 8 inches long, and sharp AF. When I wore it to keep a hat in place that was part of a vintage outfit for Hallowe'en, I had to put a rubber tip on the end, to keep it from accidentally scraping other people---or stabbing me in the head.
...and in the 2010s, we have them doing the same thing with Safety Cats, because women having an actual tool that is not their car keys wedged in between their fingers is so mean to the poor, poor men who are hurt by them.
So you say that pepper spray is exclusively banned for women, but i can get one as a man? Because: If it´s banned for men, too, it means it´s banned because of other reasons.
Load More Replies...There's an amazing podcast on this. Just look for The Dollop Podcast: Episode on Mashers and Hatpins. It's hilarious and badass. Enjoy!
I know I am four months late to this party, but I just have to say that these ladies were pretty cool and badass. The few "men" who are saying that it is the women's fault are the reasons why we need women like this. A woman has the right to tell a man "no" in any way she can. Sometimes that includes with violence.
In Indonesia the same happened: The kerambit/karambit (a curved dagger) was considered a woman's weapon because it was easily concealed in their hair. I've seen demonstrations of Indonesian martial arts (Pencak silat, a whole family of styles) specifically featuring similar large hairpins as weapons.
Mixed feelings about this, obviously no woman should be harassed or touched against her will but living in London which has a problem with knife crime with people that carry them giving similar reason of wanting to protect themselves, reading the article through that prism makes it hard to cheer this on knowing that a lot of people that have been stabbed have been stabbed with their own weapon.
This product is still available, I have like dozen of those really useful.
Oh poor Jason thinks the world is changed tday. How sad, it's still the same, men are gropers and stalkers, but tday we have no hair pins
I think you missed the /s in his 3rd tweet. He knows full well that nothing's changed...
Load More Replies...F**k that, pull out a snub nose 38 special and paint the wall with a rapist brains. Double Tapp that f**k and go get some beers with your girls. 2nd Amendment b***h.
it’s awesome to read these articles and feel bad for women at first until you read that they take it way to far. Like the woman killing her boyfriend and how does someone die from getting stuck in the ear. Anyway long story short they don’t try to ban the hairpin because it’s an anti rape weapon, they do it because bitches started going crazy and killing people.
you mean like white teenaged boys shooting up highschools in the states?
Load More Replies...
273
87